Introduction: Cervical cancer is the first most common cancer in women in sub-Saharan Africa. rnIn Ethiopia, the incidence of cervical cancer is high, 35.9 per 100,000 women. Low level of rnawareness, lack of effective screening programs to detect precancerous conditions, rnovershadowed by other health problems (such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome, rntuberculosis and malaria) and insufficient attention to womenâ€Ÿs healt h are the possible factors for rnthe observed higher incidence rate of cervical cancer in the country. rn rnObjective: To explore the knowledge of cervical cancer, its preventive practice and associated rnfactors among nurses in government hospitals. rnMethods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on knowledge and preventive rnpractice of female nurses towards cervical cancer, from October 2010 to May 2011 in Addis rnAbaba, Ethiopia. The study was conducted in 4 randomly selected government hospitals. The rnstudy subject from each hospital was selected by proportional to size allocation. A total of 275 rnfemale nurses were selected to complete self administered questionnaire by six trained data rncollectors and two supervisors. Data was collected on March, 2011. The questionnaires were rnchecked for completeness, cleaned manually and entered in to SPSS windows version 16.0 for rnanalysis. rnResults: The finding of the study has indicated that hundred fifty eight (60.8%) nurses had rnknowledge of cervical cancer but only 57 (21.9%) reported practicing prevention of cervical rncancer. Among the socio demographic and profession related factors, marital status and training rnhas a strong and positive association on the knowledge of cervical cancer. In addition, other variables like education, family history, unit of work and ever cared patient with cervical cancer rnwere shown to be significant and positive predictors of knowledge of cervical cancer. Variables rnlike age, experience, being diagnosed with cervical cancer, ever cared patient with cervical rncancer and ever visited to health institution were revealed to be significant and positive rnpredictors of preventive practice of cervical cancer. rn rnConclusion and recommendation: From this finding it is possible to conclude that; more than rnhalf of the respondents were Knowledgeable but preventive practice of Nurseâ€Ÿs for cervical rncancer was very poor. Consistent and frequent upgrading programs should be implemented; rnfurther research has to be done and the policy makers has to pay attention in designing strategies rnto strengthen nurses awareness on preventive measures.