Effect of nurse-client transaction on female adolescents' oral contraceptive adherence

Abstract

An experimental study was conducted to test the effect of a nurse-client transactional intervention (King, 1981) on 51 female adolescents' oral contraceptive adherence. Subjects were randomly assigned to a control or an experimental group. Both groups experienced the clinics' contraceptive teaching. Subjects in the experimental group experienced the transactional intervention. Contraceptive perceptions were measured immediately post-intervention and at the three-month follow-up. Oral contraceptive adherence was measured at the three-month follow-up. Female adolescents who experienced the transactional intervention had greater levels of oral contraceptive adherence than those who had not (F = 4.15, p < .05).

PIP: A doctoral student examined the influence of a 10-15 minute nurse-client transaction intervention during the initial clinic visit of 51 female adolescents on oral contraceptive (OC) compliance. She compared the compliance scores of the study group with those of the control group. Both groups received OC information through written materials and videos during the initial clinic visit. The nurse-client transaction intervention involved personalized discussions regarding maturity, responsibility, and decision-making. Specifically, both the nurse and client identified perceived OC benefits and barriers and perceived OC barriers as potential interference to OC adherence, confirmed the adolescent's goal of preventing pregnancy by using OCs, and developed an OC adherence regimen to manage perceived OC barriers. At baseline, both groups had high scores for perceived interpersonal contraceptive benefits and contraceptive benefits of responsibility and low scores for perceived contraceptive barriers. The 3-month follow-up score for contraceptive adherence was higher than the mean for both groups, suggesting a high level of OC compliance. At 3 months, the controls and subjects were no different in terms of contraceptive benefits of responsibility, interpersonal contraceptive benefits, and contraceptive barriers. In fact, the scores for contraceptive benefits of responsibility and interpersonal contraceptive benefits for both groups indicate a high level of perceived contraceptive benefits. The intervention group had a significantly higher score for contraceptive adherence than did the control group (10.24 vs. 8.95; F ratio = 4.151; p = 0.049).