Abortion care: Ensuring excellence, promoting wellbeing and improving training

Dr Helen Garr is a General Practitioner (GP) working in Nottingham with a keen interest and extensive experience in mental health and wellbeing. 

She is passionate about supporting the wellbeing of health care professionals and has worked as a Clinician and Clinical Lead of the National GP Health Service since its beginning and is known for her down to earth, caring and empathetic approach.

She has a background in psychology and nursing prior to qualifying in medicine from the University of Leicester and utilises her psychology interest to underpin her work as a coach and mentor for doctors. 

Helen is a Public Health England Clinical Champion for physical activity and a Director of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine. She is a recognised leader in the field of health care professional wellbeing and regularly delivers national keynote speeches and runs successful wellbeing and burnout workshops. She is also Nottinghamshire LMC Wellbeing lead and sits on the RCGP National Wellbeing Working Group and BMA Wellbeing Stakeholders Committee. 

Dr Jayne Kavanagh is Associate Professor (Teaching) at UCL Medical School and a sexual and reproductive health specialty doctor in London. She is clinical education lead of the RCOG’s Making Abortion Safe programme and co-chairs Doctors for Choice UK. In 2021 she co-founded the charity Abortion Talk.

Dr Laura MacIsaac received her undergraduate degree from Columbia University, a medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, residency in Obstetrics/Gynecology at Columbia University Presbyterian Hospital, fellowship in Family Planning at the University of California, San Francisco and her MPH in Health Policy and Management from Columbia University's School of Public Health. Dr MacIsaac has created and led family planning training programmes in academic medical centres as well as the public hospital system in New York City. She was the first recipient of the Ryan Residency Training Grant for Family Planning and has won national teaching awards. She has held graduate medical education (GME) leadership roles as Ob/Gyn Residency Director and Family Planning Fellowship Associate Director. She served on the expert working group at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to create U.S. medical eligibility criteria for contraceptive use and the U.S. selected practice recommendations for contraceptive use.

She gained corporate and regulatory experience as Chief Medical Officer of FEI Women’s Health, a contraceptive device company in 2005. Dr MacIsaac has served many roles in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), including serving on the National Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) Committee and Scientific Co-Chair for the District II Annual Clinical Meeting. She received the Women’s Health Policy Award from ACOG, as well as the 2018 ACOG District II Outstanding District Service Award. She is a frequent media spokesperson for the ACOG national office on topics of reproductive health, policy and health system delivery reform. Dr MacIsaac’s current international work includes directing the annual Family Planning CME course at Soft Power Health in the Jinja District of Uganda, consultant and voluntary visiting faculty for British Pregnancy Advisory Services (BPAS), and oral board examiner for the Fellowship in Family Planning in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Dr Rebecca McKay has worked in abortion care for over 20 years. She is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist working in a busy district general hospital. She is lead for the Abortion Service. She is also the Abortion Module Guardian for the FSRH and has been a doctor member on BSACP Council for 3 years. She is passionate about education and developing easily accessible evidence-based resources for abortion providers.

Dr McKay will give a lecture on New BSACP/FSRH Special Skills Modules (SSM) in abortion care.

Lecture abstract - The Special Skills Modules in Abortion Care have been completely updated. This has opened up all modules to nurses and midwives as well as doctors making it the only truly transferable multidisciplinary qualification in Abortion Care. This talk aims to share information about the new qualification, including the application process.