Date of Award

5-3-2025

Degree Type

Evidence-Based Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Rose M. Flinchum

Abstract

Cervical cancer is one of the most common types of cancer among women globally. Current screening methods by clinicians include cytology sampling, high-risk human papillomavirus sampling, or co-testing with both methods. These tests may detect cell changes before they become cancerous, yet the uptake of these methods has decreased in recent years (Aginga, 2022; Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2023; Popalis et al., 2022; Sung et al., 2021). The primary purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to determine if the implementation of an updated cervical screening protocol improved the linkage of abnormal results to appropriate clinical follow-up in average-risk females in the primary care setting. Additionally, the project evaluated whether the protocol resulted in an increased uptake of cervical cancer screening services. Established patients who met inclusion criteria for the project after chart review were recruited by personal invitation via postal mail, which included an educational fact sheet endorsed by the CDC. The project facilitator’s patient schedule was reviewed weekly for eligible participants who scheduled screening appointments at the project site. Five women aged 25-65 from an urban outpatient primary care clinic in northwest Indiana participated in the project. After agreeing to participate, informed consent was signed, detailed demographic information was obtained, and screening using co-testing was performed. Participants were also surveyed to determine whether the intervention impacted their decision to schedule screening and if they would prefer self-sampling screening methods over current methods in the future. Based on the participant’s results and current practice guidelines, the provider determined appropriate follow-up recommendations. Data regarding appropriate follow-up was analyzed using binomial testing with an expected proportion of 80% of results being correctly addressed. It was found that 100% of the results were correctly addressed (p = .007). These findings encourage clinicians to utilize current practice guidelines, HPV self-sampling, and individualized methods based on their target population to increase cervical cancer screening rates and help alleviate barriers to uptake in these services.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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