Breast awareness among female nurses in the public hospital setting

Abstract

The aim of the study is to explore whether (and to what extent) female nurses working in an acute public hospital setting are breast aware. The methodology used consisted in collecting quantitative data through a survey approach from a convenience sample of 50 qualified female nurses working in medical and surgical wards of the public general hospital. The data collection instrument consisted of a self-administered questionnaire. A 96% response rate (n=48) was obtained. Data were analysed quantitatively by means of frequencies, cross-tabulation and descriptive statistics. Tables and figures were then used to illustrate these findings. Participation was on a voluntary basis and any participant was free to withdraw from the study at any time. Confidentiality and anonymity was adhered to at all times. Results showed that participants possess a fairly good knowledge of breast awareness, breast self-examination and breast cancer risk factors. However, the healthcare workers' reported practices were not always up to the desired level. This might be a result of misconceptions between breast awareness and breast self-examination. Furthermore, results showed that female nurses lacked sufficient knowledge of signs of breast cancer. Following the result of the study, a number of recommendations for research, practice and education were identified. It was concluded that a theory-practice gap does exists among the participants. This in turn highlights the need for further educational programmes to educate and promote breast awareness among healthcare workers. Furthermore, in order to overcome some shortcomings of the adopted methodology, future research based on larger samples and on different healthcare professionals is encouraged as it will help to provide better statistical representativeness. The use of unstructured interviews would allow a deeper exploration of issues.