Effectiveness of a Training Programme on Emergency Contraceptives: A study among grass root level health workers

Indications for the use of emergency contraception include sexual assault, unprotected intercourse, condom breakage or slippage, and missed or late doses of hormonal contraceptives, including the oral contraceptive pill, contraceptive patch, contraceptive ring (i.e., improper placement or loss/expulsion), and inject able contraception.Though a battery of contraceptive methods are available and there has been an increase in their use, a large number of unwanted pregnancies is due to the failure or incorrect use of conventional contraceptives and often women are at a loss as to what measures to take to overcome the immediate problems of an unprotected sex. Emergency contraception could be an answer to these problems. Introduction: Accurate knowledge of Emergency Contraceptive procedure among the peripheral health workers is absolutely essential so that they percolate the correct knowledge and also ensure adequate practice in the community they serve especially among women of reproductive age group which will ultimately lead to reduction of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions. Objectives: To find out the knowledge on Emergency Contraception among health workers prior to and after health education regarding EC and to assess the impact of the training in the form of improvement of knowledge on the subjectMethod: Institution based cross –sectional study among health workers. At the beginning the health workers were asked to fill a selfadministered questionnaire following which training was given on emergency contraceptives. All efforts were made to make the training contents appropriate, adequate, simple, and concise and at the same time very informative. The session was very interactive, lively and enjoyable. 2 weeks after the training programme a posttest schedule was again filled up by the participants in order to assess the improvement of their knowledge. The health workers' knowledge (preand postintervention) was measured with the help of scores. Result: Mean (SD) pre-intervention knowledge score was 14.37±6.698 while Mean (SD) post intervention score was 29.52±6.057. There was statistically significant difference between pre intervention and post intervention scores. Conclusion: A well-organized training programme on EC will enhance the knowledge of the health workers and this on turn will be very beneficial for the community especially for women of reproductive age group.