• Ir J Med Sci · Aug 2024

    Effectiveness of a novel consultant nurse-led breast pain clinic in secondary care.

    • Zaid Al-Ishaq, Saima Taj, Caroline Jones, Hamed Hajiesmaeli, Ehsanur Rahman, Samantha Bullows, Raghavan Vidya, and Tapan Sircar.
    • Sultan Qaboos Comprehensive Cancer Research and Care Centre, Muscat, Oman. mr.zaidraouf@gmail.com.
    • Ir J Med Sci. 2024 Aug 1; 193 (4): 171517201715-1720.

    BackgroundPatients with breast pain are usually seen in 'one-stop clinic' (OSC) with breast imaging. In the absence of associated red flag features, the incidence of breast cancer is extremely low. With increase in referrals the OSC capacity is over-stretched. We developed a consultant nurse-led dedicated 'breast pain clinic' in September 2021 without routine breast imaging. After meticulous history and examination, patients obtained detailed counselling and advice regarding breast pain management. If any abnormality was noted then appointment was given for OSC.AimTo assess the effectiveness of a consultant nurse-led dedicated 'breast pain clinic'.MethodsA prospective study of all consecutive patients seen in 'breast pain clinic' from September 2021 until September 2022. Feedback was sought from all patients.ResultsAltogether 429 patients were seen. The mean age was 48.7 years (range 18-86). 87.6% (n = 376) patients required no breast imaging. Only 12.4% (n = 53) patients needed referral to OSC and subsequently 2 patients (0.46%) were diagnosed with breast cancer. Ninety-eight percent of patients felt reassured and 99.2% patients were extremely likely/likely to recommend this service to family and friends. Out of 376 patients who were discharged from breast pain clinic, 12 patients were referred again over a median follow-up period of 15 months, and 2 out of them were diagnosed with breast cancer.ConclusionA consultant nurse-led 'breast pain clinic' provides service improvement as it eases the pressure on the OSC. Most patients were managed without breast imaging with high level of patient satisfaction and low rereferral rate.© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…