Screening and Early Diagnosis of Breast Cancer: Assessment of Knowledge and Practical Abilities of Final Year Nursing and Midwifery Students in Health Schools of Ouagadougou

Abstract

The Objective was to assess the knowledge and practical abilities of final year nursing and midwifery students in health schools of Ouagadougou relating to screening and early diagnosis of breast cancer. This is a cross-sectional, prospective and descriptive observational study conducted from 1st November 2014 to 31st January 2015. A sample of 403 students was used for this study. Data were collected using an individual questionnaire and were typed on Epi data and then analyzed on SPSS software. Chi-square tests were used to compare the different proportions. The difference is considered to be significant if p-value < 0.05. Three hundred and ninety-nine students filled the questionnaire, i.e. a rate of non-respondents of 1%. All students were aware of the existence of breast cancer. The media (47.8%) was the main source of information. The level of knowledge of students was satisfactory with frequencies of 83.9% for risk factors; 91.6% for clinical signs; 83.4 % for screening methods and 88.1% for therapeutic terms of breast cancers. However, the focus should be put on the teaching of cancerology and the supervision of students during the internship, must be reinforced. These results attest that the level of students in the knowledge and practical abilities concerning screening and early diagnosis of breast cancer is satisfactory. Keywords: Cancer- breast- knowledge- abilities- practical- students- nurses- midwives- Ouagadougou