Academic hospital staff compliance with a fecal immunochemical test-based colorectal cancer screening program

Abstract

AIM:To measure the compliance of an Academic Hospital staff with a colorectal cancer (CRC) screening program using fecal immunochemical test (FIT). METHODS:All employees of "Attikon" University General Hospital aged over 50 years were thoroughly informed by a team of physicians and medical students about the study aims and they were invited to undergo CRC screening using two rounds of FIT (DyoniFOB ® Combo H, DyonMed SA, Athens, Greece). The tests were provided for free and subjects tested positive were subsequently RESULTS:Among our target population consisted of 211 employees, 59 (27.9%) consented to participate, but only 41 (19.4%) and 24 (11.4%) completed the first and the second FIT round, respectively. Female gender was significantly associated with higher initial participation (P = 0.005) and test completion -first and second round -(P = 0.004 and P = 0.05) rates, respectively. Phy sician's (13.5% vs 70.2%, P < 0.0001) participation and test completion rates (7.5% vs 57.6%, P < 0.0001 for the first and 2.3% vs 34%, P < 0.0001 for the second round) were significantly lower compared to those of the administrative/technical staff. Similarly, nurses participated (25.8% vs 70.2%, P = 0.0002) and completed the first test round (19.3% vs 57.6%, P = 0.004) in a significant lower rate than the administrative/technical staff. One test proved false positive. No participant repeated the test one year later. CONCLUSION:Despite the well-organized, guided and supervised provision of the service, the compliance of the Academic Hospital personnel with a FIT-based CRC screening program was suboptimal, especially among physicians.

Nurse's role in the screening path of Colorectal Cancer

“…Furthermore, the nurse should highlight that FIT is simple to perform (once the tube open, simply it puts the tip of the rod on two or three points of the fecal material), and that the tube should be kept in the fridge waiting to be returned instead during the day. With regards to the FIT warnings, it is to avoid contact of the stool sample collected in the urine or menstrual blood; therefore, for women it is recommended to run the testing at least 5 days after the end of the cycle [13][14][15] .…”