Online Program

278303
Values clarification and options counseling for unintended pregnancy workshop


Sunday, November 3, 2013 : 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Jennifer A. Hart, MPH, Training & Education Department, National Abortion Federation, Washington, DC
Sandy Fulkerson Schaeffer, BS, Training & Education Department, National Abortion Federation, Washington, DC
Health professionals working in sexual and/or reproductive health will invariably encounter women facing unintended pregnancy and must be prepared to offer unbiased, compassionate, and factual options counseling. By combining Values Clarification with concrete tools for Options Counseling, this workshop will aid health professionals in achieving this goal. In the first part of the workshop, participants will explore their personal beliefs about abortion and identify specific aspects of abortion care that may be difficult to reconcile with those beliefs. Small and large group activities will foster rich discussion as participants learn to recognize their own emotional triggers when working with unintended pregnancy. Faculty will then outline a structure for conversation, built on the crisis counseling model, which health professionals can use to guide patients through an exploration of their pregnancy options. Participants will practice using this model through group role playing and discussion.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Advocacy for health and health education
Ethics, professional and legal requirements
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
Identify aspects of patient experiences with unintended pregnancy that cause emotional challenges for the health professional. Evaluate personal feelings about abortion to better provide informed, compassionate care for patients. Demonstrate a four-step options counseling model for providing emotional support and relevant tools for patients making decisions about unintended pregnancy. This is being submitted as a double session workshop with the listed faculty members.

Keyword(s): Abortion, Pregnancy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the Director of Training and Education at National Abortion Federation for 1.5 years and I am responsible for assuring the provision of CME content and non-biased, comprehensive values clarification and options counseling workshops to our membership and the communities we serve.
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.