Who should use the QCC Scale?
Those working at the national, state, district, municipality, or other public or private facilities and community-based health centres, such as:
- Quality Improvement (QI) teams
- Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) researchers
- Hospital/clinic staff
- Government Ministries/Departments of Health
Who to survey?
The QCC Scale is appropriate to use with anyone who has recently discussed contraception options with a health care provider at a health facility or other community-based setting. The items were designed to produce comparable composite scores regardless of the depth of counselling provided, method availability in a given context, and whether the client chooses to use a method at the end of the session.
How to use this scale?
The QCC Scale was designed to be administered by individuals not directly involved in a client’s clinical care (i.e., by clinic staff or external teams rather than by the clinician providing contraceptive counselling) to facilitate client privacy and autonomy when deciding whether to answer the questions and, for those who choose to participate, their comfort and confidentiality in responding. All versions of the QCC Scale were validated in studies where researchers administered the measure to clients; however, the measure could also be self-administered by participants in settings where this is feasible. Conducting the QCC Scale soon after the person’s discussion with a clinician about contraception is more likely to reduce recall bias. Use of the QCC Scale should always be done in compliance with research ethics.
The QCC Pocketbook
The SPHMMC and UCSF teams also developed the QCC Pocketbook. The QCC Pocketbook complements existing family planning training and reference manuals in Ethiopia. It provides a brief, user-friendly reference guide for how to provide client-centered, rights-based counseling. We developed the content to reiterate the approach to counseling included in federal documents (by summarizing the steps of the “REDI” approach), while also expanding upon REDI steps with a series of “spotlights” to highlight specific topics that emerged during our prior qualitative research on women’s experiences with counseling. For example, spotlights highlight the need to avoid pressuring clients to use certain methods, dedicating sufficient time to discussion of side effects, and granting requests for removals. The final Pocketbook version is available in Amharic and English.
Please share how you are planning to use these scales by completing this 1-minute survey here.