Abstract

Introduction: Breast and cervical cancers show increasing prevalence among women in Brazil. In this context, the attributions of nurses of the Health Family Strategy are essential to prevent, control and detection of these tumors.

Objective: To identify the activities to prevent the cervical and breast cancers developed by nurses of Basic Health Units (BHU) and to describe their knowledge about the attributions of nurses in prevention and control of cervical and breast cancers to the light of Ministry of Health.

Method: This is a qualitative and exploratory approach. The study was conducted with 05 nurses of the Health Family Strategy in a city located in the Reconcavo of the state of Bahia. To collect data, we used a semi structured interview and were analyzed through Bardin content analysis technique.

Results: It was observed that the nurses of the Family Health Strategies, where the study was performed, develop some activities for the prevention and control of breast and cervical cancers, as recommended by the Ministry of Health, however it was noted weakness regarding the knowledge of these activities as recommendations.

Conclusion: The nurses develop some actions to prevent and control breast and cervical cancers according the guidelines of the Ministry of Health, although they do not recognize these activities as recommendations. Note also that the knowledge about the guidelines for prevention and control of these cancers is incipient. Therefore, it is important that nurses know their assignments, as well as what is recommended by the Ministry of Health, to combat the both cancers and make a significant contribution to the reduction of mortality about these cancers.