Comparing patients' telephone calls after medical and surgical abortions.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to monitor the content, timing of and response to telephone calls from medical and surgical abortion patients in order to improve the counseling and nursing care and allay patient's concerns.


METHODS
There were 43 calls from a possible 626 surgical patients and 100 calls from a possible 671 medical patients. Calls were considered preventable in 67% of the medical patients and 46.5% of the surgical patients. Women who were having their first abortion were more likely to place preventable calls.


CONCLUSIONS
Calls could be reduced by explaining variations in normal bleeding and how to use analgesics and providing this information in diagrammatic form on an information sheet.
Department of Family Practice, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 1H9. ellenwiebe@yahoo.ca
Ellen
E
Wiebe
Dawn
D
Fowler
Konia
K
Trouton
Nancy
N
Fu
D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D013689:Telephone
D000700:Analgesics