Search

Purpose: Breast cancer is a global concern. Published studies indicate that 43% of Black and ethnic minority women interviewed have reported that they did not practice breast awareness because they did not know the relevant breast changes that occur in breast cancer. Black women are also more likely to receive a diagnosis of breast cancer when it is in an advanced stage. This pilot study aimed to address the views of Black British women on breast health awareness and breast health screening practices., Methods and Sample: In this qualitative study I used semi-structured interviews were used to investigate breast health perceptions, practices and education in a pilot sample of ten women., Key Results: Women held numerous perceptions of breast cancer which ranged from no knowledge to well informed through receiving extensive education. Two out of ten women were relatively uneducated with regard to breast self examination (BSE). The remaining eight women participated in a variety of screening routines which varied from undertaking BSE everyday to once every few months. Women's experience of breast health education was also variable. One woman, younger woman, had not received any health education advice in relation to breast health awareness or BSE. The remaining nine women had received some health advice following visit to their General Practitioners, Medical consultant, media information or as a result of participating in mammographic screening., Conclusions: Black British women require health education that focuses on breast cancer and its associated risk factors, technique of BSE, and national breast cancer screening recommendations., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aim: In the UK, it is known that screening inequalities exist involving ethnic minority groups such as Black women (Patnick, 2009). To date, there is limited UK data on Black British women and breast health awareness. Black British women appear to be an underrepresented group in breast cancer studies (Breast Cancer Care, 2004, 2005). This literature review aimed to explore Black women's perceptions of breast health and factors that influence breast cancer screening practices., Methods: A literature search for the period 1994 to September 2009 was undertaken using BNI, CINAHL, PubMed, OSH-ROM, PsyInfo, Google scholar, and Scopus databases. Key words used included: breast cancer, breast health, African American women, Black British women, black women, breast cancer screening, qualitative studies. Hand-searching was also done, and reference lists of papers were examined for relevant studies., Results: Black women hold a variety of views and perceptions on the risk that breast cancer poses. These perceptions are strongly related to existing knowledge, related stigmatization, spiritual and religious beliefs, all of which can adversely influence motivation to engage in self-breast examination and breast cancer screening., Conclusion: US based studies identified several influential factors: religion, educational awareness of breast cancer screening, breast health awareness. Breast health interventions and research are needed to increase breast health awareness in Black British women., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aim: There is a paucity of British and international literature on the psychological, sociological and cultural correlates of breast health in ethnic minority women., Methods: This two centre qualitative study was part of a larger study that aimed to examine the influence of culture on the lived experience of Pakistani Muslim breast cancer patients. Thirty six patients attending hospital out-patient breast cancer clinics in Lahore, Pakistan and London, UK were recruited to the study. Women were predominantly married, 20-76 years of age with an average of three children. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken. Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis., Results: Five themes emerged: Discovery and reaction to the disease; disclosure to family; developing emotions; emerging reality; long term uncertainty., Conclusions: Data infer that irrespective of city of residence, the cultural attributes of women, breast health awareness and reactions to the diagnosis and treatment are similar. To raise awareness, more focused health education interventions are needed.

Even though clinical reasoning is attributed with the expert practitioner, there is limited evidence to support methods of teaching and learning that are used to foster its development in nurses. In nursing, a considerable range of teaching and learning strategies are available that can be used to develop clinical reasoning skills. This includes the think aloud seminar. This process oriented method has been successfully used to develop reasoning skills in nursing students [Lee, J.E.M. and Ryan-Wenger, N. 1997. The "think aloud" seminar for teaching clinical reasoning: A case study of a child with pharyngitis. J. Pediatric Health Care 11(1), 105-110.] and is one that should be adopted by nurse educators as a core teaching and learning strategy when educating pre-registration student nurses.

Three approaches to teaching and learning are introduced. Each approach has its relative merits and disadvantages. Ideally, each approach should not be used in isolation. The use of facilitatory approaches to teaching and learning should be encouraged to assist the development of problem solving, decision making skills and creative and critical thinking in nurses, particularly those studying on competency-based education and training courses and programmes.

This literature review aims to explore nurse education and the impact this has had on preparing nurses to become nurse prescribers and nurse prescribing research. Research about the initial nurse prescribing education and training programme indicated that although patients were content with nurses prescribing medication, nurses lacked confidence in applied pharmacology and therapeutics and hence, required additional scientific education. With the implementation of extended nurse prescribing, it is conjectural to assume that nurses have been prepared more effectively until results from the national evaluation are available. One can suggest that pre-registration nurses should receive a comprehensive scientific foundation in applied pharmacology and therapeutics and professional knowledge in order to prepare them for post graduate education and training in medication management.

United Kingdom Government initiatives such as The NHS Plan (DoH 2000) identified the need for nurses to undertake multi-skilled professional roles. In the United Kingdom, the transition to a larger graduate nurse workforce continues, as Universities offer nurse pre-registration courses at diploma and degree levels. Concomitant with the change in educational standard is the need to teach student nurses the theoretical principles of medication management and to develop skills in clinical reasoning skills. Both elements are limited in current educational pre-registration nurse programmes, in order to develop the future, multi-skilled workforce such courses should incorporate the theory and skills of health assessment, physical examination, applied pharmacology and clinical reasoning. This paper aims to examine how knowledge of applied pharmacology and therapeutics can be integrated into an undergraduate pre-registration nursing programme. Discussion focuses on how this generic framework can provide educators with an outline of the theoretical constructs, their application, the teaching strategies involved and instruction on how to prepare nurses to clinically reason with regard to medication management issues. This framework can be adapted to accommodate nurses studying for all parts of the register.