Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer through the practice of screening
increases survival rates, reduce costs of health care and decrease patient suffering
(Backer et al., 2005).The benefits of early screening programs are to teach the high
risk population the outcome of early detection of disease. The purpose of this paper
is to discuss the issues of the Every Woman Matters Program (Backer et al., 2005)
and nursing strategies for creating a more effective program, and two successful
evidence-based prevention programs for early breast and cervical cancer screening.
Possible reasons that why this program was ineffective varied for different
physician practices participating in the GAPS model study. One collective cause the
program was unsuccessful for various practices in the study was the absence of
community outreach to improve public awareness. Physician practices also did not
try to complete the aim to improve community outreach or did not achieve the goal.
Another possible reason, that the program was not effective, was the need for
increased availability of patient education materials. Many practices participating in
the study set a goal to increase patient accessibility to education materials and did
not follow through in obtaining and providing the material. The final reason for the
lack of success was that most of the practices did not have effective management
and did not have a supporter to forefront the scheme and make it a success. The
failure to work as a team, individual characters of the clinicians and the staff,
different practices used in attaining the mission. Another reason, that can be wellthought-out, was the staff was hectic with their routine activities and they were
resistant to the added efforts required for the alteration.
Preventive Programs
In order to mention about two successful preventive screening programs that were
successful. The first one was the study in Chinese Australian women conducted in
Australia by (Kwok & et al,2011).
Cultural beliefs have been
identified as a barrier to screening participation and breast health in Chinese
Australian women practices. Researchers sought to promote awareness using
trained lay health advisers (breast health advocates). Thirty-seven of fifty women
approached take part in an education program. The education was provided for one
full day and one half-day follow-up. Data were collected using questionnaires, focus
groups, and interviews. The program increased participant information of breast
health, reduced misunderstandings about breast cancer and improved participants'
willingness to talk about these topics with other Chinese women. The results of this
pilot study indicated that a culturally sensitive, linguistically appropriate education
and training program increased knowledge and decreased misunderstanding about
breast cancer and preventive breast health practice. It was inspiring to note that the
Breast Health Advocates (BHAs) reported increased self-confidence in discussing the
issue with other women and commitment in such discussions after training. This
program brought about positive changes in the community breast health
awareness.
The second successful strategy was in Screening for cervical cancer. In Europe, it is
estimated that each year about 52,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed
and 27,000 women die from the disease. The study was conducted by( Giordano
&et al,2008) In Europe, programs were conducted to enable the women to attend
the screening programs for cervical cancer. Some of the strategies used are
increasing the Health professionals screening knowledge and communication skills,
Consumers health literacy skills and ethnic minorities and the use of the mass
media and the Internet. Mass-media can impact views on cervical and breast
screening. The message from the media appeared to be that screening is 100%
accurate. This Study also was proved to be successful in bringing positive changes.
Preventive Strategies
Some of the preventive strategies that can be utilized in Every Women Matter
program are Educating about the screening and disease prevention at the young
age is important. Collect materials from National Cancer Institute and from Centers
for Disease Control and get the message out to the all the population using focus
groups as needed with targeted population. Educate about the Medicare and
Insurance Coverage. Increase delivery of screening services and improve follow-up
by Healthcare providers. Another preventive measure can be to improve access to
supportive services including transportation, financial assistance, emotional support
and education and advocate for policies and funding that increases access to
services. Promoting a healthy lifestyle.
Conclusion
Health behaviors are influenced by the social, cultural and physical environments in
which we live and work. Positive behaviors help promote health and prevent
disease, preventive screening helps to recognize a disease at the early stage and
get the treatment at right time. Health behaviors are early indicators of population
health. These indicators may foreshadow the future burdens and benefits of health
risk and health promoting behaviors.
Reference
Backer, E. L., Geske, J. A., McIlvain, H. E., Dodendorf, D. M., & Minier, W. C.
(2005). Improving female preventive health care delivery through practice
change: An Every Woman Matters study.Journal of the American Board of
Family Practice, 18(5), 401408.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Kwok, C., Koo, F. K., D'Abrew, N., White, K., & Roydhouse, J. K. (2011). East meets
West: a brief report of a culturally sensitive breast health education program for
Chinese-Australian women. Journal Of Cancer Education: The Official Journal Of The
American Association For Cancer Education, 26(3), 540-546. doi:10.1007/s13187011-0212-4
Giordano, L., Webster, P., Anthony, C., Szarewski, A., Davies, P., Arbyn, M., & ...
Austoker, J. (2008). Improving the quality of communication in organised cervical
cancer screening programmes. Patient Education & Counseling, 72(1), 130-136.