A breast self-examination patient education program at Northridge Hospital Foundation

Includes bibliographical references (pages 54-59)Theoretically, the acute care hospital is an appropriate setting to provide primary as well as secondary and tertiary health care. Many hospitals provide education to patients when it is related to the patient???s reason for admission. However, few hospitals utilize the time during the patients stay to offer education designed to motivate preventive health behavior. The purpose of this study was to design and implement a Breast Self-Examination Patient Education Program at Northridge Hospital Foundation. A mechanism was developed for providing Breast Self-Examination education to inpatients. Hospital volunteers were trained as Breast Self-Examination teachers. Approval for the program from Hospital Administration and the Hospital Cancer Committee was obtained. However, the program did not receive support from the majority of the members of the Hospital Medical Staff. The lack of physician support of the program resulted in low patient utilization of the program