Clinician perceptions of providing natural family planning methods in Title X funded clinics.

INTRODUCTION: Natural family planning (NFP) methods are effective for contraception with proper and consistent use. However, only 1% of patients at federally funded Title X family planning clinics select NFP as a contraceptive method. The goal of this study was to understand from clinicians' perspectives the barriers and facilitators to providing NFP methods. METHODS: Six telephone focus groups were conducted with 29 clinicians from Title X clinics across the United States and Puerto Rico. A hermeneutic method was used to analyze data for related themes. RESULTS: The overarching theme from the study was that participants had a strong desire to teach their patients how their bodies work and to empower them to learn to control fertility. Four subthemes emerged: patient misinformation and misunderstanding about fertility; provider ideas about ideal types of candidates for NFP; inconsistent patient teaching strategies; and lack of time to teach NFP methods. DISCUSSION: There is a need for increased NFP training for providers and efficient NFP patient teaching strategies to meet the needs of patients with limited knowledge about fertility.

Feasibility Pilot Study: Training Soft Skills in Virtual Worlds.

In a world where funding is limited, training for healthcare professionals is turning more and more to distance learning in an effort to maintain a knowledgeable and skilled work force. In 2010, Cicatelli Associates, Inc. began exploring the feasibility of using games and virtual worlds as an alternative means to teach skills-training in a distance-learning environment. The pilot study was conducted with six individuals familiar with general counseling and communication skills used by the healthcare industry to promote behavior change. Participants reported that the venue, although challenging at first, showed great potential for use with healthcare providers, as it allowed for more interaction and activities than traditional Webinars. However, there are significant limitations that must be overcome in order for this healthcare training modality to be utilized on a large scale. These limitations included a lack of microgestures and issues regarding the technology being used. In spite of the limitations, however, the potential use of virtual worlds for the training of healthcare providers exists and should be researched further. This article discusses the need and intended benefits of virtual world training as well as the results and conclusions of the pilot study.