Using a reproductive justice framework to develop an instrument to measure person-centred abortion care in Australia

• Carrie Van Rensburg (PhD candidate)

  cvanrensburg@student.unimelb.edu.au
  

Project Details

Abortion, whether by procedural or medication methods, is a safe and essential component of healthcare. The availability of reliable information on healthcare service quality for abortion is crucial to informing quality improvement strategies. Person-centredness is a core dimension of healthcare service quality. It refers to the responsiveness and respectfulness of healthcare services towards the needs, values, and preferences of people seeking care. Currently, no scale exists for measuring person-centred abortion care for the Australian context. Guided by a reproductive justice approach, this PhD project aims to adapt and refine an instrument to measure person-centred abortion care for the Australian context. First, the perspectives of abortion seekers will be summarised by conducting a scoping review on the aspects of person-centred abortion care that abortion seekers deem important or value in their care. Secondly, the thesis will follow the content validity standards set by the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) group to adapt and refine an instrument to measure person-centred abortion care in Australia. This will involve iterative qualitative studies with abortion seekers and key stakeholders (providers and advocates). The body of work will produce a content validated tool for measuring person-centred abortion care in Australia. Future research will be needed to psychometrically validate the tool in Australia.

Collaborators

Dr Shelly Makleff

Dr Mridula Shankar

Prof Louise Keogh