BreastScreen WA currently employs 5 Breast Assessment Nurses who are all Registered Nurses with a wide range of experience. The main role of the Breast Assessment Nurse is to help facilitate the assessment pathway and the organisation of any further tests that are recommended for the women following their 2 view screening mammogram.
After the radiologists have read the screening mammogram and a radiological abnormality is detected, the file comes to the nurses office here at the State Co-ordinating Unit. Theses files are from screening mammograms that have been done across the state from the far north, right down to the south of Western Australia, and of course here in Perth.
The radiologists have made a recommendation for further tests and these tests can vary from further views, ultrasound, fine needle aspiration and or core biopsy under either ultrasound or stereotaxis, to clinical examination, or a combination of a few of these tests.
The nurses contact the women by phone and lets them know what the radiologists have recommended and book the appointment at one of the BreastScreen WA’s two accredited Breast Assessment Centres located at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and at Royal Perth Hospital. We explain to the women the nature of the test and answer any questions that the woman may have regarding the findings. The fact that 90% of women recalled for assessment have a normal outcome is also explained.
BreastScreen WA runs assessment clinics 4 to 5 times a week, with approximately 20 women in each clinic, in a multidisciplinary setting with radiologists, a surgeon, a breast physician, a breast pathologist, radiographers, a Breast Assessment Nurse and a counsellor. Our primary role at the clinics is to support the women through the various stages of assessment answering any questions they or their families may have. We give information about the tests to be done and inform the women that she can withdraw her consent at anytime during the assessment process. We also provide education on discharge from the clinic about “Breast Awareness” and encourage the women to visit their GP once every 12 months for a clinical examination and if they do notice a change in their breast to see their GP straight away.
Part of our role here at the SCU is also to help facilitate and arrange copies and reports for those ladies wishing to leave the program and have their further tests done in the private sector and to liaise with the women’s nominated GP.
The Breast Assessment Nurses also contact the women that come through the screening program with a symptom and help implement BreastScreen WA’s policy for all symptomatic women to have the symptom clinically evaluated with either the woman’s nominated GP or at one of the Breast Assessment Centres with a Breast Physician
The nurses also provide advice and answer queries from women on the screening and assessment process, screening issues, breast problems and related matters.
We encourage women to return to their own GP with their breast problems or to the appropriate agency for other information that they might be seeking The nurses are also a resource for the staff in Central Booking Area of BreastScreen WA regarding client eligibility for screening We are available to answer queries from GP’s on screening issues, assessment issues and normal results. Another large part of our role is catering for women’s special needs should it be a cultural need, linguistic need or a disability. Interpreters are organised for the Breast Assessment Centre appointments for those women that do not speak English well.
For more information please contact:
Kay Griffiths – Acting Nurse Manager
T: (08) 9224 3504, page 3504
F: (08) 9224 3807
P: GPO Box X2213, Perth WA 6847
E: kay.griffiths@health.wa.gov.au
