Nurses beliefs about breast cancer and breast self examination and their breast self examination performance in Kirkuk / Iraq: A cross sectional descriptive study

Background: Because of its rising prevalence in recent years, breast cancer has been identified as a serious health issue among females. Breast self-examination is one of the most significant ways for detecting breast cancer early. Breast self-examination can detect more than 90% of all breast cancers in their early stages. Objective: the nurse's beliefs about breast cancer and breast self examination and their breast self examinatıon performance in Kirkuk / Iraq. Methods: The study, which was conducted in a descriptive and cross-sectional design, was carried out with 165 female nurses in the )Kirkuk Oncology, Hematology Center and Gynecological, pediatric hospital) Kirkuk/ Iraq, between 27 December 2020 and 26 February 2021. Sociodemographic characteristics form and Champion health belief model scale were used to collect data.Results: The study results revealed that 36.4% of the nurses regularly perform breast self-examination every month, and 63.6% do not perform Breast self-examination. There was a significant difference between the mean scores of the confidence sub-dimension of the health belief model scale of the nurses who did breast self-examination and those who did not.However, there was no significant difference between the groups in seriousness ,susceptibility, benefits, barriers, confidence, & health motivation sub-dimensions.Conclusion: It can be said that nurses in Kirkuk/ Iraq should develop their beliefs and attitudes about Breast self-examination. Key Words : Health belief model, Breast Cancer, Breast Self Examination Performance.