Family Planning NSW offers their ‘Well Women Training’ throughout the year.

There is an upcoming Ballina course scheduled for Friday July 21st.

Course description

This course is designed to help registered nurses, midwives and enrolled nurses develop confidence and competence in the provision of cervical cancer screening. History taking and breast awareness will also be covered in this course.

Learning outcomes

• To demonstrate ability in obtaining an accurate well women’s history
• To demonstrate confidence and competency in cervical cancer screening
• To be able to discuss breast awareness

Course structure

• Online learning commences 6 weeks prior to workshop, which must be completed before the workshop.
• Online examination, which must be completed before the workshop
• One day face-to-face workshop

Clinical training

• Up to two days of supervised clinical training at a Family Planning NSW clinic

Course cost

Eligible participants may be entitled to a funded position by the Cancer Institute NSW Cervical Screening Program with a co-contribution payment of $500.

Non eligible participants e.g. hospital nurses pay $2,059

Aboriginal Medical Service Nurses (AMS) may be entitled to fully funded positions by the Cancer Institute NSW Cervical Screening Program.

For more information or to register for the course visit:  https://www.fpnsw.org.au/education-training/courses/well-womens-screening-course

As we heard during the first learning workshop, 60% of adults don’t have the health literacy they need to act on health information.

We have provided a sample reminder letter that meets health literacy standards.

This includes:

• Clearly stating cost
• Providing easy to follow directions
• Having a reading age between grade 6-8 on the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level.

You can check the reading age of text here

The team at Dr Lerm’s created an invitation letter to send out to women to remind them to BreastScreen when they turn 50.

Jane Walsh form BreastScreen identified these first time screeners as an important group for practices to help encourage.

We worked with the Dr Lerm’s team to adjust the letter so that it met health literacy standards.

This letter is in a size 12 font, has a reading grade of 7.56 and has information about cost and location.

You can download the letter here to use in your practice.

You can paste text here to check if it has an appropriate reading age for patient/consumer facing information. 

Remember good health literacy principles include:

• Using a 12 point font size
• Having a Flesch-Kinkaid Grade level of no more than 6-8
• Clearly stating cost (even if the service is free)
• Clearing stating information about location and accessibility

Check out our sample reminder letter for an example.

Nervous about answering questions in relation to the renewal of the National Cervical Screening Program?

We have heard from many of our Practices that one of the reasons women don’t screen is fear about the risk of radiation exposure during a mammogram.

Dr Nick Repin, BreastScreen NSW Designated Radiologist, looked at the literature to provide some great comparisons that will help you put mammogram radiation risk into perspective for your patients:

• The Radiation exposure of a screening mammogram is the same as the additional radiation in two return flights to London.
• The radiation exposure of a screening mammogram examination is the same as living for 7 weeks at sea level.

We have created a printable version of these myth busting facts that you can use as a hand out or poster.

Did you know:

ACON are a New South Wales based health promotion organisation specialising in HIV prevention, HIV support and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) health.

They have done extensive work, including the development of health promotion materials, to lift breast and cervical screening rates in the LGBTI community.

They are a great point of call for advice, partnership and resources to support your practice to better engage with  LGBTI patients.

They have three offices in our region:

Coffs Harbour
Shop 21/30 Gordon Street   Coffs Harbour NSW 2450
Tel: 02 6651 6017
Email: [email protected]

Port Macquarie              
Shop 3/146-150 Gordon Street
Port Macquarie, NSW 2444
Tel: 0418 904 116
Email: [email protected]

Lismore                 
27 Uralba Street
Lismore, NSW 2480
Tel: 02 6622 1555
Email: [email protected]

For more information:

Facebook:
@ACONWomensHealth
Website: www.acon.org.au

Case Study: Patient Centred Care- Engaging underscreened women with Women’s Pamper Days

Jullums Lismore Aboriginal Medical Service have been engaging their Breast and Cervical cancer underscreened population with Pamper Days! We sat down with Aboriginal Health Worker Kris Roberts to find out more.

Jullums AMS has run a few pamper days for our patients to improve the practice’s breast and cervical screening participation rates and health outcomes for our patients.

The days have been informal, relaxed and fun! “We all know each other, the women feel comfortable”.

The recent Breast Screen ‘block booking’ Pamper Day was at the Breast Screen NSW clinic in Uralba St, Lismore. The group of women (>12) had their own private space to enjoy the day’s activities where the women could get a massage, have fun doing art work on bras, enjoying a yarn with friends, sharing stories, plus getting to learn more about other women’s health topics and Breast Screening through the BreastScreen nurse.

The cervical cancer screening days are run similar to the Breast Screen days except they are at Jullums AMS and are called ‘ATSI Women’s Business’. The women would combine their health check/assessment and their cervical screenings during these days.

Access issues were overcome with Jullums offering transport and additional transport was provided by the LHD Population Health to ensure women could make it to the days.

What was the situation prior?

Indigenous women are one of the highest underscreened populations for breast and cervical cancer. As an AMS we are committed to increasing participation rates to support better health outcomes for our patients.

During our data clean-up we have been able to be better identify the underscreened group and so we were able to concentrate on those women. Phoning women individually and visiting their home (having face to face conversations) to encourage them to attend the pamper days really helped us to get the women involved.

Knowing that block bookings had worked previously Jullums continues to capitalise on the previous successes- using what we already know works increases engagement- some women excitedly ask “when’s the next one”!

What quality improvement changes did you make?

Having up dated data means we are able to quickly identify who is underscreened which makes it easier to get together for the group bookings. Women are starting to realise that this is a must and it’s important. I think indigenous women are becoming more aware and understand cancer and cancer screening. More women want to be involved in the screening now.

Women used to say ‘I don’t want to go, I don’t want to know’ but now some women are willing to go without a push.

What were the benefits to your practice of making this change?

The practice is very open minded, trying new things to engage patients. The Aboriginal Health worker has an open door for walk ins. Consistent patient centred care creates engagement, building rapour.

What is the situation now?

A real boost always comes after these pamper days. Positive engagement and environment, its word of mouth and the women that participated go back and tell family. Then family is keen to get involved.

We have regular liaison with BreastScreen NSW to coordinate local block bookings.

“We enjoyed the whole experience, we wouldn’t change a thing. Women are starting to see cancer screening as a must”

• Kris Roberts, Aboriginal Health Worker