Issue of emergency hormonal contraception through a casualty department ina community hospital

The results of this survey show that sexually active women seeking emergenc y hormonal contraception are finding that a casualty department in a commun ity hospital offers convenience, confidentiality and accessibility, above a ll else. There is a growing tendency for those registered with the local pr actice to prefer to come to the hospital for postcoital contraception, even though casualty nurses are not family planning qualified This applies espe cially to the under twenties. More needs to be done in persuading patients that ongoing contraception should be addressed To this end if casualty depa rtments are the preferred outlets in the rural communities, then nurses nee d further training. All providers of emergency contraception in rural areas need to be aware that offering such a service bq,well trained RGNs working to a protocol could reduce the incidence of unintended conceptions amongst teenagers. At the same time, every effort has to be made to increase aware ness of the availability of emergency hormonal contraception by advertising the sources of contraceptive advice, which could soon include pharmacists.