Pharmacist and women’s perspectives on pharmacy access to hormonal contraception in New Mexico
Contraception
Awarded 2017
Complex Family Planning Fellowship Research
Lauren Thaxton, MD, MBA
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
$6,696

In 2017, New Mexico expanded pharmacist prescribing privileges to include hormonal contraception. In this largely rural state, we sought to explore rural pharmacists and women’s opinions on this expansion of privileges including how it might affect access to contraception in local communities. We recruited pharmacists and women working and living in rural areas of New Mexico to engage in semi-structured phone interviews. Pharmacists were recruited using multiple avenues including the statewide pharmacist database as well as state professional conferences. Women were recruited in person, focusing on four communities thought to represent a diversity of ethnic, political and socioeconomic status. Interviews will be analyzed by two independent coders for emergent themes using NVivo.