BCI trains 120 Nurses in Basic Oncology

Dr. Beatrice Wiafe, the chief executive Officer of Breast Care International (BCI), has instituted a pilot program to train 120 unemployed community based nurses in the Ashanti and eastern regions.

”This program is one of it’s kind in Ghana and Africa, so after 2 years when they exit from the Youth employment program, there will be an evaluation to see if the program could be duplicated in the rest of the regions ”, she revealed.

The Program which is principally aimed at creating breast and cervical cancer awareness, and also provide employment for nurses at the community level, will equip the nurses with knowledge on the diagnoses of the disease, and refer patients to hospitals for further checks and examination.

The nurses will be trained by facilitators drawn from Ghana, France, Morocco and the United states of America.

Each district in the 2 pilot regions, Ashanti and Eastern through their MMDA’s, presented 2 unemployed community based nurses to be considered for the program.

Dr. Wiafe told Otec fm reporter, Nana Appiah that, BCI has for the past 15 years promoted early detection and treatment of breast cancer through education and outreach programs, yet late reporting of the disease remains a major challenge.

She explained that, it is on this background that BCI is empowering the next generation of nurses, using the 120 community based nurses as the Nucleus and model, to transform the nursing profession as they are embedded into communities, to navigate patients for early detection and prevention.

She noted that successful treatment of early stage breast and cervical cancers largely depends on the visibility of embedded nurses at the community level and helps bond patients to the various health care givers as one big family poised to eradicate the dreadful disease.

Dr. Wiafe disclosed that the nurses after their training would be visiting homes and sending health care to the doorsteps of the people, making it more accessible, adding, the program is BCI’s modest contribution to reducing unemployment in the formal sector.

According to her more than 60 percent of patients visit the hospitals with stage 3 and 4 of breast cancer which is difficult and costly to treat, a situation she hopes to reverse with the introduction of the basic oncology training.

”We seek to reduce the stages of breast cancer reported to hospitals and in effect reduce the cost of treatment even on the NHIS for more people to benefit from the scheme”, she said.

The project is partnered by the government of Ghana through the Presidency, Ghana health service, Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Gender, children and Social Protection, and the National Youth Employment Program.

Source: otecfmghana.com/Nana Appiah