Reproductive Health Elective

 The purpose of this experience is twofold: to provide residents with exposure to abortion care and training at Planned Parenthood and to provide them with experience in a practice where abortion care is integrated or mainstreamed into the day to day family medicine practice.

Abortion Training

The residents on this rotation will receive some early first trimester abortion training and sonography training at Planned Parenthood of New York City, under the supervision of family physicians as part of the Clinician Training Initiative. They will observe the counseling that patients receive in this setting, observe patients with the PA who have come in for medical abortions, as well as for follow up medical abortion visits. These sessions will consist of both didactic and hands on training. The clinical training manual that is used is the UCSF “Early Abortion Training Workbook.” Residents will be involved in abortion care at Planned Parenthood primarily as trainees in the procedure room learning manual vacuum aspiration and electric suction aspiration up to 12 weeks and sonography for first trimester pregnancies.

Abortion Care Mainstreamed

The residents will also participate in the Phillips Family Practice women’s procedure session, where they will counsel women on options for unintended pregnancy, provide medical and suction abortions, and do the follow-up visits. They will also provide contraceptive counseling, insert IUD’s and do minor gynecological procedures such as endometrial biopsy, diaphragm and pessary fitting, wart treatments, bartholin cyst drainage, etc.