Background Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women and second most common cancer after lung cancer. The prognosis of breast cancer depends on early detection and intervention which in turn relies upon awareness. Health workers in all communities are responsible for educating the population at risk. This study evaluates the knowledge regarding breast cancer, personal judgment of confidence, perceived barriers to help seeking and breast self-examination practices among Pakistani female medical students and studies the impact of clinical training on the studied variables. Methods Descriptive cross-sectional study design using self-administered validated questionnaires (BCAM-Breast Cancer Awareness Measure designed by Cancer Research UK) was employed. Female medical students enrolled in clinical and pre-clinical classes of King Edward Medical University, Lahore were targeted and questioned regarding symptoms, risk factors and their practices regarding breast cancer. Possible barriers to seeking help were also studied. Result The mean number of symptoms correctly identified was 6.7 ± 3.2 (5.5 ± 3.2 for pre-clinical and 7.8 ± 2.9 for clinical students) and for risk factors it was 4.3 ± 2.1 (3.7 ± 2.1 for pre-clinical and 4.7 ± 2.2 for clinical students). The difference in the level of perception of two groups was found to be significant ( p < 0.001 for symptoms and p < 0.001 for risk factors). 38.7% of the subjects responded that they check their breasts rarely, 33.1% were fairly confident while 8.6% were very confident about detecting a change in their breast, 50.0% never noticed a change in their breast, and 77.4% will contact a doctor within a week or less of finding a change in their breast. Confidence about detecting a change significantly improved ( p < 0.001) after the start of clinical training. Conclusion This study suggests that clinical training may have improved knowledge of female medical students regarding breast cancer; yet the knowledge related to the symptoms and risk factors of breast cancer and frequency of breast self-examination of female medical students is less than anticipated.

Objectives: This study has been designed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of healthcare workers at Mayo Hospital regarding biomedical waste segregation. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Teaching Hospital of King Edward Medical University Lahore, Pakistan. Period: February 2018 to January 2019. Material & Methods: Structured questionnaires in English and Urdu were employed to collect data from healthcare workers (nurses and doctors) on duty in different wards of Mayo Hospital. The demographics, level of knowledge, practices and attitude regarding biomedical waste segregation are reported using descriptive statistics. The comparison of doctors and nurses is done using chi-square. Results: Significantly fewer number of doctors correctly identified the container for bio hazardous waste (p=0.016), while majority (89.4%) of respondents were able to correctly identify the container for sharps and general waste. Significantly more (p=0.00) number of nurses had training in waste segregation as compared with doctors. Majority (95.0%) of nurses acknowledged that guidelines regarding waste segregation were available in their departments, whereas significantly lesser number (64.5%) of doctors acknowledged existence of guidelines at their workplace (p=0.00). 21.3% of respondents claimed to have acquired infection from waste with no statistical difference between the two groups (p=0.19). A minority of the participants agreed that the practices were satisfactory (14.6%) and the required equipment was available (27.7%), yet there was a significant difference between the responses of doctors and nurses with the nurses being more satisfied with the available facilities and equipment (p=0.00) than doctors. Conclusion: The knowledge of the healthcare workers regarding waste segregation is better than their practices, nonetheless there is a dire need to improve the quality of training of these health care workers in and emphases must be put on ensuring that correct practices are adopted.