The modern health care sector is focused on the improvement of relationships with patients as one of the key aspects needed for improved outcomes (Bombard et al., 2018). The existence of effective contraceptive counseling given by a health care provider (HCP) is fundamental to further the evolution of patient care because of multiple factors showing the significance of this aspect. Unfortunately, there is still much to be done because of the lack of knowledge, experience, and understanding of how to interact with patients considering their education level, cultural background, and other unique characteristics. The major reason for selecting this problem is a growing level of poor outcomes associated with inappropriate use of female contraception in the adolescent population. This paper investigates how contraceptive counseling affects outcomes related to contraceptive use. Contraceptive counseling has an essential impact on adolescent women’s use of contraception, choice of the most effective method, outcomes, complications, and their health (Lutalo et al., 2018).
Operational Definitions
Before analyzing the issues surrounding contraceptive counseling, it is critical to acquire an improved understanding of the basic terms. Adolescence is a phase of life between childhood and adulthood characterized by critical alterations in behaviors, biological growth, and social relationships. The age range taken is from 10 to 24 years. At that period, young women enter sexual relationships but may have zero or little to limited experience in contraception issues. Health care providers (HCPs) like advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), physician assistants (PAs), physicians, and specialists counsel, treat, promote wellness, and provide preventative care to individuals and families in community-based settings (“Health care provider,” 2019). Contraception is the use of various practices to prevent an undesired pregnancy. In the given context, client-provider relationships are relationships between an HCP and an adolescent woman when discussing the issue of contraception. Health assessment is a special plan of care that considers and reveals the needs of a client and how they can be fulfilled in terms of modern healthcare functioning (Burrill, 2018).
The understanding of the given terms is critical for the improved understanding of the selected problem and how it affects the health of the nation. When a female is making decisions related to her sex life, she faces the problem of multiple contraception methods. There can be various outcomes she would like to prevent, including avoidance of undesired pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), or others (Patton et al., 2016). The primary goal of the modern healthcare sector is to provide an individual with all resources that might be needed to fulfill the need for specific knowledge and interventions to preserve the quality of life at the highest level and ensure that no undesired complications will emerge (Patton et al., 2016). In such a way, health assessment interventions can also be investigated when managing this issue.
The choice of the topic for the discussion is, to a greater degree, preconditioned by some personal experience. At the age of 17, I went to my primary assigned physician and wanted a piece of advice regarding birth control and contraception issues. However, no options were suggested because the doctor referred to my culture and religion, appealing to the idea that for a Christian girl, such questions are unnecessary, and abstinence was my only option. I formed a great relationship from the first visit with a new HCP who provided all the needed details and information to choose the best possible options for me. I knew what her background and recommendations were, but she was unbiased and did not push an agenda on me or give me limited options.
However, the given case evidences the existence of a serious problem in health care today, as many HCPs do not have the needed skills and experiences to work with adolescent women and assist them in solving their problems with contraception (Hopkins, 2017). The example also evidences how the APRN and other health workers contribute to finding the most appropriate way to deal with the emerging problems and eliminate barriers. HCPs should be ready to identify the existing needs, assist patients in their fulfillment, and assure them that no feeling of shame or embarrassment should emerge regarding the question of contraception as it is one of the major aspects of female health. The proposed solution presupposes special training for HCPs engaged in the process for them to be able to improve their contraceptive counseling and assess the current needs effectively by providing the needed intervention. This training might include factual knowledge of the existing methods along with the elements of communications that have proven to be helpful in making an adolescent woman feel comfortable discussing this topic.
Background
Another reason for the choice of the problem of contraception among adolescent women is its increased topicality and importance for modern society. First of all, due to the peculiarities of the environment and social life, there is a decrease in the age when young women begin the sexual activity and can require abortion counseling (Hoopes, Gilmore, Cady, Akers, & Ahrens, 2016). It means that there a significant percentage of the female population needs these services to preserve the high quality of their lives and avoid complications. In accordance with the relevant statistics, in 2013, about 488,000 women aged 15-19 became pregnant, which evidences the high importance of the discussed problem (Jatlaoui et al., 2015). At the same time, there is a high abortion rate, including 11 per 1,000 women in this age group (Jatlaoui et al., 2015). Despite the tendency towards the improvement of the situation and the gradual decrease of abortions in the given cohort, the situation still remains complex as many girls lack the experience and knowledge needed to avoid undesired pregnancies.
As for the rate of STDs, they also remain unacceptably high among the discussed age group. Statistical evidence shows that one in four sexually active adolescent females have a disease such as chlamydia or human papillomavirus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). For instance, among 15-19-year-old women, there are 3,265.7 cases per 100,000 individuals, which also shows a 6.5% increase if compared with 2016 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). As for gonorrhea, its incidence also grows significantly and constitutes 15.5% for persons belonging to this cohort (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Of course, there are many factors preconditioning the further increase of similar cases; however, one should also accept that poor knowledge about existing contraception options and HCPs’ inability to meet patients’ needs is among the factors that have a negative effect on the health of the discussed population group. Considering there are multiple predictions about the further rise in STDs’ incidence, the significance of effective contraceptive counseling regarding the questions of safe sex becomes obvious and should be given specific attention.
In many cases, poor sexual and reproductive health knowledge causes serious problems for representatives of this cohort. For instance, there is a continuously increasing percentage of young females who unknowingly have STDs (Judge, Wolgemuth, Hamm, & Borrero, 2017). Additionally, there is a strong impact of social factors that prevent adolescents from accessing sexual and reproductive health services. It constitutes a serious problem as the feeling of shame, social responsibility, and ethical issues might significantly deteriorate the client-provider relationship. In other words, investigators admit the fact that a serious number of HCPs might also have prejudiced attitudes towards the provision of this sort of information to adolescent or unmarried women (Lim et al., 2015).
Finally, there is a serious gap in knowledge related to the discussed topic. In accordance with the existing surveys conducted among the representatives of the selected cohort, about 25% of all adolescent women have an extremely vague idea of contraception, STDs, and pregnancy (Rubin, Coy, Yu, & Munice, 2016). Additionally, a significant number are ashamed to address specialists to consult about the best option because of possible condemnation, biased attitudes, or problems with parents (Lopez, Grey, Chen, Tolley, & Stockton, 2016). All these facts mentioned above prove the existence of a serious problem related to contraception and young women’s awareness of it. The idea of client-provider relationships also remains topical as there can be discomfort or understanding when addressing HCPs regarding these issues. For this reason, there is a critical need for the in-depth investigation of the selected problem to formulate the basic conceptions, discuss the topical literature devoted to the issue, and present a solution.
Review of Literature
The purpose of this review was to explore barriers and facilitators to contraceptive use in adolescent females. To ensure that all existing perspectives on the question are discussed and taken into account, it is critical to review relevant and credible sources that also offer solutions for improvement. This section includes the analysis of scholarly, peer-reviewed articles revolving around what is known about the issue of contraceptive counseling in adolescent females and how it was impacted by HCPs. The focus is on determining the issues and barriers related to contraceptive use that include birth control and religious questions, among others, along with the facilitators that influence the practice.
The process of creating a review of the literature (ROL) included several stages. First, the key terms for the search were selected. The major search terms included adolescents, females, contraception, contraceptive counseling, birth control, client-provider relationship, and attitude. Using these words, the databases NCBI, PubMed, and PMC were chosen to find relevant literature. There were about fifty records identified through database searching, with no additional records identified through other searches. After duplicates were removed, there were about forty records. I sought articles that used quantitative or qualitative data to research adolescent females and barriers to contraceptive use. After screening through the findings via the title and abstracts, only peer-reviewed, scholarly, and recent articles dated between 2014 and 2019 were included. The given approach helped to form a pool of 12 works for the investigation that included peer-reviewed, scholarly, and recent journal articles related to the problem and providing important findings needed for improved understanding. This method prevents issues related to credibility and the use of corrupted data (Figure 1).
Figure 1. PRISMA diagram for the research.
Findings
The findings of this review demonstrated several themes that can cause barriers to contraceptive use in adolescent females. This includes a lack of education and the stigma and biases associated with sex and contraceptives for this population.
Lack of Education or Resources
Sexually active female adolescents may have an incorrect understanding of the basic principles of contraception, which results in the emergence of health problems (Nalwadda, Miermbe, Byamugisha, Tumwesigye, & Faxelid, 2016). Research by Rubin et al. (2016) revealed that >60 % of sexually active non-pregnant women with unmet contraceptive needs to be surveyed intended to utilize contraception, but <30% of these women initiated the use of contraceptives (Lutalo et al., 2018). Another set of longitudinal studies shows that there are many unplanned pregnancies that appear because of the unsuccessful initiation to use existing options (Rubin et al., 2016). Thus, there is a significant problem related to pregnancy planning and engagement in sexual relationships that becomes especially topical among adolescent females.
Another study also demonstrated education and resources as a barrier to contraceptive counseling. Munakampe, Zulu, and Michelo (2018) found that a lack of knowledge and access to safe and effective contraceptive resources among adolescent females contributed to reduced access to contraceptive options. This leads to unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and the use of extreme contraceptive methods. Today, patients’ limited knowledge remains one of the central causes for unsafe abortions and the development of complications undermining the health of a person and resulting in the emergence of infertility among adolescent women (Munakampe et al., 2018).
Health Care Provider
The HCP’s lack of understanding adolescent women’s needs or peculiarities of their perspectives on sex and the contraceptive issue is another issue that contributes to adolescent contraceptive use (Lopez et al., 2016). Researchers outline that in many cases, HCPs lack knowledge of important problems outlined by young women because of the absence of particular experiences or their age (Patton et al., 2016). In such situations, patients may lose their trust in an HCP and may no longer seek care, or they may try to look for another HCP. This is why there is a critical need for the improvement of contraceptive counseling between clients and providers, as it has a serious impact on future choices.
The stigma of Contraceptives and Sex
The limited and restricted dialogue between adolescent females and their HCPs, family, or peers that is influenced by the stigma and attitudes related to sexually active adolescent females shape their perceptions and influence their decisions related to contraceptive use (Capuchande, Coene, Schockaert, Macia, & Meulemans, 2016). The attitudes and biases of HCPs stemmed from the social stigma of sex in working with adolescent women contributes to the outcomes and success of the process, which becomes an important theme to barriers in contraceptive counseling (Nalwadda et al., 2016). The counseling performed by HCPs intends to work towards preserving the quality of life and avoiding serious complications that might emerge due to inappropriate or lack of use of contraception (Capuchande et al., 2016).
In a study conducted by Munakampe et al. (2018), adolescents listed parents and HCPs as trusted sources of information related to their sexual health and contraception choices. However, HCPs may be unaware of the underlying biased attitudes that impact their counseling and how they are being perceived by the adolescent female population. Adolescent females reported that the attitude of the HCP impacted how open they fell to discussing their sexual health and accessing information from them (Munakampe et al., 2018).
Adolescent female patients should have no fears or negative feelings about discussing their sexual relationships or contraception problems with HCPs. In many cases, the approaches utilized by HCPs result in the development of the feeling of shame, embarrassment, and lack of comfort (Nalwadda et al., 2018). According to Sieverding, Schatzkin, Shen, and Liu (2018), HCPs should be deprived of biased attitudes preconditioned by dominant sociocultural factors. HCPs not attuned to the needs of the adolescent female population may provide the patient limited or imposed contraceptive options, which is often down to no choices at all (Capurchande et al., 2016; Munakampe et al., 2018).
The impact of parents also remains strong. Parents often demonstrate strong opinions about adolescent teens and sex for personal or religious reasons, so adolescents are afraid of their condemnation or negative reactions. In accordance with surveys, they would prefer to discuss sex and contraception issues with their friends than with parents or HCPs (Capurchande et al., 2016). Due to the stigma of birth control being automatically associated with being sexually active, adolescent females may feel uncomfortable bringing it up with their parents (Hoopes et al., 2016).
Women beyond the adolescent stage who were experienced in sexual relationships and using contraception were consulted regarding prior experiences with HCPs and contraceptive counseling (Patton et al., 2016). A majority of these women admitted that the successful outcomes experienced were mainly preconditioned by the effective cooperation and teamwork with HCPs who managed to provide the appropriate contraceptive counseling and pieces of advice that were effective at their adolescence stage. The method(s) of pregnancy and STI prevention they chose and used was selected together with an HCP alongside others in the team with their current health status and sexual health needs in mind. This demonstrated a significant impact of client-provider relationships and counseling on choices made by adolescent women (Patton et al., 2016).
Discussion of Literature
The main themes that are touched upon in the literature review that provide barriers to contraceptive use include a lack of knowledge on the part of both the adolescent female and the HCP and the effect of the social stigma of sex. How this population is obtaining information related to contraception can be limited, erroneous, and influenced by stigmas, attitudes, and biases from HCPs, family, and peers. Adolescent females may trust these influences in their life, but often do not feel comfortable with the topic for fear of shame and other negative consequences. Contraceptive counseling methods need improvement but can be effective and lead to appropriate, desirable interventions and successful outcomes (Munakampe et al., 2018; Patton et al., 2016).
This problem is a priority due to stable and high levels of abortions, STDs, unplanned pregnancies, and difficult complications that might precondition the development of infertility in young women. Further disregard of the issue might cause the emergence of new problems and deterioration of the health of the nation. The main theme that is raised by researchers is the critical need for effective interventions related to contraceptive counseling between adolescent women and HCPs and to address factors that impact it.
Summary of Literature Review
Altogether, the literature review shows the existence of a serious problem related to adolescent women’s use of contraception as they have poor knowledge regarding this aspect of their sexual life and no credible sources of its acquisition. This stems from the lack of trust between HCPs and patients and the low effectiveness of contraceptive counseling that impacts final choices and outcomes. At the same time, there are still some gaps in knowledge related to the issue as there is little attention devoted to factors that can promote young women’s desire to visit an HCP instead of discussing some problems with friends. Additionally, there is no clear information about females’ preferences regarding contraceptive counseling in terms of the theme. However, the existing theoretical framework that is created by multiple research works shows that there is a direct correlation between effective contraceptive counseling among HCP and adolescent females and their use of contraception.
Considering these gaps in knowledge, there are several directions of future investigations that should be given special attention. First of all, there is a critical need for the research of factors that impact adolescent females’ choices regarding contraception and its discussion with HCPs. The improved understanding of these aspects will help formulate a better approach to the investigation of the problem and the creation of the appropriate solution to improve the situation. Second, future research should delve into the sociocultural peculiarities that should be taken into account by HCPs when working with this population to achieve the best possible results and guarantee that the most effective contraceptive counseling will be utilized. Finally, the level of health workers’ preparedness to work with adolescent women should be investigated to reveal the currently existing gaps in their knowledge or problems they might face.
Socio-economic, Political, Cultural, and Health Literacy Issues of the Health Problem
The complexity of the problem is evidenced by the fact that there are many factors that might impact adolescent use of contraception and their desire to discuss it with HCPs. As discussed previously, sociocultural and economic aspects play a critical role in the life of young women. There is a set of stereotypes related to sexual relations and females’ ability to engage in them. There is a certain age frame that is considered appropriate, and if a person violates these rules, she can be condemned by a family and community (Lopez et al., 2016). That is why young women might be afraid to address HCPs and ask about the means of contraception. The appropriate reaction to their questions and understanding demonstrated by specialists become a key to the success and selection of methods of protection, which is critical for the avoidance of undesired results.
There are also some economic barriers that should be taken into account. The price for birth control pills, condoms, and other remedies remains comparatively high. At the same time, adolescent women might have no sources of consistent income, and their finances can be limited, which means that there will be no opportunity to adhere to the proposed scheme. In many cases, young females are ashamed to address parents with such questions and have had to rely on ineffective or even useless methods (Chandra-Mouli, McCarraher, Phillips, Williamson, & Haisworth, 2014). This situation proves the fact that working with this age group, an HCP and other health workers should also be ready to consider the patient’s current financial situation to impact the choice of the appropriate contraception and guarantee that there will be no problems with it in the future.
Finally, there are educational and health literacy issues that also play a critical role in discussing and resolving the problem. In accordance with the relevant research, the majority of young women have an extremely poor understanding of how contraception works and how it can be used. The existence of incorrect ideas or misconceptions precondition the decreased effectiveness of selected birth control remedies and might result in the appearance of STDs among this population (Chandra-Mouli et al., 2014). In this regard, one of the health workers’ critical tasks is the improvement of current health literacy levels regarding their sexual relations and possible ways to avoid unplanned pregnancies or future complications caused by unsafe abortions or the development of diseases affecting fertility function. All these issues should be considered while planning an effective intervention or tailoring contraceptive counseling to improve the existing situation.
Spiritual, Ethical, Family and Community Issues
Analyzing the problem from another perspective, it is critical to admit the existence of specific ethical issues that accompanies questions of sex. Throughout the history of humanity, intimate relations have been a kind of taboo that should be private and not discussed with others. Especially strict regulations were related to young girls, their virginity, and the age of sexual relations (Lopez et al., 2016). Today, these concepts are gradually disappearing under the impact of the ideas of tolerance, humanism, and equality; however, some stereotypes preserve their strong influence on communities. That is why many young women are ashamed of discussing peculiarities of their sexual relationships or contraception even with HCPs, as they are afraid of being judged or misunderstood (Jatlaoui et al., 2015). It becomes an important factor that should be considered in contraceptive counseling.
Additionally, there are some spiritual concerns that come from people’s religious beliefs. In the majority of cases, there is a strong prohibition to engage in sexual relations for unmarried women as it can be interpreted as a sin (Lutalo et al., 2018). That is why young females coming from Christian or Muslim families might be afraid to discuss contraception issues with HCPs as they may fail to understand them. Moreover, some HCPs may mistakenly initially accept the idea that a female from a religious family does need information about contraception, which is inappropriate for the modern healthcare sector. In such a way, the problems of spirituality and its impact on females’ use of contraception becomes evident if to analyze the existing religious doctrines and biased attitude to unmarried and sexually active women (Lutalo et al., 2018).
There is also another factor that should be considered when speaking about adolescent womens’ use of contraception and effective contraceptive counseling regarding this issue. The family remains a strong impact on young women who consider contraceptive options or engage in some sort of bond presupposing sex. In many cases, individuals are ashamed of their close peoples’ reactions and prefer to conceal this information being afraid of condemnation, incorrect understanding of their motifs, or some other negative behaviors (Rubin et al., 2016). This also impacts females’ abilities or intentions to visit an HCP as it also can be misunderstood by their families. This is why the existence of these factors should be considered a serious aspect that should be considered by health workers when trying to create effective cooperation with adolescent women and provide them with the needed knowledge.
There is also a significant impact on the community. There are many stereotypes that limit young women’s opportunity to acquire professional and competent assistance from HCPs because of the existing barriers. Surveys show that many females aged under 20 years tried to conceal their sexual relations in order to not be judged and to preserve their positive image (Rubin et al., 2016).
Theoretical Framework
Considering the aforementioned, it is possible to formulate a certain theoretical framework that can be used to analyze the discussed issue and acquire its improved understanding. Thus, the influence of contraceptive counseling on adolescent women’s use of contraception is undoubted as their quality precondition the success of the use of various remedies and outcomes. However, there are multiple factors deteriorating the effectiveness of this aspect that should be considered to create an appropriate solution. First, it is the lack of competence HCPs who are expected to provide this sort of services and their inability to consider peculiarities of adolescent women; second, it is a set of sociocultural factors affecting young females and resulting in the development of fears and negative feelings; third, it is poor knowledge about the existing methods of protection and inappropriate health literacy among the target population group (Rubin et al., 2016). This framework was formulated resting on data acquired from the literature and surveys provided by various authors regarding the current situation. The main reason for the suggestion of this conceptual model is to ensure the creation of an effective solution that will consider all existing problems peculiar to the discussed issue.
Application
The basic elements of the formulated theoretical framework are closely related to the discussed problem. Thus, social factors critically impact young women’s choices regarding the means of contraception or attitudes, which become critical for the outcomes. At the same time, the need for health promotion and improvement is one of the main goals of any effective contraceptive counseling. Finally, the fulfillment of the current demands of patients remains the fundamental task of the whole healthcare sector, which explains its inclusion in the proposed theoretical framework. Under these conditions, the offered model (see Figure 2 in Appendix A) will be useful when formulating the solution for the improvement of the current situation and its reconsideration with the primary aim to provide adolescent women with more options when selecting effective contraception and engaging in client-provider relations with health specialists. Consideration of all elements included in the model will prove the effectiveness of the suggested intervention and its ability to introduce significant change.
Master’s-Prepared Nursing Role in Assessment of the Problem
Speaking about the problem, it is also critical to empathize the important role of master’s-prepared specialists in assessing the current patients needs and addressing the outlined theme. Being one of the main agents who engage in direct interaction with the target population (adolescent women), they should become responsible for the identification of the existing need for knowledge regarding contraception and birth control. The level of preparedness and ability to determine the topical health issues might be helpful in addressing the problem and creating the basis for further beneficial contraceptive counseling with the primary aim to preserve the high quality of life. Additionally, HCPs can work with families, which is critical regarding the discussed problem as it is one of the factors impacting outcomes (Rubin et al., 2016). That is why this sort of specialist should possess outstanding communicative, analytic, and psychological skills to determine the existing need for intervention and ensure a young woman that a specialist can become a person she can trust.
Additionally, there are several effective implications regarding the important role of an HCP in promoting appropriate outcomes. First of all, the HCP can create the basis for successful contraceptive counseling by eliminating gaps in knowledge and fears related to visiting the HCP or inappropriate feelings associated with it. Second, utilizing skills and experience, an HCP can guarantee that a positive atmosphere and trustful relations will be created (Rubin et al., 2016). Having access to the client’s surroundings, an HCP can engage and cooperate with the patient and explain the need for and visiting an HCP, and adhering to the agreed plan of care to avoid serious complications or unplanned pregnancies.
Proposed Intervention to Problem
The proposed intervention to solve the problem includes several aspects. First of all, it is critical to eliminate the gap in knowledge about the peculiarities of adolescent women’s use of contraception and their attitudes to the question both in the target population and specialists as in many cases, they demonstrate inappropriate behaviors, lack of attention, or follow social stereotypes. For this reason, additional training for HCPs and other health workers with this group is needed to provide them with effective, evidence-based approaches that can be used to make these patients feel comfortable and open. To improve competency in contraceptive counseling, HCPs should be trained, full scope, on contraceptive options along with benefits, risks, side effects, and long-term implications. Training related to the unique socioeconomic factors and needs of the adolescent female population should also be developed and implemented as addressing the underlying sociocultural beliefs is important to effective contraceptive counseling (Sieverding et al., 2018).
The second aspect of the intervention is the educational work aimed at the improvement of knowledge and elimination of stereotypes among the representatives of communities who might blame adolescents and distract them from visiting HCPs (Smith, Gold, Ngo, Sumpter, & Free, 2015). Finally, there is a need for the improvement of contraceptive counseling via the correct understanding of all factors impacting the target population that can be achieved by the constant monitoring and tailoring of contraceptive counseling in response to change in this group’s state.
The proposed intervention affects several critical elements of the discussed problem with the primary aim to achieve the best possible results and eliminate situations where females do not use effective birth control methods because of the inappropriate behavior of the HCP or his/her inability to understand their needs. Additional training is expected to eliminate the critical gaps in knowledge and reveal the importance of contraceptive counseling that selects the most effective measure that can be used by adolescent women (Lopez et al., 2016). Moreover, as far as the first experiences seriously impact future preferences, HCPs will contribute to the preservation of the quality of life at a high level and the further promotion of effective contraception methods. The basic guidelines should presuppose the gradual reeducation of HCPs who works with this population to ensure that their level of preparedness is appropriate to achieve positive results.
Outcomes and Evaluation
The expected outcomes can be categorized into several groups. First, the quality of contraceptive counseling should increase significantly because of specialists’ improved knowledge regarding adolescent women’s use of contraception and peculiarities of difficulties they might face when trying to discuss this question with other people. Additional information and education will provide an opportunity to cooperate more effectively because of the understanding of topical problems and emphasis on effective ways to solve them. Second, it is expected that the elimination of knowledge gaps will help the target group to reconsider their attitudes to the topic and communicate with health workers freely, not being ashamed of sexual relations or the need for contraception.
Moreover, more positive attitudes, understanding, and awareness of individual biases that impact how they perceive and communicate from the representatives of the community can be expected because of the demonstration of negative consequences that may emerge. Enhancing education and implementation of training HCPs regarding contraceptive counseling is expected to improve patient access to resources, decrease knowledge gap, possibly decrease some of the stigma related to the topic, increase contraceptive use, and decrease pregnancy rates (Patton et al., 2016; Rubin, Cohen, Santelli, & McKee, 2015).
Considering the scope of the problem and the need for a radical reconsideration of ineffective patterns that still remain utilized by some health workers, the planned timeline for the implementation of the intervention might vary from 6 months to 1 year. The given timeframe is explained by the fact that many specialists should be provided with additional information about the importance of contraceptive counseling and its impact on women’s choices of contraception. Additionally, regarding the fact that any improvement should have a continuous character, the proposed timeline can be appropriate to create the basis for future change. Finally, the educational process aimed at the creation of a new attitude should take a certain period to ensure that all existing gaps in knowledge are eliminated, and there is a better understanding of the problem that remains topical for wide populations today.
Finally, it is also critical to introduce an effective evaluation system to monitor the current progress and how the proposed intervention works in real-life conditions. Thus, an effective way to trace alterations is via surveys that are distributed among the target population. Their answers can be processed with the primary aim to trace changes positive changes in contraceptive counseling and if there is more trust between health workers and adolescent women (Bombard et al., 2018). This sort of data will become critical for the evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the offered intervention and an improved understanding of what steps should be performed to achieve even better results. In such a way, these activities become a critical element of the offered framework regarding relations between health workers and young females who engage in sexual relations.
Conclusion and Recommendation
In conclusion, this paper demonstrates how contraceptive counseling between an individual and an HCP has an essential impact on adolescent women’s use of contraception, choice of the most effective method, outcomes, complications, and their health. The majority of sources devoted to the investigation of this problem evidence that HCPs and other health workers have an extremely strong impact on young women and precondition success of contraception use. At the same time, there are many factors that deteriorate the quality of this aspect and precondition the emergence of undesired outcomes. For this reason, there is a need for the intervention that presupposes additional education for health workers and the target population with the primary aim to eliminate the existing gaps in knowledge and attain better results along with the decrease in abortion or STDs’ rates.
The significance of the selected topic and its critical role in the preservation of the health of the nation precondition the need for future investigations with the primary goal to achieve an improved understanding of the new methods that break down barriers between HCPs and adolescent women and improve contraceptive counseling. Future research might focus on the special psychological training for HCPs that will provide them with behaviors and approaches needed to make young women feel more comfortable discussing their sexual health. At the same time, future research might delve into relationships within families that form a sometimes biased image of sexually active adolescent females and distract them from visiting HCPs, which might result in undesired consequences or poor outcomes. In such a way, there is still much to be done to attain significant improvement.
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