Counseling and Client Provider-Interactions as Related To Family Planning Services in Nigeria

Abstract

Family planning is an essential service in medicine. It is a means of promoting good health and population control. In view of the importance of family planning, this study examined counseling and client provider-interactions in family planning centers in Nigeria. The study was a cross-sectional design and sixty eight pharmaceutical and eighty five family planning centers were randomly selected from the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria. Quality of Care for Integrated Services Tool and Simulated Client Method were used to obtain relevant data. It was found that, 58.8% of the sampled family planning centers received their guests (stimulated clients) in a friendly and polite manner. The essential prerequisite of first demanding a prescription from first time users was ignored by 41.18% of the centers. Scheduled follow-up appointments were found to be necessary in 76.47% of the health centers and almost all the health care providers at the Family Planning centers referred clients to other facilities for unavailable services. The findings stressed the need for health facility owners and pharmaceutical shop attendants to acquire training in counseling and commodities management.

Keywords: Counseling, Client Provider - Interactions, Family Planning services