Emergency contraception: An intervention on primary care providers

Objective: We studied whether a single educational intervention can change provider knowledge, attitudes and practice patterns with respect to emergency contraception (EC). Materials and Methods: Primary care providers completed a preintervention survey prior to attending a lecture on EC, and again 6 months later. There were 50 physicians, 4 advanced practice nurses and 2 physician assistants in the final sample (internal medicine 48%, family medicine 34%, obstetrics-gynecology 9%, and pediatrics/adolescent medicine 9%). Results: Following the intervention, providers were more likely to agree that advance prescriptions should be given, disagree that the number of times EC is dispensed should be restricted and disagree that repeated EC use poses health risks. The proportion of providers who had ever given an advance prescription increased from 18% to 41% (p=.007), and there was a trend toward a greater proportion of providers initiating counseling about EC from 36% to 54% (p=.057). Conclusions: A simple educational intervention was associated with a change in primary care provider attitudes and practice patterns regarding EC.