Nurses’ and patients’ experiences of family planning services in a rural district, South Africa

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Nurses’ and patients’ experiences of family planning services in a rural district, South Africa
 
Creator Naidoo, Kartik Jenkins, Louis S.
 
Subject Family medicine; general practice; rural health; rural medicine; primary care; primary health care; women's health; community health family planning; contraception; primary health care; clients; nurses; rural; experiences.
Description Background: Family planning (FP) is a key component of primary health care (PHC). Nurses are the first source of FP information to women outside their social context. There is a paucity of research regarding clients’ lived experiences of FP, particularly understanding both the client’s and the healthcare worker’s experiences in the same clinical context and community.Aim: This study aims to explore the lived experiences of nurses and female clients regarding FP services at PHC clinics.Setting: Two PHC clinics in a rural sub-district in South Africa.Methods: A descriptive qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted. Clients and nurses were selected using criterion-based purposive sampling and interviewed by female research assistants in a home language in a private setting. Transcription and translation of audio recordings were done. Data were analysed inductively using the framework method.Results: Ten clients and eight nurses were interviewed, with an equal number from each clinic. The median age of clients was 28.5 years and of nurses was 47.5 years. Four themes emerged: (1) Stigma, culture and the teenage girl; (2) Bad effects – the Big Five, clustered around weight changes, blood blockages and abnormal bleeding, pain, fertility and cancer; (3) FP social dynamics; and (4) FP and the health system.Conclusion: Family planning is highly moralised and stigmatised. Negative effects of FP were not adequately recognised by the health system. Family planning outreach into the community and dedicated FP resources at clinics were suggestions to improve the service.Contribution: This work helps to better understand patients’ experiences of family planning services.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Discovery Foundation Harry Crossley Foundation
Date 2023-05-10
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — qualitative research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v15i1.3732
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 15, No 1 (2023); 11 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3732/6220 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3732/6221 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3732/6222 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3732/6223
 
Coverage Africa; South Africa; Western Cape; Garden Route 2019-2021 Nurses and clients; females
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Kartik Naidoo, Louis S. Jenkins https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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