INTRODUCTION Skilled health attendants occupy an important position in the management of women's pain during labour. Their professional goal is to ensure safety and minimum pain in labour. It has been revealed that nurse-midwives are deficient in knowledge and practice of pain management during labour. Hence, this study examined skilled health attendants' knowledge and practice of pain management in health care facilities in Ibadan, Nigeria. METHODS A cross-sectional design was used to collect data from 227 skilled health attendants, in the maternity units of the three purposively selected hospitals for 12 weeks. A structured questionnaire and observational check lists were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and significants level was set with p<0.05. RESULTS Results on respondents' level of knowledge revealed that 6% had low knowledge, 40.5% moderate, and 56.8% had a high level. The majority, 79.7%, were registered nurse-midwives (RN/RM) and 90.1% employed reassurance for pain relief. No significant associations were found between respondents' level of education and reassurance, exercise, allay of fear, use of drugs, and TENS (p>0.05). However, there were significant associations between respondents' educational level and rubbing of back/ massage, position change, cold/warm bath, relaxation, and social support (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS It is recommended that seminars and workshops should be organized regularly and assessment tools should be supplied, to enhance effective pain assessment as this will provide adequate and holistic labour-pain management by nurse-midwives.

Objectives: Although cancer of the cervix is a preventable disease and services associated to cervical cancer screening has proven to drastically reduce morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to investigate the impact of women’s knowledge, perception and attitude towards Cervical Cancer Screening in South West Nigeria. There is low uptake of Cervical cancer screening (CCS) in developing countries. In the same vein, preventive services are unorganised, sporadic and often expensive. Method: This study draws from a cross-sectional survey of 117 respondents from purposively selected rural and urban locations in southwest Nigeria to investigate the impact of awareness, attitudes, risk perception and socio-economic variables on CCS uptake.Results: The results of the descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests and regression analyses show that awareness and education level are significantly associated with CCS uptake. The respondent’s level of knowledge of signs and symptoms of cervical cancer is low. Conclusion: The findings underline the importance of awareness and enlightenment campaign as a key factor to drive CCS uptake. Furthermore, health care practitioners need to be actively engaged in the design and implementation of interventions. Finally, governments need to invest resources and funding to make CCS accessible and affordable in order to reduce both morbidity and mortality.

No abstract