Stoff E, Krikorian J. Transgender Health Grand Rounds: combining cultural competency and clinical knowledge for physician education. In: American Academy of Family Physicians National Conference; July 30 2020; Kansas City, MO.
In the 2015 US Transgender Survey, 33% of respondents reported having had a negative experience with a healthcare provider due to gender identity in the prior 12 months. The goal of this educational project is to increase provider knowledge and confidence regarding transgender healthcare by implementing a specialty-targeted clinical and cultural curriculum in the form of a one-hour grand rounds presentation.
This teaching program has been implemented at Cooper University Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry grand rounds and as a program for medical students at Cooper Medical School. Participants, consisting of medical students, attendings, and residents (n=68), completed a questionnaire about their knowledge, experience, and comfort working with transgender patients before and after the presentation. Data was analyzed using McNemar’s test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. There was a statistically significant increase in familiarity with vocabulary terms and where to find resources on the topic.
Participants reported increased knowledge and comfort with transgender health issues. Transgender health education has historically been lacking, and educational programs typically focus on either medical or cultural issues in transgender health. These results show that cultural competency and clinical knowledge can be addressed simultaneously in a concise intervention with measurable effects on provider knowledge and confidence.
Elsa Stoff, M3, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University