KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING AMONG WOMEN VISITING SPECIALIST HOSPITAL JALINGO, TARABA STATE

Over the past several years, the incidence of cervical cancer in Nigeria has been on increase that is mainly attributed to lack of awareness and ineffective screening and prevention strategies employed. Meanwhile, in Taraba State, women’s knowledge of cervical cancer is very limited. It has been demonstrated that the vast majority of women had not heard of cervical cancer and even more knew nothing about cervical cancer screening. It was in line with this back drop this paper assessed knowledge and practice of cervical cancer screening among women visiting specialist hospital Jalingo. The design adopted was a cross-sectional survey method and data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics.  The results showed that the sampled women visiting specialist hospital Jalingo have good knowledge of cervical cancer screening, but their ignorance about the screening, costs of the screening, lack of interest about the screening and poor attitude of the health care workers hindered them from accessing the cervical cancer screening service; it further  showed that majority of the women visiting specialist hospital though have good knowledge of cervical cancer screening, but have little or low level of its practicability; the paper further identified ignorance of women about cervical cancer screening; expensive costs of the screening, lack of interest of women about the screening as the major challenges/barriers to accessibility of cervical cancer screening among women visiting specialist hospital Jalingo, Taraba State. It is therefore recommended that: more awareness on the need to educating women on the usage of the screening in order not to be ignorance of the cervical cancer screening. In addition, government should develop and incorporate into the National Health Insurance Scheme, a policy on free screening for cervical cancer since the high cost of the screening was found to be high among study participants

KNOWLEDGE, RISK FACTORS AND PREVENTIVE STRATEGIES OF CERVICAL CANCER AMONG TERTIARY STUDENTS IN TARABA STATE, NIGERIA

Taraba State is one of the states with a high incidence rate of cervical cancer in Nigeria especially; cervical cancer leads to a reduction in cancer incidence and prevalence. As the results of these incidences, this paper assessed the knowledge, risk factors, and preventive strategies for cervical cancer among female tertiary students in Taraba State. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on 250 randomly sampled students. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics with aid of a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS Version, 23). The results showed that female students in tertiary institutions have good knowledge of cervical cancer. In addition, infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV), multiple sexual partners, early age of sexual intercourse, and early age at first full-term pregnancy as well as family history was identified as the major risk factors for cervical cancer. Thus, avoidance of multiple sex partners, avoidance of early age sexual intercourse, avoidance of early age pregnancy, and vaccination of human papillomavirus are the major strategies to preventing being contacted with cervical cancer among women. The paper, therefore, recommends among others that: more efforts should be giant towards creating awareness among the youths especially females via enlightenment programs, workshops, and seminars by health professionals on the causes, signs, and symptoms as well as the effects of contracting cervical cancer in order to curtail the incidence of cervical cancer to its barest minimum. Young female students in tertiary institutions are encouraged to avoid early sexual intercourse or even abstain from premarital sex in order not to be contacted with cervical cancer. Again, students should as a matter of fact visit any nearby screening center to know their status for early detection and possible treatment if detected as accepted by the majority of the respondents that cervical cancer is curable when detected at its early stage

IMPACT OF MOTIVATION ON JOB PERFORMANCE AND SATISFACTION OF HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE JALINGO, TARABA STATE-NIGERIA

This paper assessed the impact of motivation on job performance and satisfaction of healthcare workers in Federal Medical Centre Jalingo, Taraba State-Nigeria.  Data were collected from the primary source using a survey research design. A sample of 80 respondents was drawn and used to represent the entire population of the study. The research instrument was validated and tested using Alpha Cronbach with a reliability coefficient of 0.80. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency, simple percentage, mean and standard deviation. The Results showed that good leadership, recognition, good work-life balance, good company culture and royalty from management, good wages, good working conditions, promotion, financial benefits, and job security were identified as the main factors that motivate the job performance of health workers. The result also showed that motivation promotes quality service delivery, motivation raises job satisfaction, fosters persistency in reaching a specific goal, yields better results, motivation promotes effectiveness and efficiency, and encourages workers' self-confidence toward goal attainment.  Lack of good leadership, uncertainties, insufficient availability of resources and opportunities, the attitude of workers, fear of success, and fear of failure were found in this study as the main factors militating against health workers’ motivation in Federal Medical Centre Jalingo, Taraba State. It is therefore recommended that: The management of Federal Medical Centre Jalingo should pay attention to the improvement of employee empowerment, benefits package; work conditions & recognition in connection with their job performance practices; there is a need for performance standards to be measured by criteria directly related to the job and derived from a thorough job analysis

IMPACT OF MOTIVATION ON JOB PERFORMANCE AND SATISFACTION OF HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE JALINGO, TARABA STATE-NIGERIA

This paper assessed the impact of motivation on job performance and satisfaction of healthcare workers in Federal Medical Centre Jalingo, Taraba State-Nigeria. Data were collected from the primary source using a survey research design. A sample of 80 respondents was drawn and used to represent the entire population of the study. The research instrument was validated and tested using Alpha Cronbach with a reliability coefficient of 0.80. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency, simple percentage, mean and standard deviation. The Results showed that good leadership, recognition, good work-life balance, good company culture and royalty from management, good wages, good working conditions, promotion, financial benefits, and job security were identified as the main factors that motivate the job performance of health workers. The result also showed that motivation promotes quality service delivery, motivation raises job satisfaction, fosters persistency in reaching a specific goal, yields better results, motivation promotes effectiveness and efficiency, and encourages workers' self-confidence toward goal attainment. Lack of good leadership, uncertainties, insufficient availability of resources and opportunities, the attitude of workers, fear of success, and fear of failure were found in this study as the main factors militating against health workers’ motivation in Federal Medical Centre Jalingo, Taraba State. It is therefore recommended that: The management of Federal Medical Centre Jalingo should pay attention to the improvement of employee empowerment, benefits package; work conditions & recognition in connection with their job performance practices; there is a need for performance standards to be measured by criteria directly related to the job and derived from a thorough job analysis