Assessment of the practice of nurses in the screening of health disorders

Introduction: Screening represents the preliminary detection of persons with unrecognized forms of health disorders with the help of easily and quickly applicable procedures with the aim of early detection. Although organized screening is carried out in our country, which is a mass invitation of the target population for examination, breast cancer has been the leading location in the incidence and death of malignant tumors in women in Serbia for years. The aim of the work was to determine the practice of nurses in the screening of leading health disorders. Method and subjects: The research was designed as a cross-sectional study that was carried out in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic "Narodni Front" in Belgrade. The research included 59 nurses. As a monitoring instrument, a questionnaire for nurses specially designed for this research was used. Research result: Breast self-examination and clinical breast examination were performed by only slightly more than 1/3 of nurses who participated in the research, while mammography was performed by 70% of nurses who are older than 50 years. Almost all nurses performed a pap smear. The largest percentage of nurses (57.6%) measures blood pressure only when they do not feel well, and even 15.3% never measure it. As many as 74.6% of nurses never performed an examination of moles and skin. Conclusion: Bearing in mind that almost all nurses employed in the Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic regularly go for Pap smears, while a small percentage go to other screenings for health disorders or ignore them, indicates the necessity of additional education about the importance of screening