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  • Title: Nurses' attitudes to therapeutic abortion.
    Author: Webb C.
    Journal: Nurs Times; ; 81(1):44-7. PubMed ID: 3844178.
    Abstract:
    30 trained nurses in 2 health authorities were interviewed, using a tape-recorded and focused converstational apporach, to determine their attitudes toward therapeutic abortion. Strongly negative views about termination of pregnancy were expressed by the gynecology nurses either spontaneously in the course of the interview or in response to the question, "Is there anything you don't like about your work, or what is it that you like least?" Young girls having abortions featured prominently in nurses' comments. Patients were almost always referred to as "girls" rather than women. Older women, perhaps having an abortion because they did not want to add further to their family, were seldom reported and when questioned about this nurses replied that the majority of abortion patients were teenagers. The casual "don't care" attitude on the part of patients extended to use of contraception, too, in nurses' views. When asked what alternative ways they saw of handling the question of unwanted pregnancy, some nurses felt that doctors should refuse to do abortions in order to encourage a more responsible attitude. Prostaglandin terminations were the source of the strongest comments becasue it was disturbing to handle the fetus at the end of the procedure. Nurses felt that generally women who underwent this procedure did not understand beforehand what was involved, particularly that they would experience very painful contractions. Although not liking to participate in the performance of abortions, some nurses thought it preferable that that the abortions be performed in a medical setting that illegally. A high degree of consistency of attitudes was found among the 30 nurses interviewed. To assess how typical their views may be and how their statements fit with other research, the remainder of the discussion reports offical epidemiological statistics relating to abortion and studies of abortion from the perspectives of patients and nurses. The most recent official statistics available show that in 1980 a total of 128,927 residents in England and Wales had abortions, and just over half were performed for single women. Over the whole country, then, there was not a large majority of single women having abortions, as nurses in the study thought. Support for abortion patients emerges as an important issue in the research literature. This type of educational initiative also could provide much needed staff support, by giving them the knowledge, skills, and self confidence they need for their work.
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