Achieving Comprehensive Contraceptive Counseling for Young Women and Improved Contraceptive Uptake Through the Implement
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Achieving Comprehensive Contraceptive Counseling for Young Women and Improved Contraceptive Uptake Through the Implementation of a Reproductive Health Educator Program M. S. Tschann1 · J. Elia1 · J. L. Salcedo1 Accepted: 5 November 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Objectives To evaluate the effect of student-volunteer reproductive health educators (RHEs) on frequency of counseling about long acting reversible contraception (LARC) and uptake of more effective contraception. Methods This was a non-randomized intervention study conducted at a resident continuity clinic. Eligible patients were females aged 14–25. Participants met with an RHE during their visit in addition to the standard care team. Patients in the historical group met only with the standard care team. We compared counseling patterns and uptake of more effective contraceptive methods between the baseline historical comparison and intervention groups. Results Nearly all eligible patients in the intervention group received counseling about LARC during their visit, whereas less than half of patients seen in the baseline period received the same counseling. Approximately two-thirds of patients who had no contraceptive method at the beginning of the visit chose to initiate a short- or long-acting method in the intervention group, compared to less than half of patients who were using no method in the baseline group. Conclusions for Practice Integration of student-volunteer RHEs increased the frequency with which patients were counseled about LARC and also increased the number of patients who switched to more effective contraception during their visit compared to patients seen in the same clinic before RHEs were introduced. Student-volunteer RHEs are a potentially costeffective way to provide comprehensive health education in busy clinical settings. Keywords LARC · Patient education · Contraception
Significance Health educators are routinely used in many primary care and reproductive health settings and are effective at improving patient outcomes. This study evaluated if student-volunteer health educators could provide competent comprehensive reproductive health counseling and address contraceptive needs. We found that student-volunteer health Findings from this study were previously reported in a poster at the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology Annual Clinical and Research Meeting, April 20–22nd in Chicago, IL * M. S. Tschann [email protected] 1
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, John A Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii At Manoa, 1319 Punahou St. Ste 824, Honolulu, HI 96826, USA
educators were effective at providing comprehensive counseling and at increasing the number of patients who left the visit with a more effective contraceptive method. Beyond the initial investment in time for training there were no ongoing costs for the RHEs, making them a cost-neutral approach to adhering to counseling guidelines and meeting patients repro
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