Women's Health

OVERVIEW

This course is designed for nurses, and other allied health professionals using evidence-based practice to develop and increase their knowledge base on women's health issues. Enabling them to deliver and promote effective healthcare for women who present in primary care settings.

CONTENT

Cervical Screening

• The current programme with recent and likely future modifications
• HPV update including HPV vaccines
• Practical with pelvic models
• Accessing hard to reach populations, with ideas about how to reach them

Other Screening

• Breast
• Colorectal
• Cardiovascular (relevant to contraceptive and HRT prescribing as well as general health)

History Taking and Assessment

• Why it is a key component of patient assessment
• Complexity and processes involved
• Identification of care priorities

Vulval Disorders

• The importance of examining the vulva
• Anatomy
• Skin abnormalities and their initial assessment and treatment within primary care

Menopause

• Understanding the Menopause: Definition and diagnosis, physiology and what women experience
• HRT Options: Type, routes, regimes, risks & benefits
• Assessing the need and suitability for HRT
• Alternatives to HRT for symptom management
• Perimenopause contraception
• Premature Menopause/Early Ovarian Insufficiency Practical case scenarios

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

• The different types, and why and who is doing it.
• The law and our obligations as clinicians.
• The practical difficulties of managing the problem in the UK.

AIMS AND OUTCOMES

• Develop an understanding of common women's health conditions and how to manage them in the primary care setting.
• Working knowledge of the different screening programmes and what they entail.
• Understand the importance of good history taking and assessment.
• Able to formulate a differential diagnosis in order to get a definitive one.