Understanding and improving the breast screening experience of Māori women

The project – Tracing the journey: understanding and improving the experience of Māori women – involves tracers, or assessors, visiting Māori women who have recently been to an assessment clinic and interviewing them about their screening experience. The tracer also interviews staff caring for the woman.

BSA Programme Manager Maree Pierce says while independent Māori monitoring reports indicate there have been overall improvements in BSA’s performance for Māori women, inequities between Māori and non-Māori women persist.

‘The purpose of a tracer is to assess the care and services provided to an individual against the programme’s quality systems. They focus on the total experience of the woman at the centre of care, identifying transitions, relationships and themes.

‘Tracer methodology is about finding areas for improvement, and is one of a range of ways to help BSA improve the screening experience for Māori women to improve programme equity.’

While tracers are new to the NSU, they have been used for some time in district health boards by the Ministry of Health’s certification body HealthCERT.

Results of the tracer project will be used locally and nationally and the NSU will also evaluate providers’ experience of using the tracer approach.