Why Women Don't Return: Nurse Perspectives on Follow-Up Care After Abnormal Cervical Cancer Screening Results in Mississippi's Public Health System.
Christina D Ferrell, Katherine C Hall, Sydney Reaves and 9 others
PMID 42728889WHAT IT FOUND
Nurses described barriers to women returning after abnormal cervical screening: low health literacy, cost, unreliable contact information, language barriers, staffing limits, poor EHR use, and limited specialty care.
They suggested targeted education, proactive outreach, language support, staffing and training, and EHR tools.
Key findings
01Nurses reported patient-level barriers to returning after abnormal cervical cancer screening: limited health literacy, financial constraints, and unreliable contact information.
02Nurses reported nursing-level barriers: language differences and staffing-related constraints that affected follow-up efforts.
03Nurses reported system-level barriers: underutilization of electronic health records and limited access to specialty care, and suggested facilitators including targeted patient education, proactive communication, language resources, adequate staffing and training, and improved EHR use.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was small and limited to Mississippi public health nurses, so the findings may not apply to other settings. The findings reflect only nurses' perspectives, not patients' own experiences or documented reasons for non-return. Rural versus urban practice setting was not collected, so barriers could not be compared across those settings. Virtual focus groups without video limited engagement by reducing interaction and nonverbal cues.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that these barriers caused non-return or that the suggested facilitators improve follow-up. The study reports nurses' perspectives, not patient outcomes or tested interventions.