The Breast Cancer Distance Education Program - Development and evaluation of a course for specialist breast care nurses

The Breast Cancer Distance Education Program is the first tertiary-based ed ucation program for specialist breast care nurses in Australia. The program covers current treatment options, psychosocial issues, and professional de velopment issues relating to breast cancer nursing. For the first two stude nt intakes (n = 53), precourse, postcourse, and 3-month follow-up surveys w ere conducted to assess the perceived value of the course, identify any lim itations, and note changes in practice that arose. Before taking the course , most of the students had experience in breast cancer nursing, but lacked confidence and hoped to learn more about responding effectively to psychoso cial issues through communication, counseling, and provision of support to patients and their carers. After taking the course, the students were very positive about the course content, resources, and teaching support. They re ported learning new skills for addressing psychosocial issues and symptom m anagement arising from a diagnosis of breast cancer, staring a desire to im plement these new skills. Comparison between results from the three surveys indicated that students' confidence in providing breast cancer support inc reased significantly in most areas of practice, and was maintained at 3-mon th follow-up survey. Results suggest that students met the course objective s successfully, and in most cases subsequently translated their knowledge i nto improved practice.