title: Abortion counselling by nurse specialists.
abstract: This paper describes additional training given to nurse specialists in family planning to cover abortion counselling. The primary counselling was carried out by general practitioners or family planning clinic doctors, following this the patient was referred to hospital for counselling by nurse specialists. Of the first 742 patients seen, 3.2% were not pregnant and a further 25 patients (3.4%) decided against termination, 21 after counselling, and 4 because of advanced gestation. The interval between nurse counselling and termination (TOP) was 3 to 9 days, and of 682 TOPs 566 (83%) were in the first trimester. The additional training for nurse specialists prevented the unnecessary wastage of resources as only 42 (5.1%) required a second visit to confirm blood test results, e.g. rubella titres, and only a further 44 (5.3%) required referral to medical social workers.
mesh_terms: D000032:Abortion, Therapeutic; D000328:Adult; D044383:Black People; D003376:Counseling; D005193:Family Planning Services; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007434:Intrauterine Devices; D009720:Nurse Clinicians; D011247:Pregnancy; D011255:Pregnancy Maintenance; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors