Task-shifting in the delivery of hormonal contraceptive methods: validation of a questionnaire and preliminary results.

In order to palliate the access problem to effective contraceptive methods in Quebec, Canada, as well as to legitimate nurses' practices in family planning, a collaborative agreement was developed that allow nurses, in conjunction with pharmacists, to give hormonal contraceptives to healthy women of reproductive age for a 6 month period. Training in hormonal contraception was offered to targeted nurses before they could begin this practice. A questionnaire, based on Rogers's theory of diffusion of innovations, was elaborated and validated to specifically evaluate this phenomenon. Preliminary results show that the translation of training into practice might be suboptimal. The validated questionnaire can now be used to fully understand the set of factors influencing this new practice.