BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to asses the attitude of undergraduate midwifery students towards teaching other women in methods of breast self-examination (BSE).Participants and methods.The study was performed at the beginning and at the end of students’ study at the Faculty of Health Sciences in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It was carried out during the academic year 2002/2003 and involved 28 first and 25 third year undergraduate midwifery students. The data were gathered from questionnaires and processed with the use of descriptive and inferential statistics.ResultsAll study participants were of the opinion that teaching other women in methods of BSE is of great importance for an early detection of breast cancer (BC) and that this task ought to be one of their duties. There were no significant differences between the two groups when the readiness to upgrade their own knowledge of BSE or when the optimism regarding the progress in breast cancer detection and therapy in the future were concerned.ConclusionsThe readiness of midwifery students to pass the knowledge of BSE to other women could help to increase their breast health awareness and thus improve their willingness and ability to detect early changes, associated with BC.

of these data and with regard to the knowledge about breast cancer screening with mammography, clinical breast examination (CBE), and breast self-examination (BSE) (2), we assess the attitude of female midwifery students from the University College of Health Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia, toward BSE.The study was performed in the 2002-2003 academic year. Twenty-eight first-year and 25 third-year midwifery students were issued questionnaires assessing their attitude toward BSE with questions about their knowledge of BSE and their regularity in performing it. Their answers were evaluated with the use of the chi-square test with which the differences in frequencies were verified. The results were considered as statistically significant if p < 0.05 (3).We found that among the first-year students, 13 were familiar with BSE, while among the third-year students all knew how to perform it ( p < 0.0005). In each of group, 19 of the students performed BSE ( p = 0.5114). However, only 5 of the first-year students performed BSE regularly, while among the third-year students, 13 performed it regularly ( p = 0.0088).In this study, we showed that female midwifery students have a favorable attitude toward BSE. Of importance is that their specific three-year education enhances this attitude. Although according to some large studies, BSE does not decrease breast cancer mortality, it is still regarded as a core component of breast health awareness that contributes to the early diagnosis of breast cancer (2). Therefore the easiest way to increase breast health awareness would thus be to teach BSE (4).In Slovenia and elsewhere, midwifery students could, toward the end of their study, probably also perform CBE quite efficiently. In some of the less-developed parts of the world, knowledge of BSE could thus enable similarly educated midwives to have an important role in early breast cancer detection and, along with other nurses, in breast cancer prevention and education activities (5).