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Nursing Education
LETT E RS Natural Family Planning I was pleasantly surprised to read Use Effectiveness of the Creighton Model Ovulation Method of Natural Family Planning by Richard J . Fehring and colleagues (May 1994 JOGNN). I am both a Creighton model natural family planning (NFP) practitioner and an obstetric-gynecologic nurse. The research, the work, the services that can be provided to women of all reproductive categories through the Creighton model are unparalleled. N o t only does it have application as a true and effective method of family planning, but it also has application to gynecologic health and to the diagnosis and treatment of infertility. Psychologically, it empowets women and men, because it provides self-knowledge and freedom from medical side effects and complications. Women and couples can take charge of their fertilitywith encouragement and respect from the medical community. As a nurse I am well aware of the effectiveness of all methods of family planning. Unfortunately NFP continues to receive a “bad rap” in this area. Although Fehring’s study used a homogeneous sample population, NFP has been taught around the world to couples of all educational, economic, and religious backgrounds. Our focus should be on reproductive health. Fertility is a state of wellness. In the article Perinatal Health Care Policy: How it Will Aff e c t the Family in the 23st Century (February 1994 JOGNN) and in
October 1994
otherfOGNNarticles and advertisements, “technology,” chemicals and devices, manipulation of the reproductive cycle, and proposal of more invasive contraception seem to be on the upswing. This in the day of preventive medicine and health-care cost containment! I agree with Fehring that decision-making processes and behaviors couples use in planning for pregnancy need further study. The concept of fertility appreciation, the underlying principle of natural family planning, is the key to reproductive health, conscientious family planning, preconception health, and awareness of the importance of early prenatal care.
fetal monitor. We have made our patients into cyborgs, half women and half machines, and we like it that way. How many of us will not let laboring women get into positions of comfort because “I can’t see the baby on the monitor when you lay like that.” Have we “high tech’d” our way out of a job? If and when we have health-care and tort reform (to reduce malpractice), will there be any of us left who know how to labor a woman without a fetal monitor or to coach her through transition without an epidural?
Maureen Scagliotti, RN, BA, CNFPP Frernont, CA
Reference
Suzan Kardong-Edgren
Ivanovich, D. (1994, March 26). Delivery room addition: labor assistants. The Dallas Morning News, p. 16C.
L b o r Assistants As labor assistants they are provid-
ing “empathy, encouragement and advice to help women with childbirth” (Ivanovich, 1994, p . 16C). They “keep their patients aware of what’s happening so they can have some say in the medical decisions being made for them” (Ivanovich, 1994, p. 1 6 3 . A beautiful description of a labor and delivery nurse, yes? Guess again . . . this quotation is from a newspaper article describing the emerging career of labor assistant, also called a doula or monitrice. Somewhere along the way, the labor and delivery nurse may have become “one of them” instead of “one of us.” If women feel obliged to bring a labor assistant in to do the job many of us imagine we are doing, then what are we doing? I suggest we notice where our eyes go when we first walk into a laboring woman’s room . . . to the
Nursing Education Bravo for addressing a key issue in nursing today-reform in nursing education-in your article, “Professional Nursing Education in the Future: Changes and Challenges” (Oermann, February 1994 JOG”. Nursing education is in dire need of change (a fact well known and accepted since the 1920s!).If nursing is to assume a central role in the healthcare system of today and tomorrow, it must provide its young with sound preparation. This responsibility is no longer being met with quality and consistency in our complex medical world. Our leaders in nursing education, practice, and research must come to grips with this viral issue. Mary A. Spano, RN, MS ADN Nursing Instructor Neu? Bern, NC
J O C N N
637
October 1994
otherfOGNNarticles and advertisements, “technology,” chemicals and devices, manipulation of the reproductive cycle, and proposal of more invasive contraception seem to be on the upswing. This in the day of preventive medicine and health-care cost containment! I agree with Fehring that decision-making processes and behaviors couples use in planning for pregnancy need further study. The concept of fertility appreciation, the underlying principle of natural family planning, is the key to reproductive health, conscientious family planning, preconception health, and awareness of the importance of early prenatal care.
fetal monitor. We have made our patients into cyborgs, half women and half machines, and we like it that way. How many of us will not let laboring women get into positions of comfort because “I can’t see the baby on the monitor when you lay like that.” Have we “high tech’d” our way out of a job? If and when we have health-care and tort reform (to reduce malpractice), will there be any of us left who know how to labor a woman without a fetal monitor or to coach her through transition without an epidural?
Maureen Scagliotti, RN, BA, CNFPP Frernont, CA
Reference
Suzan Kardong-Edgren
Ivanovich, D. (1994, March 26). Delivery room addition: labor assistants. The Dallas Morning News, p. 16C.
L b o r Assistants As labor assistants they are provid-
ing “empathy, encouragement and advice to help women with childbirth” (Ivanovich, 1994, p . 16C). They “keep their patients aware of what’s happening so they can have some say in the medical decisions being made for them” (Ivanovich, 1994, p. 1 6 3 . A beautiful description of a labor and delivery nurse, yes? Guess again . . . this quotation is from a newspaper article describing the emerging career of labor assistant, also called a doula or monitrice. Somewhere along the way, the labor and delivery nurse may have become “one of them” instead of “one of us.” If women feel obliged to bring a labor assistant in to do the job many of us imagine we are doing, then what are we doing? I suggest we notice where our eyes go when we first walk into a laboring woman’s room . . . to the
Nursing Education Bravo for addressing a key issue in nursing today-reform in nursing education-in your article, “Professional Nursing Education in the Future: Changes and Challenges” (Oermann, February 1994 JOG”. Nursing education is in dire need of change (a fact well known and accepted since the 1920s!).If nursing is to assume a central role in the healthcare system of today and tomorrow, it must provide its young with sound preparation. This responsibility is no longer being met with quality and consistency in our complex medical world. Our leaders in nursing education, practice, and research must come to grips with this viral issue. Mary A. Spano, RN, MS ADN Nursing Instructor Neu? Bern, NC
J O C N N
637