DECREASING TEENAGE PREGNANCY AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS: A CARE PLAN BASED ON ROY'S THEORY
This research develops a nursing care plan designed to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy among African Americans. The care plan is based on the nursing theory of Sister Callista Roy. The presentation of the findings of the research performed in the development of this nursing plan begins with an examination of the problems associated with teenage pregnancy among African Americans. Following this examination, Roy's nursing theory is described and explained. The rationale for the development of a nursing plan designed to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy among African Americans based on Roy's theory is also included in this presentation. Finally, the nursing care plan designed to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy among African Americans is developed and explained.
Problems Associated With Teenage Pregnancy Among African Americans
Adolescent pregnancy continues to be one of the most challenging public health issues in the United States (Jaskiewicz and McAnarney, 1994, p. 32). Annually, more than one million teenagers in the United States become pregnant, and one half of these teenagers give birth (Stevens Simon, 1992, p. 295). Of the remaining 50 percent, from three to four fifths obtain therapeutic abortions, while the remainder abort spontaneously (Stevens Simon, 1992, p. 295). The highest incidence of adolescent pregnancies in the United States is among African
Americans (Tennyson, 1991, p. 11). African American teenaged girls are also at greater risk once they become pregnant.
A variety of causal factors are implicated in teenage pregnancy among African Americans. Pregnancy often induces behavioral system imbalance into the life of a teenaged girl because the typical teenaged girl is a person who has "not yet completed her biological, socioemotional, or cognitive development" (Records, 1993, p. 326...