Nurse practitioner training in breast examination.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: To date, there have been no published guidelines, either locally or nationally, to advise nurse practitioners on training and assessment in breast and axillary examination. This study is a prospective audit of the clinical competence of a nurse practitioner in breast and axillary clinical examination, following an 18-month period of clinical training and supervision by two consultant breast surgeons. CONCLUSION: The results of the audit show that the nurse achieved a high level of concordance with the findings of consultant breast surgeons. This training and audit process could be incorporated into the training and assessment of future nurse practitioners in this specialist area.