Emergency contraceptive pills over-the-counter: practices and attitudes of pharmacy and nurse-midwife providers.
Deregulation of emergency contraceptive pills (ECP) has led to pharmacy staff becoming a new provider group of ECP, together with nurse-midwives, who are already experienced in prescribing contraceptives. This postal questionnaire survey aimed to assess practices and attitudes towards ECP and the over-the-counter (OTC)-availability among pharmacy staff (n=237) and nurse-midwives (n=163). The overall response rate was 89%. Both study groups were positive to ECP and the OTC-availability and the vast majority agreed that sexually active women should be aware of ECP and that routine information about ECP should be included in contraceptive counseling. Verbal information on all aspects of ECP to clients was reported more often by nurse-midwives than by pharmacy staff. Both groups supported collaboration between providers. Our findings suggest that further collaboration between pharmacies and family planning clinics should be encouraged to ensure a competent and client-friendly provision of ECP.
Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, S-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden. gunilla.aneblom@kbh.uu.se
Gunilla
G
Aneblom
Cecilia Stålsby
CS
Lundborg
Anders
A
Carlsten
Karin
K
Eurenius
Tanja
T
Tydén
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003281:Contraceptives, Postcoital / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003376:Counseling; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D009721:Nurse Midwives / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000523:psychology*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D024382:Professional Role; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden
D003281:Contraceptives, Postcoital; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs