The following is a summary of “Contraceptive Counseling Training Experiences and Behaviors Among Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents in California and Florida,” published in the September 2024 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology by Brown et al.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study describing experiences with contraception counseling training and provision of obstetrics and gynecology residents training in California and Florida.

They conducted a mixed-methods study of obstetrics and gynecology residents training across 19 programs with approximately 428 residents in California and Florida (September 2022 through February 2023). Participants were asked about their use of tiered-effectiveness counseling, satisfaction with contraception counseling practices, and experiences with contraception coercion. Questions also covered personal disappointment when patients declined long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) and pressure from faculty to prescribe LARC. Semi-structured telephone interviews with a subset of 20 survey volunteers further explored resident contraception counseling education and behaviors.

The results showed that survey responses were received from 155 (36.2%) participants. Most (n=113 [76.4%]) often or always reported using tiered-effectiveness counseling. While few participants (n=17 [11.3%]) reported feeling pressure from faculty to convince a patient to keep a LARC, some (n=34 [22.1%]) reported often or constantly feeling disappointed when a patient chooses LARC removal, with more Florida participants reporting disappointment (n=19 [37.3%]) compared to California (n=15 [14.6%], P=0.01). Two main themes were identified from the telephone interviews. First, residents feel they have limited formal education on how to provide contraceptive counseling and commonly learn these practices by emulating supervising faculty or peer counseling styles. Second, residents were informally taught, through feedback and interactions with supervising faculty and peers, that successful contraception counseling was the ability to convince patients to use highly effective contraception.

They concluded that when residents lack formalized contraception counseling education, adoption of counseling behaviors that may not be patient-centered occurs.

Source: contraceptionjournal.org/article/S0010-7824(24)00402-5/fulltext