DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i09.062

Pages: 3471-3475

Emergency contraception is a grossly underutilized option of prevention of pregnancy. Knowledge and attitude of nursing personnel who are both service provider and health educators to the community can influence the contraceptive behavior of the people exposed to them. So knowledge and awareness about emergency contraception and their availability are necessary to increase the acceptance of this method. The objective is to determine the knowledge and attitude regarding emergency contraception among hospital nursing personnel in Obstetrics & Gynaecology Department, SMS Medical College, Jaipur. It was a hospital based observational study. 50 hospital nursing personnel and nursing students were interviewed using a pre-structural questionnaire; answers were noted and analyzed to assess their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding emergency contraception. In our study textbooks were the main source of knowledge in 78%. And 90% were aware of time limit of administration and only 30% (15) had knowledge about the single dose method. More than 96% of participants had correctly said that emergency contraception could not be used in regular basis and only one staff has accepted that use of emergency contraception will discourage the regular use of contraceptives. Most of them (96%) had agreed that emergency contraception is better than abortion. Even though knowledge and attitude towards emergency contraception among the participants was good, they had many misconceptions regarding specific aspects of emergency contraception. More awareness programmes would be needed for further enhancement and encouragement, so they can help in spreading the knowledge and awareness about emergency contraception in general population.