Chapter 20: Diagnostic investigations
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Legal and professional issues
Breast diagnostics are increasingly undertaken by advanced nurse practitioners within breast teams. They routinely act as clinicians alongside radiologists, sonographers and pathologists. They will undertake clinical breast examination, instigate appropriate radiological investigations and may obtain tissue or cell specimens. Breast diagnostic techniques include:
- clinical breast examination
- core biopsy
- fine‐needle aspiration
- punch biopsy
- nipple cytology.
Where any of these are undertaken by a nurse practitioner or advanced clinical nurse, that nurse should be acting within the scope of his or her professional practice (RCN [128]). Agreement should have been obtained by the employing trust or authority that he or she is competent through local assessment. Clinical assessment, prescription of ionizing radiation in the requesting of mammograms and undertaking tissue sampling all represent advanced nursing competencies.
