title: Provider-Identified Barriers to Cervical Cancer Screening and Perceptions Toward Self-Collection of Human Papillomavirus in Southwest Virginia.
abstract: To explore health care workers identified barriers to cervical cancer screening in rural Southwest Virginia.
  
  
  
  A descriptive study utilizing telephone-based structured interviews and conventional content analysis. All free and federally funded health clinics within a 75 mile radius of Virginia's health Districts 1, 2, and 3 were contacted for participation in the study.
  
  
  
  Organizational information such as composition of clinical staff, services provided, cost of services, recorded compliance with current guidelines, and assessed individual barriers to accessing screening within the community.
  
  
  
  With a 27% response rate, all but one clinic offered cervical cancer screening. The most common barriers to cervical cancer screening identified were lack of education and cost. The most important efforts to detect unscreened women and increase screening would involve clinic-based tracking, education and advertisements. Seventy percent of respondents felt that self-collection of HPV would be at least somewhat acceptable in their communities.
  
  
  
  Public health nursing implications for the barriers of lack of education and high cost were found in this study. In Southwest Virginia, self-collection of HPV was perceived as acceptable by health care workers in the community, and might represent an avenue for increased outreach and education.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Virginia Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Charlottesville, Virginia.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.affiliation: University of Virginia School of Nursing, Charlottesville, Virginia.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lothamer
authors.affiliation: Department of Family, Community & Mental Health Systems, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Charlottesville, Virginia.|Cancer Control & Population Health Core, UVA Cancer Center, Charlottesville, Virginia.
authors.forename: Emma McKim
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000302:isolation & purification; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012424:Rural Population; D012648:Self Care; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods*; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014768:Virginia
keywords: barriers; cervical cancer; rural health nursing; screening; women's health