Attitudes of midwifery students towards teaching breast-self examination

Background. The purpose of this study was to asses the attitude of undergraduate midwifery students towards teaching other women in methods of breast self-examination (BSE). Participants and methods. The study was performed at the beginning and at the end of students' study at the Faculty of Health Sciences in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It was carried out during the academic year 2002/2003 and involved 28 first and 25 third year undergraduate midwifery students. The data were gathered from questionnaires and processed with the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Results. All study participants were of the opinion that teaching other women in methods of BSE is of great importance for an early detection of breast cancer (BC) and that this task ought to be one of their duties. There were no significant differences between the two groups when the readiness to upgrade their own knowledge of BSE or when the optimism regarding the progress in breast cancer detection and therapy in the future were concerned. Conclusions. The readiness of midwifery students to pass the knowledge of BSE to other women could help to increase their breast health awareness and thus improve their willingness and ability to detect early changes, associated with BC.