Can Pharmacists Fill the Primary Care Provider Gap in Recommending Breast Screening?

Abstract

Background and context: BreastScreen Victoria (BSV) provides free breast screening to women aged 40+, targeting women aged 50-74. The program reduces breast cancer deaths by up to 28%. Primary care is important in improving uptake of breast screening. In particular, a recommendation from a health professional is a strong influencer. Many general practitioners (GPs) recommend screening, however, it is important to expand recruitment to other health professionals given many women do not visit a GP regularly. Community pharmacists and pharmacy staff may be a trusted source of health information, and are potentially an underutilized opportunity to promote breast screening to women. Based on this gap, BSV developed a three month pharmacy-based screening awareness campaign that was trialed in community pharmacies throughout 2017/18. The campaign is based on a UK community pharmacy model that was shown to successfully increase public awareness about cancer screening. Aim: BSV aims to diversify the types of health professionals that recommend screening to reach women who do not visit a GP regularly. The aim of the pharmacy-based breast screening awareness campaign is to: • build capacity of pharmacy staff to deliver breast screening messages to their communities • increase awareness of breast screening in women aged 50-74 • increase awareness of breast screening among family and friends of women Strategy/Tactics: BSV's pharmacy-based breast screening awareness campaign was trialed in 4 community pharmacies in 2017. Each pharmacy received a grant of up to $1550 which enabled them to: • allow pharmacy staff to attend training to increase their knowledge of breast screening and the campaign • display BreastScreen collateral throughout the store to provide information and prompt queries • initiate conversations and answer questions about breast screening • monitor campaign activity via a number of methods Outcomes: • Posttraining, 100% of staff were confident in promoting breast screening to customers • Staff across 4 pharmacies had 638 conversations about breast screening with customers (average 160/pharmacy). The majority were with women in the target age group • Most pharmacies suggested shortening the campaign to 2 months • All pharmacies said the funding was a critical motivator to participation • All pharmacies stated that the campaign was worthwhile, and allowed them to participate in health promotion Two additional trials are scheduled to test a reduced campaign duration and funding model. Results will be available later in 2018 What was learned: • Many women do not visit their GP regularly • Community pharmacists and pharmacy staff are an underutilized opportunity to promote breast screening • Delivering cancer screening messages through community pharmacies is an effective way to reach women aged 50-74 • Pharmacy funding and training are critical in enabling pharmacies to deliver a breast screening awareness campaign