Expansion of the Role of Nurse Auxiliaries in the Delivery of Reproductive Health Services in Honduras

The nurse auxiliaries who work at the rural health centers (CESARs) of the Honduran Ministry of Health (MOH) are frequently the only source of reproductive health services in the communities they serve. In order to increase access to long-term family planning methods, the MOH and the Population Council’s INOPAL III Project conducted an operations research study from 1997 to 1998 to see if nurse auxiliaries could provide good quality IUD, Depo-Provera and vaginal cytology services without health risks for their clients. The study concluded that auxiliaries could provide these services and that, in addition, the cost-effectiveness of the strategy was appropriate. As a consequence of the study, the MOH changed the Official Service Delivery Guidelines for the Integral Care for Women to explicitly authorize auxiliaries to provide these services. [from summary]