The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP) and Planned Parenthood^® (PPFA) have launched You Decide: Making Informed Health Choices about Hormonal Contraception, a comprehensive, sustainable, multi-year educational program to help improve health care provider and consumer understanding of risk associated with hormonal contraception. ARHP and PPFA are working together and in collaboration with key consumer and health care professional organizations to: 1) improve how risk is communicated to patients by health care providers; 2) improve women’s understanding of risk; 3) improve how information about risk is used by women when making contraceptive decisions.

You may request an ARHP speaker to present this medical education lecture at your event, including clinical conference or grand rounds session. Speaker honoraria and travel expenses will be covered by ARHP. To request a lecture, please click here to complete and submit the form.

For more information, please contact the You Decide program manager, Allison Tombros Korman, MHS, at atombros@arhp.org or (202) 466-3825.

Background

Everyone makes decisions based on risks and benefits on a daily basis. Many individuals choose to drive without using seatbelts, exceed the speed limit, drink alcohol, use tobacco products, engage in illegal drug use, eat unhealthy foods, expose themselves to harmful UV rays, avoid exercise, and a myriad of other chosen activities that place our health—and often our lives—at risk. Recently, risk related to using pharmaceuticals, particularly those containing hormones, has received sensationalized attention that has led to fear and abandonment, despite evidence that the benefits of hormones can far outweigh the risks for many women. Nowhere is that truer than for hormonal contraception. To this end, ARHP and PPFA plan to infuse medical education with evidence-based information and counseling strategies that will help health care professionals and patients understand and evaluate individual risk.

Program Design and Educational Activities

The You Decide program includes many carefully developed components to meet health care providers’ and patients’ needs for education. All You Decide program modules have been established based on the results of extensive consumer and professional research conducted by ARHP and PPFA on the topic of risk assessment and communication. Program components include:

• Needs assessment report and recommendations including focus group findings
• The complete slide set for this program is available online for free at ARHP’s open-access tool, the Curricula Organizer for Reproductive Health Education (CORE)
• Health Care Team Tool Kit, composed of multiple patient and provider tools to facilitate discussion and understanding of risk related to combined hormonal contraception
• Issue of ARHP’s CME monograph, Clinical Proceedings
• National and regional society meeting visiting faculty sessions
• Live and archived Webinar sessions

Curriculum Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of these sessions, participants will be able to:

• Identify at least one factor that influences patients’ perceptions of risk.
• List three different means of presenting risk; describe the advantages of each.
• Identify at least three patient characteristics to consider when counseling about risks and benefits.
• Describe at least one patient education tool that can be used to effectively communicate the risks and benefits of hormonal contraceptives.

Intended Audience and Accreditation

Educational offerings have been developed for health care providers (physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives, pharmacists, and other professionals), patients, and the media about putting risk into perspective in order for each woman to make informed and individualized health care decisions

The curriculum/live sessions, webinars, tool kit, and Clinical Proceedings associated with this program are accredited for continuing medical education, nursing contact hours, pharmacology, and pharmacist credits.

Funding

The project has been made possible through an independent educational grant from Ortho Women’s Health and Urology.