A model program for teaching nurses breast assessment and cancer screening.

The increasing incidence of breast cancer in the United States is well documented in the literature. Associated with this rise is a need for additional health care providers who are well versed in the detection of early breast cancer and who are dedicated public advocates of self-examination skills. To meet this challenge, approximately 300 nurses throughout the U.S. and Europe have attended a course designed at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center during the past decade. This article provides an overview of the program, including demographic data describing nurses who completed the course during 1989.