Teaching High School students about STI barriers

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Sep 6, 2014

STI? Is that the new STD?

klone, MSN, RN · Sep 6, 2014

Yes, it's called an STI

I'm not sure what you mean "barrier methods to STIs" do you mean using condoms to prevent STIs?

This is my line of work - I work for a Title X clinic and a good portion of my job is teaching birth control methods and STI prevention to teens. One thing I've found is that many teens don't consider condoms to be a birth control method, which I find interesting.

wooh, BSN, RN · Sep 6, 2014

I'd find out from the school nurse what you're ALLOWED to present. Anything sex ed related can get very iffy.

Murse91 · Sep 6, 2014

Yes, it's called an STI
I'm not sure what you mean "barrier methods to STIs" do you mean using condoms to prevent STIs?
This is my line of work - I work for a Title X clinic and a good portion of my job is teaching birth control methods and STI prevention to teens. One thing I've found is that many teens don't consider condoms to be a birth control method, which I find interesting.

Exactly! Prevention methods! Condoms, female condoms, birth control, IUD, etc. they told us anything is fair game as long as pictures go. Yet we are trying to figure out how to engage the class so that they aren't so much uncomfortable but have fun and take something away from it!

klone, MSN, RN · Sep 7, 2014

I can guarantee that anything you teach them, they WILL be uncomfortable, but they WILL be engaged (maybe not visibly so) and they will definitely take it away with them.

I'm so glad you're doing this, there is a paucity of good information out there.

The health network I work at has several clinics WITHIN the local urban schools. Once the child is middle-school aged, parent presence is not required for the student to go to the clinic - it's just like a regular clinic, and they can be seen for illnesses, vaccines, and birth control. Our Title X director goes out to each of the high school clinics and has a "Nexplanon clinic" (3-year birth control method that gets implanted in the inner arm and THE MOST RELIABLE BC method that exists). On an average day, she will implant 30-40 Nexplanons into the teens' arms. In huge part due to her efforts, as well as the efforts of all the Title X clinics that our health network supports, the teen pregnancy rate in Colorado has dropped by over 40% in the past 5 years. Warren Buffett is a huge contributor to our efforts.

Anyway, in Denver at least, we have helped the teen pregnancy rate decrease, but unfortunately, chlamydia seems about as rampant as the common cold among our teens. So plain old condom use is still very much needed.

klone, MSN, RN · Sep 7, 2014

I also think the female condom is highly underrated and underutilized. It can help prevent HSV infection, because the condom also covers the outer genitalia (unlike a male condom). Also, the outer ring can cause stimulation of the privy parts during intercourse, which makes the experience more pleasurable for the female. Not sure how much of that you want to touch on with your teens. :)

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Sep 7, 2014

Exactly! Prevention methods! Condoms, female condoms, birth control, IUD, etc. they told us anything is fair game as long as pictures go. Yet we are trying to figure out how to engage the class so that they aren't so much uncomfortable but have fun and take something away from it!

Are you talking about pregnancy prevention or STI prevention? Because if it's the latter, you should not be discussing birth control pills as a means of prevention since, you know, they do nothing to prevent STI transmission.

I honestly wouldn't worry about kids of that age participating or asking questions. Most of them have a ton of questions that they don't want to ask their parents. Or they don't want their parents to know they're having sex. I remember, as a senior in high school, having an informal/impromptu sex ed class with the freshman on my field hockey team in a Dairy Queen. No one had discussed things with them that you would expect 14 and 15 year olds would at least know a little about. Kids who come from families like that NEED this kind of education.

duskyjewel · Sep 8, 2014

And when their kid ends up at the doctor with a blood clot from hormonal birth control you put their child on without telling them, of course YOU'RE going to pay that bill, and the ones for subsequent treatment, right?

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Sep 8, 2014

Maybe hand out index cards as they come in stating they can ask any thing (related to your presentation)anonymously. Collect them ballot style in a lidded box. Have one classmate (of yours not the HS) and an instructor read through them and try to answer as many as possible that are on topic to your presentation.

klone, MSN, RN · Sep 8, 2014

And when their kid ends up at the doctor with a blood clot from hormonal birth control you put their child on without telling them, of course YOU'RE going to pay that bill, and the ones for subsequent treatment, right?

Pregnancy and childbirth are FAR more risky to a girl/woman's health than hormonal contraceptives. The mortality and morbidity rate associated with pregnancy and childbirth far eclipses that of using hormonal contraceptives. Anyone who is obese, has high blood pressure, smokes cigarettes, or has a history of migraines is discouraged (and sometimes prevented, depending on the risk factors) from COCs (the concern with blood clots are with estrogen based contraceptives, by the way, not progesterone-only, which is what Nexplanon is). Nevertheless, oral contraceptives are not my/our first choice in contraception. We far prefer LARCs (long acting reversible contraceptives, i.e. IUDs or implants).

It frankly floors and angers me when people tout "the risks of hormonal contraceptives" without even realizing and acknowledging that the risks of pregnancy itself are far greater. It really ****** me off that people actually consider making ALL appropriate contraceptive methods available to sexually active teens to be a bad thing.

The amount of estrogen (what creates the risk factor for blood clots and strokes) in a woman's body during pregnancy is about 10 to 100-fold greater than what's in her body when she uses oral contraceptives.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Sep 8, 2014

It frankly floors and angers me when people tout "the risks of hormonal contraceptives" without even realizing and acknowledging that the risks of pregnancy itself are far greater. It really ****** me off that people actually consider making ALL appropriate contraceptive methods available to sexually active teens to be a bad thing.

To the last line, as a pediatric nurse who goes on to care for the children these misinformed teens go on to have (and rush them to the OR and into surgery without parental consent because 16 yr old Mom decided it was more important to go shopping or something than to stay with her dying daughter), I couldn't agree more. Teens are having sex. They need to be taught about and have access to all appropriate methods of contraception.