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Nurses Training and Workforce Development
Ghana has no specialized oncology nursing school to train students, BCI has introduced a nurses training program for selected general nurses across the country to professionally equip them both in theory and practice in the modern management of breast cancer and other cancers in their health institutions. It is anticipated that upon successful completion of the training, he participants would be able to better educate members in their communities on the prevention of some types of cancers, self-detection of symptoms of breast cancer, the importance of early detection, and how and when to refer suspected cases to the appropriate health institutions.
Community Breast Health Promoter training
There exists, therefore, a serious need to provide education and training to women in their community so that they can effectively promote the need for screening by trained medical professionals. In response to the low awareness rate of breast cancer among Ghanaians, Breast Care International (BCI) proposed to train women as community breast health promoters for breast cancer. To ensure that appropriate participants were targeted for this program, voluntary women were from the Presbyterian Pastor’s Wives Association of Ghana, which has presbyteries across the country.
Three consecutive workshops were conducted in Kumasi, Accra, and Koforidua to ensure that all the presbyteries were covered. The purpose was to train women to acquire basic breast health knowledge to act as voluntary promoters who will engage their local communities by encouraging appropriate-aged women to seek breast cancer screening by trained health care professionals. The program was supported by Inter-commercial Impex Ltd, the company behind Forever Easy and Yofi sanitary products and Roche Pharmaceuticals.
Extending its vision of promoting early detection of breast cancer in local communities, BCI Ghana in collaboration with Peace and Love Hospital organized the first workshop to train volunteers as community breast health promoters on Friday, May 16, 2014, at Peace and Love Hospital, Kumasi. Nearly 70 participants who attended the workshop are selected from the Presbyterian Ministers’ Wives Association (PMWA) within the Upper, Northern, West Bono, Brong-Ahafo, Ashanti, Sekyere, Asante Akyem, Kwahu, and Sehwi Presbyteries. This was the first of its kind in the country.
Peer Navigation Training
HOPE - Helping Others through Personal Experiences.
In most cases, finding one’s way through the healthcare system and knowing what support and services are available can be challenging, especially at a time when breast cancer patients have to make major life decisions. While coping with the shock of a cancer diagnosis, patients must begin to negotiate a complicated maze of tests, appointments, treatments, and other services. Newly diagnosed patients must be informed about their disease, its implications, and how their treatment experience may be coordinated between different service providers.
Given that supportive care is increasingly been recognized as an integral part of quality cancer treatment, little is known about any existing supportive services for breast cancer patients in Ghana. As a result, Breast Care International (BCI), a Ghana-based non-governmental organization (NGO) seeking to intensify breast health awareness in rural communities while encouraging early breast cancer presentation, in collaboration with Carrie’s TOUCH Inc., a California-based breast cancer awareness, education, research, and support organization has created a Peer–Nurse Navigation program in Kumasi, Ghana based on Helping Others through Personal Experiences (H.O.P.E.) module.
As part of the implementation strategy of the HOPE Peer-Nurse Navigation program, a 3-Day Training Program for survivors and nurses was done at the Peace and Love Hospital in Kumasi, August 20-23, 2013.
The goal of the training was to empower the participants by equipping them with skills and navigation tools to guide patients to quality health outcomes in a structured manner. Upon successful completion of the training, participants were ready to accomplish the following:
- Connect newly diagnosed breast cancer patients with local resources to meet their various needs while undergoing treatment and encourage them to complete their treatment;
- Provide emotional support and connect newly diagnosed cancer patients with cancer survivors trained to assist with relieving anxiety, and working with patients to help with treatment decision-making;
- Reduce barriers to care and provide more efficient delivery of care and identify gaps in service;
- Increased sharing of resources both within the organization and with community organizations;
- Improve teamwork or collaboration between patients, family members, peer navigators, and nurse navigators.
This innovative program aims to use a combination of breast cancer survivors and nurses living in the same communities to guide newly diagnosed breast cancer patients toward achieving quality health outcomes by providing culturally appropriate supportive services on medical, emotional, educational, and financial for newly diagnosed breast cancer patients in the first six months. Currently, 63 newly diagnosed patients are enrolled in the program.