Expanding Access to Intrauterine Contraception Begins with Clinicians

The U.S. lags behind much of the world in use of intrauterine contraception (IUC), in part because of a dearth of skilled clinicians. To assess the impact of 6-hour clinician training sessions that combined information about client selection with supervised IUC placement, researchers compared data from California's Family Planning Access, Care, and Treatment (Family PACT) clinics, some of which participated in this training. Between 2007 and 2010, 249 clinicians (77% in general primary care; 61% with no training in IUC placement as part of their core clinical training) from 186 Family PACT provider sites participated.

After training, improvements were seen in clinicians' IUC knowledge as well as in rates of IUC placement. On average, clinics…