ARHP’s educational program, Breaking the Contraceptive Barrier: Techniques for Effective Contraceptive Consultations, gives health care professionals the tools and strategies to thoroughly and effectively discuss true pregnancy risk and contraceptive options with their patients. ARHP produced a variety of resources for the patient and the provider to help address these issues.

ARHP can arrange speakers to present on a variety of reproductive health topics at clinical conferences or grand rounds. Click here to learn about the available topics and programs.

For more information, please contact the ARHP, at education@arhp.org or (202) 466-3825.

Background

Related Links: Reproductive health topic area: Contraception

The rates of unintended pregnancy in the United States are staggering: approximately half of all pregnancies are unintended.¹ There is also an overall lack of comprehensive sexuality education in the United States. As a result, many women do not fully understand how their menstrual cycles work, causing an underestimation of their true risk of pregnancy. This lack of understanding combines with a cultural unease among health professionals about discussing sexual topics, limited time for health care appointments, and communications complexities to keep women in the dark about their true risk of pregnancy. The goal of the Breaking the Contraceptive Barrier program is to provide health care professionals with tools and strategies to thoroughly and effectively discuss true pregnancy risk and contraceptive options with their patients.

Program Design and Educational Activities

The Breaking the Contraceptive Barrier program includes many carefully developed components to meet health care providers’ and patients’ needs for education. All program modules have been established based on the results of comprehensive needs assessment and expert clinical opinion. Program components include:

• The complete slide set for this program is available online for free at ARHP’s open-access tool, the Curricula Organizer for Reproductive Health Education (CORE)
• National and regional society meeting visiting faculty sessions (click here to view a complete list of ARHP’s live education sessions)
• Issue of ARHP’s CME monograph, Clinical Proceedings
• Spanish and English patient-education brochures

Curriculum Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of these sessions, participants will be able to:

• Recognize individual patient’s barriers to effectively preventing unintended pregnancy.
• Identify barriers that impede the ability of health care providers to effectively and successfully discuss contraception with patients.
• Examine effective strategies for overcoming the most common barriers to patients’ contraceptive success.
• Develop individualized strategies for provision of contraception to a patient.

Intended Audience and Accreditation

Educational offerings have been developed for health care providers (physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives, pharmacists, and other professionals) and patients to help better understand the true risk of pregnancy and the scope of contraceptive options.

The curriculum/live sessions and Clinical Proceedings associated with this program are accredited for continuing medical education, nursing contact hours, pharmacology, and pharmacist credits.

Funding

This project is funded through an unrestricted education grant from Duramed Research, Inc., a subsidiary of Barr Pharmaceuticals.

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1. Finer LB, Henshaw SK. Disparities in rates of unintended pregnancy in the United States, 1994 and 2001, Perspect Sex Reprod Health 2006;38:90-6.