Effectiveness of Planned Teaching Programme on Knowledge of Staff Nurses Regarding Human Papilloma Virus and its Vaccine

Cancer of the cervix uteri is the most common female cancer in developing countries. Cervical cancer is preventable and is highly suitable for Primary Prevention. Education, practice of sexual hygiene, use of barrier contraceptives, ritual circumcision, screening of high risk cancer cervix groups and improving socio economic status can reduce the incidence of cervical cancer morbidity and mortality rate significantly.

Majority of the staff nurses, have no knowledge about the cervical cancer, HPV, and the role of the vaccine in preventing cervical cancer. Since cancer of cervix is preventable with education about pap smear test and use of vaccine, thus the staff nurses must be knowledgeable about this entity. Staff nurses are important care givers in the hospital and community settings, if their knowledge is improved regarding HPV and its vaccine, they will educate the women, her family and community at large. In this context, we attempted to study the effectiveness of a planned teaching programme regarding knowledge of staff nurses regarding HPV and its Vaccine so that knowledge gained from this study can be utilized to make effective public health programmes.

The study followed a pre experimental, one group pre-test, post-test design. A sample of 30 staff nurses was selected by purposive sampling technique working in HAHC Hospital. The data was collected by using structured knowledge questionnaire. A Planned Teaching Programme (PTP) on Human Papilloma Virus and its vaccine was developed and administered to the group. The independent variable under study was the PTP and the dependent variable were the knowledge scores of staff nurses working in HAHC Hospital.

The data obtained was analyzed by using the descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that initially there was deficit in knowledge of the staff nurses (mean=24.66, SD=6.9), but after administration of PTP the post-test scores (mean=35.4, SD =5.8) in terms of knowledge were significantly higher than the pre-test scores (p?0.05). This indicates that the PTP on Human Papilloma Virus and its vaccine was effective in improving the knowledge of staff nurses.

On the basis of the findings of the study it is concluded that PTP on HPV and its vaccine was effective in increasing the knowledge of staff nurses.