The Problems Encountered by Midwives During Breast Self-Examination Training

Abstract

The second leading cause of cancer death in Turkey, breast cancer accounts for 24% of female cancers, with a crude incidence rate of 7.2 per 100,000 women in 1999. It was determined that breast self-examination (BSE) is carried out effectively if it is taught by a physician or a midwife/nurse. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was performed in 16 health centers found in the city center of Samsun between 01.09.2006 and 30.12.2006. A total of 124 midwives work in the health centers found in the city center of Samsun. It tried to cover the total population rather than sampling part of it. However, 11 midwives, where there was error detected in their data coding paper, and who did not accept to join the study, were excluded from the study. A total of 103 midwives (response rate=83.06%) were included in the study group. The data were collected using a questionnaire form and a problem definition list prepared according to the literature. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were used to evaluate the data. Results: While 90.3% of the midwives stated that they performed BSE, it was seen that 82.6% of the midwives performed BSE irregularly. While 97.1% of the midwives considered BSE as important, 78.6% of them stated that they had had on-the-job training about BSE. About 82.5% of the midwives stated that they educated women about BSE and 75.7% of them said that they did not feel as sufficient themselves for BSE training. The midwives stated that the most frequent problems encountered were that the women were not willing to apply BSE (43.7%), the women were not able to distinguish the masses from normal breast tissue (48.5%), the women did not feel confident in detecting the masses (49.5%) and the women were not willing to think about cancer (41.7%). Conclusion: This study shows that multiple reasons are affecting women's BSE practices, which midwives should address when delivering their training sessions. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.