Nurses' Description and Evaluation of Reproductive Health Counseling for Adolescent Females

Abstract

Nurses have been providing reproductive health counseling to adolescent females for over 20 years. Yet, we found no studies in the nursing literature in which the investigator examined the types of reproductive health counseling nurses provide to adolescent females. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine nurses' description and evaluation of the types of reproductive health counseling they used for adolescent females. Five registered nurses, with at least 10 years experience in providing reproductive health counseling to adolescent females, were interviewed using a semi-structured guide. Four areas were explored: type of information provided, barriers to providing counseling, adolescent female decision-making capacity, and nursing recommendations. Two general themes emerged from the respondents' evaluations: frustration and unused potential of nurses to affect the reproductive health of adolescent females, and the inappropriateness of current reproductive health strategies for adolescent females.