Graduate Research Papers
Availability
Open Access Graduate Research Paper
Abstract
Birth control plays a significant role in family planning within the United States and in the world. Due to the highly used and accepted forms of hormonal, barrier, and surgical birth control methods, a natural means of birth control known as fertility awareness is being overlooked. An overview of literature, supplemented by phone interview results of seven medical professionals in the Cedar Valley, were utilized in this study to understand the extent of knowledge, comfort, skill, and perceived effectiveness health professionals possess regarding fertility awareness methods (FAM). The medical professionals interviewed were employees from one of five randomly selected clinics who participated in the phone interview. The participants were medical professionals who have undergone training in nursing and/or medical school and currently meet with women on a routine basis for general health checkups. Although the interviews in this study were used as supplemental data to the literature review, the conclusions drawn from both were very similar in regards to medical professional knowledge, comfort, skill, and perceived effectiveness. Medical professionals were found to be most comfortable disseminating fertility awareness information when perceived knowledge was high. Surprisingly, most medical professionals, according to the literature review and the phone interviews, noted little to no professional training regarding this method in medical/nursing school. The perceived effectiveness of fertility awareness rated low among the medical professionals in the literature and in the phone interviews because this method does not require ingestion of a pill, the use of hormones to alter a woman's physiological state, or surgical means to prevent pregnancy from occurring. This paper concludes with how societal, organizational, interpersonal, and individual barriers, as found in the Ecological Model, influence the knowledge, comfort, skill, and perceived effectiveness medical professionals possess regarding FAM. Because this study is a literature review and qualitative in nature, the results will be seen as less representative than if quantitative means were used to obtain data.
It is important to understand the knowledge, comfort, skill, and perceived effectiveness of medical professionals regarding FAM. By understanding FAM, medical professionals may more effectively disseminate fertility awareness material to women during a birth control discussion, thus giving women an equal representation of all birth control options. More attention is needed in the area of medical professionals' roles in disseminating fertility awareness information.
Year of Submission
2011
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services
First Advisor
Diane Depken
Date Original
2011
Object Description
1 PDF file (85 pages)
Copyright
©2011 Jamie J. Rathjen
Language
en
Recommended Citation
Rathjen, Jamie J., "Barriers to Professional Education and Practice in Disseminating Fertility Awareness Methods in the Cedar Valley" (2011). Graduate Research Papers. 4281.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/grp/4281
Comments
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