College health providers' knowledge, attitudes, and management practices of genital HPV infection.
This comparative survey of college health providers explored nurse practitioners' (N = 73) and physicians' (N = 70) knowledge, attitudes, and management practices related to genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in females. Both groups had adequate knowledge of basic issues of HPV epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment. Divergent attitudes and management practices were reported among the providers, with generally low agreement with national STD treatment guidelines published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Generally, providers tended to practice a more aggressive management approach on several aspects of HPV infection than recommended by the CDC guidelines. The one major exception reported by the majority of providers was the conservative use of colposcopy for identifying subclinical HPV infection in patients with external genital warts, a finding consistent with CDC guidelines. The availability of colposcopy within a provider's health center was found to be associated with the reported use of colposcopy. Recommendation for future research and implications for college health and advanced nursing practice are addressed.
Linnehan
M J
MJ
Calcedeavor Clinic, Family-Oriented Primary Health Care Inc., Mobile, Ala, USA.
Andrews
S
S
Groce
N E
NE
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000523:psychology; D027383:Papillomaviridae; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000821:virology*; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D012494:Sampling Studies; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000821:virology*