ACTION NOW IN FAMILY PLANNING The Role of Nurse

Abstract

In India, nurses at all organizational levels can play a vital role in the national family planning program. Family planning is an integral component of family welfare, and the control of population growth is crucial for the economic and social development of the country. The goals of the family planning program are to promote the small family ideal, to disseminate family planning information, and to ensure that contraceptive supplies and services are available to all couples. Administrative nurses at the national level can further these goals by 1) advocating appropriate policies and influencing budget allocations, 2) preparing family planning guidelines for state directors of nursing, and 3) ensuring that all senior nurses are provided with in-service family planning education. Administrators in training facilities can ensure that an effective and up-to-date family planning component is a part of all nurses' training programs and that students receive clinical experience in family planning. In hospitals, nursing superintendents can develop family planning seminars and discussion sessions for the nursing staff and provide incentives for nurses to motivate couples toward family planning. Nurses working in pediatric and gynecology wards are in an ideal position to alert mothers to the health problems associated with repeated and closely spaced pregnancies. They can arrange to show family planning films to the mothers, display posters on the ward halls, and organize family planning discussion groups among the patients. Nurses working in prenatal and postpartum clinics can inform the mothers, as well as the factors who frequently accompany their wives to the clinics, about the advantages of family planning. School nurses can familiarize students with the advantages of small family size. Children can sometimes motivate their parents to limit family size. Community health nurses generally play a major role in disseminating contraceptive information and in providing contraceptive services. Many community nurses are involved in the Integrated Child Development Scheme, a program to improve the health and welfare of the poorest segments of the rural population, and family planning is a major component of the program. Community nurses who live in the communities where they work can organize community activities in support of family planning.