Are all school nurses now encouraging teenage girls to have the contraceptive implant?

[idohopenot]

Apparently the dc's school nurse is really keen on them having it, and claims the government wants all school nurses to push it strongly, to bring down the nation's high teen pregnancy rate.

Is this the case in your dc's schools?

I had only heard of it in Southampton, and thought it was a trial, not a new national policy.

Yes, it feels as if the emphasis on "scoring" and notching up "conquests" has led to the loss of the notion of pleasing a partner. Which, as I understand it, is a very big issue in the Kama Sutra, for example. It's now more numerical than intimate.

The difficulty is finding sensible people for teenagers to discuss this with. A nurse who feels that casual sex while in a drunken stupor just can't be avoided, and that an implant is the only way to deal with such matters, is not someone I want my dc to be having those conversations with. She will give them precisely the wrong message. They are at a very impressionable age, and as a nurse she holds a position of authority which may make them more likely to accept what she says.

Send them to me idohopenot

In all seriousness I'd love to do that job. I have recently had a very bad experience with the specific nurse for teenagers who works in our short stay schools (formerly pupil referral units). I had to take one of my YP to see her because she had misunderstood how her pill works and needed emergency contraception. The YP asked me to go in to the consulation room with her and I did. I expected that the nurse would go through how the pill works with her again and explain how emergency contraception worked. I was gobsmacked when she just gave her the pill with no explanation of how it worked.

I also asked for her to issue my YP with a leaflet with all the pros and cons of the various contraception. She said that it would be too much information for her to take in. I took her to our sexual health unit straight afterwards, got some leaflets myself and went through them with her. I have made a complaint about the nurse as well. It worries me greatly that this is the person who is supposed to be trained to do specific work with young people.

Oh - also discussed the ins and outs of the YP's decisions about sex too of course.

It's the sweeping generalisations, isn't it? Your teenager couldn't have a leaflet because she wouldn't understand it. My dc must have implants, because they won't be able to refuse sex when drunk.

No question of considering the individual child. And so derogatory about "them" - as if teens have no self-respect or self-motivation at all.

Sometimes with regard these issues a sexual health clinic is better. I don't know if teenagers would have a prejudiced view about what sort of place it is, but many are nicely furnished, clean and pleasant - like a shopping mall cafe, nothing "medical" or "clinic" like about their atmosphere. If you enquire, many now have later opening hours (so they can go after school and take as long as they need). They can offer both contraception advice as well as sexually transmitted infection advice, and there is more of a feeling of respecting the patient as an individual - not a "kid" who "can't understand". (Actually, many adults don't read leaflets either!) And you don't have to give your actual name and address if you don't wish to, that's a unique feature of these clinics - although all clinics will ask for a phone number or some way of contacting you about your results or anything important that crops up.

The nurse in my post was is a sexual health clinic. Kipper - I took the YP I was working with there because I thought she would get better advice there than from me. And given that I was trained to sit and go through leaflets with YP, and was trained by the same team within which she works, That is why I expected better.

They run an under 18's clinic on a Friday morning - and the advice has always been a bit hit and miss depending on who you get. I've been working with YP in our area since 1999 and this isn't the first time I've been disappointed with them.

MadameBoolala - that's very unfortunate. It would certainly be worth you reporting your feedback - not to moan but just to report your experience - to the head of department running it. Sometimes it can be hit and miss, I agree, but for many youngsters that could be the first and last time they go, and I know the clinicians take the issue of effective and efficacious communication seriously. Friday morning seems a very odd time to run an under-18 clinic considering a lot of their patients would be in school or college.....??

Yes, it's on Saturday and I have absolutely no idea why I put that!

And I have reported my feedback - thanks for the supervision.

My friend (who worked for another authority, not mine) did a pilot scheme with young people where they were mystery shoppers for sexual health services. It was brilliant. Then they got rid of her post.

at mystery shoppers for sexual health services...

Kipper, those clinics sound great.