Integration of transgender health: A multi-modal approach

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersexed (LGBTQI+) community can benefit from access to evidence-based health care, social services, justice, and equality. A significant challenge that nurses and educators have is a lack of knowledge, enlightenment, and clinical experience necessary to provide equitable and evidenced based healthcare, specifically to transgender and gender diverse individuals. As this population continues to flourish, Associates Degree (ADN) prepared nurses will be called upon to render care frequently, so curricula must be adjusted. The objective of this quality improvement project was to emphasize how a multimodal education approach can expand knowledge and ease in caring for this community. The methodology included one in-class presentation and a Success Coaching Event that presented a didactic education module, a lived experience speaker, a film depicting bad versus good communication during a clinical encounter, and a post didactic discussion panel. The quasi-experimental design supported the success of the intervention, evaluated by comparing pre- and post-test survey scores as well as results from a final exam. This new curricular framework can be implemented in all ADN programs where nurses learn basics communication and assessment.