Objective: To identify the strategies (interactive and educational) used by physicians and nurses in gynecology consultations and the length of consultations.
Method: We performed an exploratory descriptive study. A questionnaire was used to interview 5 health professionals working in a gynecology clinic (3 physicians and 2 nurses). A total of 141 women who attended the clinic between July and August 2004 in a health district of the inland region of the State of Ceará in Brazil were also interviewed.
Results: Of the 141 women, 130 (92.2%) had sufficient education to understand the information given during the consultation. Eighty patients (56.7%) attended the service for gynecological disorders, the most frequent of which were pelvic pain (45%), followed by pruritus and discharge (33.8%). A total of 14.2% attended for cervical and breast cancer prevention. All 5 health professionals performed the Pap test and one health professional provided an educational leaflet during the consultation. The health professionals believed that the women understood half of the explanations given during the consultation and attributed this lack of understanding to their low educational level. The mean length of the consultation ranged from 2 to 7.5 minutes.
Conclusions: Few women attended the clinic for cervical and breast cancer prevention. This finding could be related to the way in which the health professionals carried out the consultation and its length.