Working as a Breast Care Nurse
Jennifer Bucher
September 25, 2024
5 min
Jennifer Bucher, certified Breast Care Nurse at the BreastCentre Zurich, Bethanien & Zollikerberg, cares for and supports people with breast cancer and their relatives on a daily basis. In this interview, you can find out more about her training path, her touching and challenging experiences and the reasons why she chose this special profession.
What is a Breast Care Nurse and when do patients need their support?
A Breast Care Nurse is a specialist in breast cancer. Patients are often overwhelmed by anxiety when they are diagnosed with breast cancer. During this time, they and their loved ones want information, understanding and personalised support. As a nurse with specific further training in the field of breast cancer, a Breast Care Nurse can provide both professional advice and emotional support.
What are your tasks as a Breast Care Nurse and where do you work?
I actively offer my support to those affected and their relatives throughout the course of the disease and also in the time after treatment and am therefore an important reference person. I make time for questions and concerns during care consultations. With their consent, as a Breast Care Nurse I advise, train and support those affected on specific topics such as fatigue, lymphoedema prophylaxis, nausea, anxiety or hair loss. I also arrange further contacts and work closely with the specialist departments involved, such as psycho-oncology, social counselling and the Cancer League.
My place of work for outpatient consultations is at the BrustCentrum Zürich, Zollikerberg site, where I am closely involved in the senology consultation hours. However, I am also often on the ward to visit and support patients after their operation.
Is there a particularly fond memory of a case you looked after?
When I looked after a very young, pregnant patient with breast cancer. She received chemotherapy while still pregnant. She later gave birth to a healthy child and visited me with him. The patient was also doing well. This was a very moving and wonderful moment for me.
Read the patient story of an affected person
How a diagnosis turns everyday life upside down
When Sofie was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer at the age of 38, there was only one thing for her to do - close her eyes and get on with it. In her patient story, she talks about her illness and her attitude towards it.
How do you provide support as a Breast Care Nurse?
This is very individual and depends very much on the needs of the patient and their relatives. The need for support is determined together. Frequent counselling topics are cancer-related fatigue, psychosocial issues, epithesis counselling and body image. The aim is to be a continuous point of contact. It is particularly important to involve and support relatives.
Are there also difficult situations in your job, and if so, how do you personally deal with them?
Cancer brings with it many challenging moments. Those affected and their relatives often go through an emotional rollercoaster of anger, fear, sadness, helplessness and shock. However, positive emotions can also arise from such difficult times. The diagnosis often pulls the rug from under the feet of those affected and their loved ones and leads to an intense confrontation with the finite nature of one's own life. Questions arise whose answers are unclear or even fail to materialise. I find it extremely difficult to endure this speechlessness and recognise that you can't give an answer to the question "Why me?". It takes patience and strength to endure these moments, to stay with those affected and to admit to yourself that you, as a counsellor, also have no answers at this moment.
What is your personal motto as a Breast Care Nurse?
"Compassionate support, competent support, strengthening resources together."
Why did you choose this unique profession?
I have been working in the field of oncology for over 18 years now and I put my heart and soul into it. I lost my mother to lung cancer at a very early age. This had a huge impact on me. My mother's oncologist said to me: "It would be nice to see you again as a carer in oncology". Shortly after my training, I was given the chance to work in a radio-oncology department and the opportunity to do further training in the field of oncology.
My previous job was in radio-oncology at the Lindenhofspital in Bern. I carried out hyperthermia there, mainly on women with breast cancer. This gave me the final impetus to train as a Breast Care Nurse at the ZHAW.
I find helping and counselling people a very rewarding and challenging task.
Your further training with us
Further training opportunities at Zollikerberg Hospital
Do you want to develop yourself further and have your own individual goals? Then you've come to the right place. In the world of healthcare, we support you as an employee with a wide range of training and development programmes.
What training can you take to become a Breast Care Nurse?
There are various paths. After the basic diploma as a qualified nurse HF, there is the option of completing a CAS or a DAS in oncological nursing with a focus on "Breast Care" at the ZHAW. Practical experience in the field of oncology is also very important.
Do you have any other professional ambitions that you would like to pursue?
I finished my DAS in July 2024. At the moment, I'm focussing on integrating and consolidating the specialist knowledge I've gained into practice.
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