Attitudes and Beliefs of Nurse Practitioners to Augment Breast Cancer Screening with Ultrasonography

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that the diagnostic reliability and accuracy of breast ultrasonography in place of mammography in women with dense breast tissue results in more accurate breast cancer screening in this population. Since breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among United States women, a more accurate and reliable breast cancer screening tool is needed (American Cancer Society [ACS], 2014). This process starts with describing breast screening practice patterns of nurse practitioners and analyzing their attitudes and beliefs of alternative screening modalities gathered from the survey results obtained from this DNP project. The purpose of this study is to determine the attitudes and beliefs of if nurse practitioners towards the use of ultrasonography alone in lieu of mammography followed by sonography in women aged 40-74 with mammographically dense breast tissue. A survey consisting of 23 questions was sent to nurse practitioners in Arizona through the Coalition of Arizona Nurses in Advanced Practice listserv, and through an email list provided by the president of the Allied Health Providers of Yuma. Analysis of survey responses indicated that the majority of respondents believe that it is difficult to detect cancer using mammography in women with dense breast tissue, and more than half of respondents believe that ultrasounds are more accurate and reliable at detecting cancer in women with dense breast tissue. The results also demonstrate that the majority of nurse practitioners surveyed are not familiar with current literature regarding ultrasonography screening in women with dense breast tissue.