On International Women’s Day – Wednesday, 8 March – BRHS takes the opportunity to thank and celebrate all the women that drive our health service. Women’s Community Health Nurse Dianne Gibbs is one of them.
After more than three decades in women’s health, Dianne Gibbs says she’s seen many exciting changes for the better – including a simpler cervical screening process she hopes will encourage more East Gippsland women to participate.
Dianne, a Women’s Community Health Nurse with Bairnsdale Regional Health Service, says invasive and uncomfortable pap tests could be a thing of the past, with a new self-collection process under clinical supervision now helping to detect and prevent cervical cancers.
It’s the latest in many advances she has seen since joining BRHS as a nurse and midwife more than 30 years ago. “It’s been amazing, really. A lot of change. A lot more accessibility to services. The opportunity for women to engage in healthcare is amazing in Australia now. I talk to women overseas, they have nothing like we have. We’re very fortunate to have our screening programs and ongoing research,” she said.
“The improvement in our early detection and treatments is great. That helps to prevent more serious consequences of disease.”
Dianne said she was a family planning nurse when she trained to perform pap tests in 1992, a time when people talked more about sexual health because of the AIDS campaign and discussion about managing menopause and preventing osteoporosis became more common among older women.
“It was the time when the screening programs were beginning. The organised approach to prevention of cervical cancer began with the two-yearly pap screening program,” she said.
“Also the BreastScreen program was established in the 1980s, with a two-yearly mammogram for women between 50 and 74. All that really opened up the path for prevention of cancer and prevention of problems for women.”
That focus has led to better outcomes for women.
“Breast screens have led to more early detection of cancer and changes that can be treated and prevented before it’s an invasive breast cancer. If changes are found early, often less extensive treatments are required,” she said.
“That’s an amazing development. We have seen an increase in breast cancer rates in the past 30 years but because we’re finding things much earlier it can improve the outcomes, and the relative survival rate has increased gradually the past 20 years.”
The rate of cervical screening is below the Victorian average in East Gippsland. Women in rural and remote communities, diverse groups and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are less likely to undergo regular cervical screening.
Dianne said self-collected cervical samples are such an important advance if we’re to improve accessibility to cervical screening.
Self-collection involves patient education. The client can collect a sample from their own vagina under the guidance of a clinician at a GP or other health clinic to ensure it’s done correctly and so there is a further consult to discuss the results and follow up.
These samples test for the presence of Human Papilloma Viruses, a leading cause of cervical cancers.
“If these viruses are picked up in these tests, we know that they might be more at risk and follow up is required,” Dianne said.
All people aged 25 to 74 who have been sexually active and have a cervix are eligible for the self-collection service, subject to clinical advice.
“Many women found the old pap test uncomfortable and perhaps haven’t attended in the past. We’re hoping that more women will come forward now to have this test. We hope to eradicate cervical cancer.”
Dianne said she loves working in the women’s health space.
“I’ll tell you, it’s been pretty exciting just to see all the changes in the past 20 years or so,” she said.
If you have any questions about self-collected cervical screening or other women’s health issues, phone BRHS Community Health reception on 5152 0222.
