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Key ingredients in the successful training of new providers |
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Originally a logging town located on the edge of Cascade
mountain range forest, Bend
remains a rural area. This town is located in central Oregon, regionally associated with the high
desert. With very few abortion providers in the area, AAP has training
efforts underway. A November training brought 14 clinicians of diverse
background and practice settings together to learn about providing medication
abortion. The training's success demonstrates the value of key ingredients in
the training of new providers: outstanding faculty, rich networking
opportunities, and strong collaboration.
Importing Dr. Mark Nichols, currently a Professor and Chief
of General Gynecology & Obstetrics at Oregon Health and Science University
and the Medical Director at Planned Parenthood of Columbia-Willamette as
faculty, the training was tailored to address settings outside high-volume
clinics, connecting to the experience of the majority of trainees. For
providers who might otherwise be isolated by geography and practice setting, the
training also offered an important opportunity to not only acquire skills to provide
vital care for women but build a community that will sustain this work.
With the sponsorship of Danco Laboratories, the distributors of Mifepristone in the United State,
AAP field consultant Deb VanDerhei worked
closely with Planned Parenthood of
Columbia-Willamette. Support from Ipas further enriched the training, adding
manual vacuum aspiration information and tools to the 14 trainees.
This November, a community of like-minded clinicians was
forged in Bend.
The network they have built and the connections they have made with the
one-on-one support provided by AAP, Dr. Nichols, and Planned Parenthood of Bend
will help sustain their work. Offering
medication abortion in a rural area can be a daunting task, but clinicians in Bend now have the tools
and resources to offer medication abortion in their community.
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