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Home / Public Health Action, Volume 12, Number 4

Open Access Reasons for missed opportunities to screen and test for TB in healthcare facilities

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Missed opportunities for TB screening and/or passive testing in clinics continues to contribute to the number of missed cases. To understand reasons for these missed opportunities, we conducted focus group discussions with clinic-based nurses. Nurses described low indices of suspicion, prioritization of seemingly more urgent ailments and clinic operational challenges as barriers to TB screening and testing. To improve TB screening and testing in clinics, standard patients should be used to identify real-time factors that impact nurses’ clinical decision-making and engage in real-time feedback and discussion with nurses to help optimize opportunities for TB screening and testing.

Keywords: TB symptoms; missed cases; qualitative; screening opportunities

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: Research Unit, Foundation for Professional Development, East London, South Africa 2: Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA 3: Department of Health, Buffalo City Metro Health District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa 4: Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA 5: Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA 6: Research Unit, Foundation for Professional Development, East London, South Africa, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Publication date: December 21, 2022

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  • Public Health Action (PHA), The Union's quarterly Open Access journal, welcomes the submission of articles on operational research. It publishes high-quality scientific research on health services, providing new knowledge on how to improve access, equity, quality and efficiency of health systems and services.

    The Editors will consider any manuscript reporting original research on quality improvements, cost-benefit analysis, legislation, training and capacity building, with a focus on all relevant areas of public health (e.g. infection control, nutrition, TB, HIV, vaccines, smoking, COVID-19, microbial resistance, outbreaks etc).

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