About the Resource Guide

The Resource Guide for International Preservice Medical Education is a catalog of 164 reproductive health training materials that can be adapted for use within preservice training.

The Resource Guide can be used to:

• Develop reproductive health curricula for preservice medical education
• Supplement existing reproductive health content in preservice curricula with specific topic areas
• Evaluate reproductive health content covered at medical education institutions
• Identify appropriate resources for inservice training

Contents of the Resource Guide

The Introduction and State of the Field orient the user to the issues involved in enhancing reproductive health content in medical education, the purposes of the Resource Guide, as well as research and projects that have been conducted in this field to date.

The Curriculum Development Tools section provides in-depth resources to assist faculty in developing courses and content. Materials designed for inservice use may need to be adapted for preservice settings and can occur within the curriculum development process as needed.

The Inservice Reproductive Health Materials section provides content-specific resources originally developed for inservice training that can be used to develop students’ competencies in comprehensive reproductive health service delivery. Materials were selected based on content, accessibility, and relevance to health care providers.

The Contextual Factors in Reproductive Health Care section contains resources to assist faculty in developing students’ competencies and awareness regarding sociocultural factors that affect reproductive health care access and delivery.

Reproductive Rights as Human Rights resources provide background on reproductive rights in general, as well as topic-specific discussions that utilize the reproductive rights framework. These resources will help faculty apply a human rights perspective to the reproductive health content they provide their students.

Resources for Additional Research contains journals and online resources that address the academic needs of faculty, medical students, health care providers, and allied health professionals. Priority has been given to resources available free or at reduced cost to developing countries, as well as resources available in languages other than English.

The Organizations section describes the organizations whose materials are included in the Resource Guide. These organizations conduct a range of activities relevant to reproductive health medical education by addressing training, research, policy development, and advocacy. A full list of organizations working in this field is available at the Global Health Council Website at http://www.globalhealth.org/directory/.

The Resource Guide also contains Appendices and a fully cross-referenced Index for greater usability.

Essential Terminology

The following terms are used throughout the Resource Guide and in the field of reproductive health preservice medical education.

Allied Health Professionals. Individuals who participate in the delivery of healthcare or related services, including midwives, traditional birth attendants, and others.¹

Basic Medical Education. The phase of medical education during which basic sciences are taught; preclinical.

Curriculum. A course, or group of related courses, in a specific field of study offered by an educational institution.²

Gender. The socially defined roles and responsibilities of men, women, boys, and girls. Male and female gender roles are learned from families and communities and vary by culture and generation.³ ,⁴

Medical Education Institutions. Schools of medicine, nursing, midwifery, and allied health professions.

Midlevel Providers (MLPs). Nurse-midwives, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. These groups are sometimes collectively referred to as advanced practice clinicians (APCs).⁵

Open Access Journals. Journals that do not charge readers or institutions for accessing full text articles. Permission to download, reproduce, and distribute print articles is typically included.⁶

Preservice Medical Education . Pre-specialized training in nursing, midwifery, and medical schools, also referred to as “undergraduate medical education”. This typically refers to the first four to six years of study, but varies by country or institution.⁷

Reproductive Health. Complete physical, mental and social well-being in all matters related to the reproductive system. This implies the ability to have a satisfying and safe sex life and the capacity to decide if, when, and how often to have children.

Reproductive Health Care. Includes, but is not limited to:

• Contraceptive services, including counseling and information
• Prenatal, postnatal and delivery care
• Newborn care
• Treatment for reproductive tract infections and sexually transmitted infections
• Safe abortion services, where legal, and management of abortion-related complications
• Prevention and appropriate treatment of infertility
• Information, education and counseling on human sexuality, reproductive health and responsible parenthood, and discouragement of harmful practices like female genital cutting (FGC)⁸

Reproductive Rights. Rights of couples and individuals to:

• Decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children, and to have the information, education and means to do so
• Attain the highest standards of sexual and reproductive health
• Make decisions about reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence⁹

Sexual Health. Part of reproductive health that includes:

• Healthy sexual development
• Equitable and responsible relationships and sexual fulfillment
• Freedom from illness, disease, disability, violence, and other harmful practices related to sexuality¹⁰ ,¹¹

Sexual Rights. The rights of all people to:

• Decide freely and responsibly on all aspects of their sexuality, including protecting and promoting their sexual and reproductive health
• Be free of discrimination, coercion or violence in their sexual lives and in all sexual decisions
• Expect and demand equality, full consent, mutual respect, and shared responsibility in sexual relationships¹²

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). Infections that result from bacteria or viruses typically acquired through sexual contact but can also be acquired through blood transfusions, intravenous drug use, and mother-to-child transmission. “STI” is replacing the term “STD” (sexually transmitted disease) to include HIV infection; in this document the terms STI and STD are used interchangeably.¹³

Undergraduate Medical Education. Pre-specialized training in nursing, midwifery, and medical schools, also referred to as “preservice medical education”. This typically refers to the first four to six years of study, but may vary by country or institution.¹⁴

1. Definition of Allied Health. Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions Website. Available at http://www.asahp.org/main.html?menu=menu.html&body=research.html Accessed August 6, 2004.
2. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, v. 1913, last edited 1998., s.v. “curriculum”.
3. Gender and HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS Technical Update. UNAIDS, Geneva, September 1998. From: Key Terms for ICPD+5: Briefing Card, sexual & reproductive health, Family Care International Website; March 1999. Available at http://www.familycareintl.org/briefing_cards/bc_icpdw.htm. Accessed August 6, 2004.
4. Gender: A Working Definition. Women's Health and Development Programme, World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, 1998. From: Key Terms for ICPD+5: Briefing Card, Sexual & reproductive health. Family Care International Website; March 1999. Available at http://www.familycareintl.org/briefing_cards/bc_icpdw.htm. Accessed August 6, 2004.
5. Family Care International. Family Care International Website. Available at http://www.familycareintl.org. Accessed August 6, 2004.
6. Directory of Open Access Journals Website. Available at http://www.doaj.org/articles/about Accessed October 26, 2004.
7. JHPIEGO. Preservice Education for Reproductive Health Professionals. Baltimore, MD: JHPIEGO; November, 2002. Available at http://www.jhpiego.org/pubs/infoshts/prsrvcrh.pdf. Accessed April, 2004.
8. Family Care International. Family Care International Website. Available at http://www.familycareintl.org. Accessed August 6, 2004.
9. Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health Action Sheets (Gender Equality and Equity, "Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health, Sexual Rights). HERA (Health, Empowerment, Rights, and Accountability) c/o International Women’s Health Coalition, New York, 1998. From: Key Terms for ICPD+5: Briefing Card, sexual & reproductive health. Family Care International Website; March 1999. Available at http://www.familycareintl.org/briefing_cards/bc_icpdw.htm. Accessed August 6, 2004.
10. Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health Action Sheets (Gender Equality and Equity, "Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health, Sexual Rights). HERA (Health, Empowerment, Rights, and Accountability) c/o International Women’s Health Coalition, New York, 1998. From: Key Terms for ICPD+5: Briefing Card, sexual & reproductive health. Family Care International Website; March 1999. Available at http://www.familycareintl.org/briefing_cards/bc_icpdw.htm. Accessed August 6, 2004.
11. Gender and Health: Technical Paper. Women’s Health and Development Programme, WHO, Geneva, 1998. From: Key Terms for ICPD+5: Briefing Card, sexual & reproductive health. Family Care International Website; March 1999. Available at http://www.familycareintl.org/briefing_cards/bc_icpdw.htm. August 6, 2004.
12. Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health Action Sheets (Gender Equality and Equity, "Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health, Sexual Rights"). HERA (Health, Empowerment, Rights, and Accountability) c/o International Women’s Health Coalition, New York, 1998. From: Key Terms for ICPD+5: Briefing Card, sexual & reproductive health. Family Care International Website; March 1999. Available at http://www.familycareintl.org/briefing_cards/bc_icpdw.htm. Accessed August 6, 2004.
13. International Planned Parenthood Federation Glossary. http://glossary.ippf.org/GlossaryBrowser.aspx s.v. “sexually transmitted infection”.
14. JHPIEGO. Preservice Education for Reproductive Health Professionals. Baltimore, MD: JHPIEGO; November, 2002. Available at http://www.jhpiego.org/pubs/infoshts/prsrvcrh.pdf. Accessed April, 2004.

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