Do you know how to use a condom? – UK nurse practitioners’ conversation about men and family planning

Introduction: Health professionals have been identified as central to encouraging men to take an active part in family planning. The aim of this article is to understand nurse practitioners’ conversations about men as family planning patients.

Methods: One-to-one, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five nurse practitioners. Nurses interviewed worked in a northern UK student medical practice serving over 34,000 students with a diverse range of ages and demographic backgrounds (both home and overseas students). The research method was qualitative using discourse analysis.

Results: After completing the analysis, two discourses emerged. Discourse one, family planning services are culturally female centric, and discourse two, condom use by male family planning patients is problematic.

Discussion: Implications for how nurse practitioners can continue to play an important part when providing care to male family planning patients is discussed, specifically in relation to culture and condom efficacy.