Breast Self-Examination in Terms of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice among Nursing Students of Arab American University/ Jenin

Abstract

Background: Breast self-examination is a simple, very low cost, noninvasive with no special material/tool requirements; and it is an effective diagnostic method for breast cancer which only takes five minutes to apply. Aim of the Study: The study aimed to assess the level of BSE knowledge, attitude, and practice among female nursing students in AAUJ. Subjects and methods: Descriptive, cross sectional study was used for conducting the study, a regular random sample has been used, 97 female nurses students from nursing department of Allied Medical Science Faculty/AAUJ were included. Data collected through; nurses’ socio-demographic characteristic, knowledge level towards BSE, Attitude level about BSE, and practice level towards BSE Scale which is developed by the researchers. Validity and pilot study were examined . Results: Study results have shown that 15.5% of the respondents had good overall knowledge towards BSE, The major source of information about BSE (57.6 % ) was mass media in the study, 75.3% of participants had positive attitude towards BSE, and 4.1% practice BSE always every month. There was a significant difference between age and academic level towards Knowledge of BSE. At the same time, there was a significant difference between overall knowledge and practice of BSE (P= 0.000). Conclusion and recommendation: Most female nursing students had poor knowledge about BSE and did not perform BSE. Mass Media is an important source of information about BSE to improve awareness among the community.