'Nurse Practitioners' Prioritization of Breast Health Promotion Among Marginalized Women: A Pilot Study From the East Tennessee Region
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the prioritization nurse practitioners place on breast health knowledge among marginalized women. A voluntary convenience sample (N = 167) of nurse practitioners currently working in the east Tennessee region of the United States completed questionnaires containing five vignettes describing marginalized women followed by twelve education topics that nurse practitioners prioritized. Results of the study showed no significant difference between the promotion of breast self examination and mammography among nurse practitioners working in the public (n = 36) or private (n = 113) clinic settings or between specialties of family health (n = 106) or women's health (n = 30). However, public health setting nurse practitioners significantly ranked annual clinical breast examination higher than the private setting nurse practitioners (p = 0.03). The promotion of an annual examination may convince women to return so other necessary annual screenings may be carried out such as Pap smears or colon cancer screenings. In addition, women's health nurse practitioners were more likely to promote this health teaching (p < 0.05). A comparison of the responses by all the nurse practitioners revealed a disparity among the prioritization of breast health among the vignettes. In a pairwise comparison it was found that nurse practitioners were more likely to promote breast health teaching in the vignettes describing low socioeconomic women who were African-American, Latina, and lesbian and least likely in vignettes describing women who were homeless or HIV positive. The implications for nursing practice suggest extension of appointment time allotments for these marginalized women to ensure breast health teaching according to American Cancer Society guidelines.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 30, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA378787
Entities
People
- Candy Wilson
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology