Approaches to breast cancer screening among nurse practitioners

To determine nurse practitioners' (NPs') knowledge and reported practices regarding breast cancer screening in a climate of conflicting guidelines.

A descriptive, cross-sectional survey design was used to examine approaches to cancer screening among NPs in western New York.

Among the 175 NP respondents, agreement with the accepted answers for the individual breast cancer-screening items ranged from 51% to 80%; responses did not vary by age group or gender. Overall, 54% demonstrated agreement with three or more of four breast cancer-screening items.

These findings suggest the need to implement educational interventions as one means of decreasing variation in breast cancer screening among NPs. Also, the development and endorsement of a single set of evidence-based breast cancer-screening guidelines would promote adoption of a single screening recommendation.