Do Turkish Nursing and Midwifery Students Teach Breast Self-Examination to Their Relatives ?

Aim: To describe health beliefs and breast self-examination (BSE) practice of Turkish female nursing andmidwifery students and extent of teaching the screening method to their mothers, sisters and relatives. Design:In this definition survey, data were obtained from 113 nursing and midwifery students (n = 113) in third andfourth class and their mothers, sisters and other relatives in Turkey.
Methods: Data were collected using apersonal data form, a knowledge evaluation form for BSE (Maurer 1997) and the Champion’s Health BeliefModel Scale. Number percentage, Chi-square test were used in the evaluation of the data.
Results: Studentslearned breast cancer and BSE in their lessons one or two years previously. Knowledge level scores of the studentswere 52.3 ± 9.6 (min:25,max: 75). Rate of having regular BSE was 32.7%. When health belief scale assessed; theaverage of susceptibility was 7.52±2.62, seriousness was 21.8±5.30, benefit was 16.7±4.45, barrier was 22.3±6.44,confidence was 40.3±6.67 and medical motivation was 26.6±4.22. The rate of having regular BSE and benefit,barrier scores were compared, they were statistically significant difference(p<0.05). The majority (106, 91.3%)gave BSE training to their mother and sisters, and 42.6% ( 48) to relatives, 6.2% (7) to friends, and 5.4% (6) topatients.
Conclusions: Knowledge about breast cancer and BSE repetition training programs should be plannedfor nursing/midwifery students, to increasae their sensitivity, beliefs and attitudes, and medical motivation forBSE.