CERVICAL CANCER PREVENTION TRAINING
The programme is made up of two modules each lasting two weeks.
Module 1: Basic
Trainees will learn the rudiments of cervical screening, know the administrative procedures that go into a screening set up and be able to perform Visual Inspection with Acetic acid (VIA).
Those who complete this module can, among other things, start cervical screening with HPV testing and VIA in their institutions.
[They will need help with follow up of the screen positives]
They also learn how to screen for breast cancer with clinical breast examination.
Module 2: Advanced
Trainees work with nurses at the centre and perform Visual Inspection with Acetic acid (VIA) and basic diagnostic colposcopy (with the mobile colposcope).
They learn how to treat precancerous lesions of the cervix with ablation – cryotherapy and thermal coagulation.
In both modules the key tenets of the Cervical Cancer Prevention and Training Centre are taught:
- Decentralisation of healthcare.
[The aim is to achieve community-based programmes to reach women at their doorsteps instead of a centralised approach where all women have to travel to a ‘big centre’ to access health services] - Task shifting to achieve decentralisation.
- Sustainability.
[The call here is that ‘free things are not sustainable.’ Programmes dependent on only external funding will most likely collapse after external funding ends]