Meeting Contraceptive Needs of College Students: Bringing Evidence Into Practice

• Quality improvement study assesses whether college health clinicians are meeting the contraceptive needs of students.
• Meeting college students’ contraceptive needs is an essential function of college health services.
• Clinician prescribing practices determine the ease or difficulty in obtaining emergency contraception or contraception prescriptions.
• The US Department of Disease Control and Prevention guidelines make clear that all forms of contraceptive methods should be easily obtained without undue barriers.
• Bringing evidence into clinical practice requires clinician education about EC and contraception guidelines.

A pilot study assessed whether clinicians at an urban college health center met the reproductive needs (emergency contraception and contraception) of students. Physicians and nurse practitioners completed a 5-item survey about prescribing emergency contraception and contraception. Clinician prescribing practices varied, which may have resulted in contraceptive needs (for some students) not being met in a timely manner. Clinicians had different understandings of policies about prescribing contraceptives when on-call, when students called in, and for students who had graduated. Education and policies about handling EC and contraception requests are necessary so that clinicians meet students' reproductive health needs.