199594 Linking Scope of Practice with Public Health Goals: Advanced Practice Clinicians and Abortion Care

Monday, November 9, 2009

Grayson Dempsey, BA , Abortion Access Project, Cambridge, MA
Introduction: Nurse-midwives, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, collectively termed advanced practice clinicians (APCs), make up a large percentage of women's healthcare providers and are well prepared to advance their scope of practice into periabortion care. Due to the courage of individual practitioners supported by the dedicated efforts of a coalition of organizations, APCs are now formally acknowledged as providers of either medical and/or aspiration abortion in 11 states.

Methods: In-depth analyses of the clinical, regulatory, legal, and political issues related to the provision of abortion care by APCs were conducted.

Results: APCs provide women with access to safe primary and reproductive healthcare and require additional support to include abortion services. A comprehensive toolkit was created to highlight strategies for integrating abortion care, which can be applicable to the integration of any other new procedure: develop a sophisticated professional portfolio, including professional practice regulations and guidelines on how to advance practice into new areas of knowledge and skill; develop familiarity with the structure and function of professional certifying organizations/ professional licensing boards; develop familiarity with officers and members of local and regional chapters of professional organizations and licensing boards; build or strengthen existing relationships with professional colleagues known to be supportive of reproductive justice and/or professional autonomy; and identify actual and potential interprofessional as well as intraprofessional obstacles.

Implications: This session will introduce a comprehensive framework for supporting advanced practice clinicians in the inclusion of abortion care with scope of practice, enhancing their ability to increase access to high quality abortion care in their communities.

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe how relationships between the individual advanced practice clinician, professional associations, and licensing/regulatory bodies affect the advancement of professional practice 2. Identify three successful strategies for attaining clinical, professional, and regulatory competency for APC abortion provision 3. Describe barriers and potential strategies to APC abortion provision as applicable to clinical, professional, or regulatory environments

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Project Coordinator for the development of “Providing Abortion Care: a Professional Toolkit for Advanced Practice Clinicians” and have worked in the abortion-rights movement as a counselor, organizer and educator since 1999. I am the founder and President of Backline, a national pregnancy options talk line, and consult for the Abortion Access Project, the Abortion Conversation Project, and Ipas.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: A Global View on Abortion and Post Abortion Care
See more of: Population, Reproductive and Sexual Health