Promoting breast cancer awareness in older women during the seasonal flu vaccination campaign.

BACKGROUND:: older women are at high risk of presenting with breast cancer when it has reached a late stage, which may be partly because of poor breast cancer awareness. AIM:: the aim of this project was to implement and evaluate a new way of delivering the Promoting Early Presentation (PEP) Intervention during flu vaccination appointments in primary care. The PEP Intervention is a 1-minute intervention, accompanied by a booklet and delivered by primary care health professionals to provide older women with the knowledge, confidence and skills to present promptly on discovering symptoms of breast cancer. METHOD:: health professionals delivered the PEP Intervention to older women at six general practices in south London. The authors measured changes in breast cancer awareness after the intervention and interviewed practice staff about their experiences of using it. FINDINGS:: knowledge of breast symptoms and breast checking was greater in women aged 70 years and above after the implementation than before. Health professionals' found it acceptable and feasible to implement. CONCLUSION:: this intervention is a novel way of increasing breast cancer awareness in older women, which could contribute to earlier presentation and diagnosis of breast cancer in the UK.

Implementation and evaluation of a pilot education programme in colorectal cancer management for nurses in Scotland.

This paper describes the results of an evaluation of a nursing education programme for nurses caring for patients with colorectal cancer. A sample of 67 registered nurses from 6 location sites within the 3 Regional Cancer Networks in Scotland were recruited to the pilot. The programme was adapted from an evidence-based education manual for nurses in the management of colorectal cancer developed by the European Oncology Nursing Society as part of a Nursing in Colorectal Cancer Initiative (NICCI) [Hawthorn, J., Redmond, K., 1999. A Guide to Colorectal Cancer. AstraZeneca Oncology, UK]. The format for evaluating the programme was based on the TELER method of treatment evaluation [Le Roux, A.A., 1995. TELER: the concept. Physiotherapy 79 (11), 755-758] that had previously been developed along side the training manual [Grocott, P., Richardson, A., Ambaum, B., Kearney, N., Redmond, K, 2001a. Nursing in colorectal cancer initiative--the audit phase. Part 1. Development of the audit tool. European Journal of Oncology Nursing 5 (2), 100-111; Grocott, P., Richardson, A., Ambaum, B., Kearney, N., Redmond, K., 2001b. Nursing in colorectal cancer initiative: the audit phase. Part 2. Content validity of the audit tool and implications of the standards set for clinical practice. European Journal of Oncology Nursing 5 (3), 165-173] for cytotoxic chemotherapy to provide the NICCI Audit Tool (Le Roux, 2003). This model was developed further in the current study to include the domains of: Disease, Diagnosis and Staging, Treatment, Nursing Issues and General Issues. Data were analysed descriptively and are discussed. Overall the results from this study demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in disease-related knowledge (p=<0.001) and in the best practice statements for nursing issues (p=<0.001) and general issues (including attitudes) (p=0.023) that were maintained at four months post completion of the course.