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Nurse Training Course 2003
Sponsored by The
Susan G. Komen Foundation
In
October 2003, Prodiatera together with Amberheart Breast Cancer
Foundation for Poland prepared and conducted a breast cancer
prophylaxis training course for registered community nurses and
midwives. The program called “First by a Breast”, taught nurses
BSE teaching and CBE performances skills. The three-day workshop
took place October10 - 12, 2003 in Warsaw, Poland. 60 nurses
were chosen by project coordinators. The nurses were mainly from
small cities and villages where knowledge about breast cancer
prevention is limited. The course consisted of two parts:
theoretical (seven hours) and 20 hours practical training. A
final verification of the skills occurred during a 3-hour
theoretical and practical examination. Educational techniques
employing silicon breast models were used during the practical
training of Clinical Breast Examination (CBE) and Breast Self
Examination (BSE) teaching methods.
Afterward the nurses conducted breast cancer awareness campaigns
where, besides providing socially important prophylactic
services, the main goal was to verify whether nurses trained in
breast examination, could be effectively employed within a new
type of screening program and/or as a substitute to mammography
based breast cancer screening programs. This would allow
shifting weight from an exclusive screening mammography based
program towards more specifically oriented diagnostic
mammographies. The project was very successful. The nurses
surveyed and examined
around 2500 women,
taught them how to perform BSE and raised prevention awareness.
They handed out 600 coupons for complimentary mammographies to
women in whom they found suspicious lesions, those in high-risk
groups and to those who were over 45 years old, without symptoms
but had never had a mammography.
The women examined were from cities and rural areas in Poland.
During the clinical breast examinations, the nurses found 364
cases of palpable lumps, 44 cases of skin dimpling and 33 cases
of breast swelling. 2484 women were also surveyed about
knowledge related to BSE, CBE and Mammography. 78% of them had
heard about BSE but only 48% know how to perform it. Only 11% of
the surveyed women perform BSE regularly. 85% have knowledge
about mammography but only 34% have had a mammography performed.
42% of examined women have never had CBE. This situation results
from a lack of knowledge, prevention, mammography centers in
rural regions and the cost of mammographies.
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Lecturers and
Participants
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Sponsors:
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