Title
Providers' compliance with the balanced counseling strategy in Guatemala
Date Issued
01 June 2005
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Brambila C.
de la Cruz M.
García Colindres J.
Morales C.
Vásquez B.
Abstract
The balanced counseling strategy developed in Peru improved family planning care and clients' knowledge of their contraceptive method choice, but few providers adopted it. To expand its use, an algorithm was introduced and training, job aids, and reinforcement were supplied to Ministry of Health providers, most of whom were paraprofessionals, from two areas (40 clinics) in Guatemala. Mystery clients made pretest and post-test visits to these clinics and to providers from a nonequivalent control group (40 clinics). The results showed that the strategy was used in 85 percent of the controlled consultations at the experimental clinics. Use of the strategy improved quality of care regardless of the provider's performance at baseline and regardless of ethnic or regional differences. Counseling session length increased by nine minutes, but real-client load did not change. Guatemalan clients can be expected to benefit from the strategy. The increased session length has not yet caused problems, but it may pose policy dilemmas in the future.
Start page
117
End page
126
Volume
36
Issue
2
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencias de la salud
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-22444451473
PubMed ID
Source
Studies in Family Planning
ISSN of the container
00393665
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus