Determining nurse-midwives' knowledge of the Pap-smear test and their rate of being tested in Turkey.

BACKGROUND Cervical cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer mortality among women worldwide, but actually is largely preventable. The practice of Pap smear testing (PST) needs to be expanded in order to diagnose cervical cancer at an early stage and thus reduce the burden this women's health problem brings to the society. Effective public education is therefore crucial. Determining the knowledge and practice of nurses in this field will help plan their training and develop the necessary training program with an adequate content. This descriptive study aimed at determining the knowledge on, and status of the PST among the nurse/midwives. METHODS The subjects comprised nurse/midwives working in the gynecologic/obstetric clinics of three big hospitals located in the central city of Ankara. The data collected through questionnaire were evaluated by means of the package software SPSS as well as decimal number and Chi-square tests. RESULTS The results revealed that the nurse/midwives had not enough knowledge on PST, of whom 58.1% had got no PST, while a portion of 71.5% of those who had already underwent a PST failed in getting regular tests, and a portion of 73.5% had got no on-job training on the gynecological cancers, and a portion of 66.7% of the trained ones had not any knowledge in respect of PTS. It was determined that there was a significant statistical difference in the level of knowledge on PST in terms of on-job training in respect of the gynecological cancers and the PST history (p<0.05).