By: Mariel Padilla
‘Women deserve to know’: A nursing student shares how empowerment comes through education!
Editor’s Note: FACTS Ambassadors are medical or health professional students and residents from across the country (and the world!) who desire to learn more about fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs). Many then share this information with classmates and colleagues to educate them as well. At the beginning of each month, we will feature a FACTS ambassador This month, we are featuring Desiree Rohling, a registered nurse who will earn her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree next year to become a family nurse practitioner. To learn about how we are expanding educational opportunities for our Ambassadors, join us for our FACTS for the Future event on Thursday, November 17th at 8pm ET / 7pm CT.
Meet Desiree Rohling
Desiree Rohling was in her first year as a graduate nursing student when she was instructed to write about an ethical topic in healthcare. Rohling knew she wanted to write about something unique and something less controversial than abortion. She wanted to focus on an empowering aspect of reproductive healthcare.
“I just wanted to educate my classmates on something that was a bit more positive,” Rohling said.
Rohling decided to write about the ethical considerations with the failure to formally integrate fertility awareness-based methods into our healthcare system and how that lack of education directly impacts patient care. While conducting research for the assignment, Rohling discovered the Fertility Appreciation Collaborative to Teach the Science (FACTS).
“The website’s great,” Rohling said. “You can see right there when you click on it — it’s really clear about what they stand for — that it’s very science-based. And that’s really what I needed to approach my professors, my instructors and my cohort in school because it can’t be personal. It needs to be scientific, and that’s where fertility awareness falls short because many people aren’t focused on the science. And it seems ancient to people or there’s a lot of bias.”
Rohling expected to receive some pushback from her instructor or classmates, but was surprised that little came — although she added that she did not receive much support either. Over the course of her nursing education, Rohling continued to use every opportunity to study FABMs. She conducted a literature review on the efficacy of FABMs, made a poster presentation, wrote countless discussion posts and later dedicated over 300 hours to her thesis on FABM knowledge at a rural health care facility.
“I quickly made a name for myself because every single project and every single paper that we had to do for our whole program was on fertility awareness,” Rohling said. “And you could tell there was a select handful in my cohort that were very on board. They would reach out and say, ‘Hey, great job on your presentation’ or ‘I support you 100%.’”
As Rohling became more educated in FABMs, she knew she wanted to learn even more. She decided to sign up for the FACTS ambassador program.
“I was just looking for some support because I could tell that I wasn’t being taught well-rounded fertility care or the scope of reproductive medicine,” Rohling said.
As a FACTS Ambassador, Rohling found a community of medical and health professional students across the country who desire to learn more about FABMs and choose to share this information to educate friends and colleagues about these methods. Ambassadors do many things, from planning events at their respective schools to teaching their own classmates, posting educational materials on social media, and exhibiting with FACTS at regional and national conferences. Rohling said she learned things she never would have been exposed to otherwise.
“I knew from reading the FACTS website that this is what I need to explore,” Rohling said. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I signed up, but then I went to the first meeting and was like, ‘Wow this is perfect.’ I’m actually meeting up with people in the United States who were as excited as me to learn about fertility awareness.”
Now, Rohling is set to graduate from Minnesota State University, Mankato, next year with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. Her goal is to become a family nurse practitioner and continue supporting and educating medical professionals and patients alike on FABMs.
“We need to get more schools on board at the forefront,” Rohling said. “Education has to start at the beginning. And it’s all about empowerment. These are options that women need to know about. If you take a positive, scientific approach, then it’s more likely to be accepted.”
After graduating, Rohling said she looks forward to continuing her work with FACTS as part of a new Residency Ambassador program dedicated to post-graduates. She said the new program came as a relief because she was not looking forward to losing her community of like-minded medical professionals.
“I’m so passionate about the work that FACTS does,” Rohling said. “Medical professionals need to be well-rounded in their reproductive and physiologic knowledge to be able to treat the whole woman. Women deserve to know all methods for planning and preventing pregnancy, and that education should not be hindered in any way.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mariel Padilla
Mariel Padilla is a journalist working with us as editor of the FACTS blog. In her full-time job, Mariel writes about the intersection between gender, politics and policy — but she was introduced to the FACTS team by her brother, Mikey. When she’s not writing or editing, she’s probably reading, painting or playing with her niece and nephew who live down the street.
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