Welcome to our latest news summary featuring updates from across the National Screening Service (NSS). To keep up to date with all of our news, including upcoming events and job opportunities, read our news reports, follow us on X @NSShse, and on LinkedIn.
This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, #choosescreening
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and this year we’re highlighting one woman’s story of how her breast cancer was diagnosed following routine screening. Dympna Cremin, 66, a retired Special Education Teacher from Limerick features in a new video about BreastCheck and her diagnosis of breast cancer in December 2021. Sharing her experience, Dympna says “screening saved my life”.
Read about how we’re making BreastCheck work for everyone.
Improving health literacy in screening
Research tells us that around 4 in 10 adults in Ireland have limited health literacy; and that people with lower health literacy levels have poorer health outcomes.
Some of the things we’re doing to increase health literacy about screening include using plain English in our communications with our screening participants, avoiding medical jargon, and using visual aids where possible to explain important messages.
We develop accessible information about our screening programmes, and we provide information about our screening programmes in multiple languages.
National Screening Service at EUCanScreen
Our Chief Executive Fiona Murphy joined European partners to launch the Joint Action on Cancer Screening (EUCanScreen) project in Latvia, in September.
The project is one of the most significant European Commission initiatives in the fight against cancer. It brings together 97 institutions from 29 countries including Irish partners the Department of Health, the Royal College of Surgeons and the National Screening Service.
The main goal of EUCanScreen is to assure sustainable implementation of high-quality screening for breast, cervical and bowel cancers across Europe, as well as implementation of recently recommended screening programmes for lung, prostate and stomach cancers.
Diabetic RetinaScreen clinical conference 2024: Innovating retina screening and treatment for the future
Join us at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Dublin, on 8 November, for our conference detailing global, national and regional advances in diabetic retinal screening and treatment.
The conference is intended for ophthalmologists, diabetologists, public health physicians, academics, epidemiologists, optometrists, graders, screeners and nurses (ophthalmic and diabetic) and registration is now open.
Learn more about the role of Quality Assurance in screening
Quality Assurance (QA) is an integral component of any population screening programme. You can learn more about the role of a Quality Assurance Coordinator in this report from NSS team member Niamh McNamara, where she tells us about her job, the variety in her work, and how she makes an impact on our population’s health through the continuous improvement of our screening programmes.
National Screening Service shortlisted for five Irish Healthcare Awards
We’ve been shortlisted in five categories for the 2024 Irish Healthcare Awards including excellence in healthcare management; patient service of the year; patient organisation project of the year; public health initiative of the year; and research project paper of the year.
Read more about the projects shortlisted and how they support our strategic goals of engagement and partnership, operational excellence, service development and quality assurance.
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