| Literature DB >> 33276769 |
Dustin Z Nowaskie1, Anuj U Patel2.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: For medical students, providing exposure to and education about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patient population are effective methods to increase comfort, knowledge, and confidence in caring for LGBT people. However, specific recommendations on the number of patient exposures and educational hours that relate to high LGBT cultural competency are lacking.Entities:
Keywords: Attitudes; Cultural competency; Knowledge; LGBT; Medical education; Patients; Preparedness; Student
Mesh:
Year: 2020 PMID: 33276769 PMCID: PMC7716501 DOI: 10.1186/s12909-020-02381-1
Source DB: PubMed Journal: BMC Med Educ ISSN: 1472-6920 Impact factor: 2.463
Demographic and experiential variables (N = 940)a
| M (SD) or n (%) | |
|---|---|
| Age | 25.49 (2.90) |
| LGBT experientials | |
| Patients | 13.74 (27.68) |
| Annual patients | 6.02 (20.33) |
| Curricular hours | 5.32 (7.74) |
| Annual curricular hours | 2.22 (2.85) |
| Extracurricular hours | 12.46 (43.01) |
| Annual extracurricular hours | 6.93 (24.97) |
| Gender identity | |
| Cisgender man | 344 (36.6%) |
| Cisgender woman | 586 (62.3%) |
| Non-binary | 4 (0.4%) |
| Transgender man | 2 (0.2%) |
| Transgender woman | 2 (0.2%) |
| Otherb | 2 (0.2%) |
| Sexual orientation | |
| Bisexual | 80 (8.5%) |
| Gay | 48 (5.1%) |
| Heterosexual | 769 (81.8%) |
| Lesbian | 14 (1.5%) |
| Queer | 15 (1.6%) |
| Otherb | 14 (1.5%) |
| Race | |
| Asian/Asian American | 158 (16.8%) |
| Black/African American | 30 (3.2%) |
| White/Caucasian | 674 (71.7%) |
| Otherb | 78 (8.3%) |
| Ethnicity | |
| Hispanic or Latino | 67 (7.1%) |
| Not Hispanic or Latino | 873 (92.9%) |
| University | |
| University #1 | 392 (41.7%) |
| University #2 | 257 (27.3%) |
| University #3 | 291 (31.0%) |
| Level of training | |
| First year | 244 (26.0%) |
| Second year | 250 (26.6%) |
| Third year | 226 (24.0%) |
| Fourth year | 195 (20.7%) |
| Fifth year and above | 22 (2.3%) |
Abbreviations: LGBT lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
aN = 940 for all variables except: age (n = 939), LGBT patients (n = 871), LGBT curricular hours (n = 929), LGBT extracurricular hours (n = 926), and level of training (n = 937)
bFor “other” categories:
• gender identity: other (n = 2)
• sexual orientation: asexual (n = 3), asexual & demisexual (n = 1), asexual & queer (n = 1), bisexual & heterosexual (n = 1), bisexual & queer (n = 2), gay & queer (n = 2), heterosexual & queer (n = 2), heterosexual & questioning (n = 1), and questioning (n = 1)
• race: Alaska Native & American Indian (n = 1), Albanian & White/Caucasian (n = 1), American Indian (n = 2), American Indian & Black/African American & White/Caucasian (n = 1), American Indian & White/Caucasian (n = 8), Ashkenazi Jewish (n = 1), Asian/Asian American & Middle Eastern & White/Caucasian (n = 1), Asian/Asian American & White/Caucasian (n = 25), Asian/Asian American & White/Caucasian & other (n = 1), Black/African American & White/Caucasian (n = 9), Filipino/Haitian (n = 1), French Creole & White/Caucasian (n = 1), Jewish (n = 1), MENA (n = 1), Mexican (n = 1), Middle Eastern (n = 2), Middle Eastern & North African (n = 1), mixed race (n = 1), Native Hawaiian (n = 2), other (n = 15), Pacific Islander & White/Caucasian (n = 1), and White/Caucasian & other (n = 1)
LGBT-DOCSSa score means
| Clinical Preparedness | M (SD) | Attitudinal Awareness | M (SD) | Basic Knowledge | M (SD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I would feel unprepared talking with a LGBT client/patient about issues related to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.b | 4.65 (1.55) | I think being transgender is a mental disorder.b | 6.24 (1.34) | I am aware of institutional barriers that may inhibit transgender people from using health care services. | 5.49 (1.29) |
| I have received adequate clinical training and supervision to work with transgender clients/patients. | 3.07 (1.55) | A same sex relationship between two men or two women is not as strong and committed as one between a man and a woman.b | 6.72 (0.90) | I am aware of institutional barriers that may inhibit LGB people from using health care services. | 5.39 (1.30) |
| I have received adequate clinical training and supervision to work with LGB clients/patients. | 3.66 (1.69) | LGB individuals must be discreet about their sexual orientation around children.b | 6.31 (1.20) | I am aware of research indicating that LGB individuals experience disproportionate levels of health and mental health problems compared to heterosexual individuals. | 5.97 (1.24) |
| I have experience working with LGB clients/patients. | 4.02 (1.85) | When it comes to transgender individuals, I believe they are morally deviant.b | 6.65 (0.98) | I am aware of research indicating that transgender individuals experience disproportionate levels of health and mental problems compared to cisgender individuals. | 6.07 (1.22) |
| I feel competent to assess a person who is LGB in a therapeutic setting. | 4.37 (1.68) | The lifestyle of a LGB individual is unnatural or immoral.b | 6.52 (1.23) | ||
| I feel competent to assess a person who is transgender in a therapeutic setting. | 3.80 (1.64) | People who dress opposite to their biological sex have a perversion.b | 6.64 (0.94) | ||
| I have experience working with transgender clients/patients. | 3.19 (1.91) | I would be morally uncomfortable working with a LGBT client/patient.b | 6.72 (0.85) | ||
| Total | 3.82 (1.25) | 6.54 (0.86) | 5.73 (1.01) |
Abbreviations: LGBT lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender; DOCSS Development of Clinical Skills Scale; LGB lesbian, gay, and bisexual
aScores are averages on 7-point Likert scales (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = somewhat agree/disagree, 7 = strongly agree); for the Overall LGBT-DOCSS: M = 5.30, SD = 0.72
bScores are not original; they are reverse scored per scoring instructions
Fig. 1LGB vs transgender clinical perceptions. Abbreviations: LGB lesbian, gay, and bisexual; LGBT lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender; DOCSS Development of Clinical Skills Scale. LGBT-DOCSS scores are means on 7-point Likert scales. Higher scores are indicative of higher levels of clinical preparedness and knowledge and less prejudicial attitudes regarding LGBT patients. Similar LGBT-DOCSS items that differed based on patient type (i.e., LGB vs transgender) were analyzed using paired sample t-tests to determine whether there were clinical perceptual differences between LGBT subpopulations. While medical students reported significantly more awareness about institutional barriers [t (939) = 4.674] and healthcare disparities [t (939) = 3.524] that transgender patients face compared to LGB patients, they reported significantly less adequate clinical training and supervision [t (939) = − 16.652], experience [t (939) = − 18.457], and competence [t (939) = − 17.716] to assess transgender patients compared to LGB patients
Fig. 2LGBT experientials across LGBT-DOCSS stratifications. Abbreviations: LGBT lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender; DOCSS Development of Clinical Skills Scale. LGBT-DOCSS scores are means on 7-point Likert scales. Higher scores are indicative of higher levels of clinical preparedness and knowledge and less prejudicial attitudes regarding LGBT patients. LGBT-DOCSS scores were stratified by 1-point increments and means of experiential variables (number of LGBT patients, LGBT curricular hours, and LGBT extracurricular hours) were computed per each stratification to characterize medical students with higher scores from those with lower scores. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were calculated to assess associations between stratifications and experiential variables: Overall LGBT-DOCSS (LGBT patients: 0.429, LGBT curricular hours: 0.281, LGBT extracurricular hours: 0.321); Clinical Preparedness (LGBT patients: 0.507, LGBT curricular hours: 0.435, LGBT extracurricular hours: 0.212); Attitudinal Awareness (LGBT patients: 0.108, LGBT curricular hours: -0.093, LGBT extracurricular hours: 0.196); and Basic Knowledge (LGBT patients: 0.131, LGBT curricular hours: 0.132, LGBT extracurricular hours: 0.257). All Spearman correlations were p < 0.001 except Attitudinal Awareness (LGBT curricular hours: p < 0.01). In general, medical students who reported higher LGBT-DOCSS scores had cared for more LGBT patients and had received more LGBT curricular and extracurricular hours of education
Fig. 3LGBT-DOCSS scores split by LGBT experientials. Abbreviations: LGBT lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender; DOCSS Development of Clinical Skills Scale. LGBT-DOCSS scores are means on 7-point Likert scales. Higher scores are indicative of higher levels of clinical preparedness and knowledge and less prejudicial attitudes regarding LGBT patients. For medical students with scores of 6 or more (“higher-competent” medical students) on the Overall LGBT-DOCSS, their experiential variable means of LGBT patients (i.e., 35 patients) and LGBT total hours (i.e., 35 h) served as group splits. There were significant differences of the patient split on LGBT-DOCSS scores, while adjusting for age, LGBT curricular hours, LGBT extracurricular hours, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, level of training, and university. There were significant differences of the hour split on LGBT-DOCSS scores, while adjusting for age, LGBT patients, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, level of training, and university. Medical students who had cared for 35 or more LGBT patients (n = 84) reported significantly higher Overall LGBT-DOCSS [F (1, 840) = 21.351] and Clinical Preparedness [F (1, 840) = 32.899] than those who cared for less than 35 LGBT patients (n = 787). Medical students who received 35 or more LGBT total hours (n = 102) reported significantly higher Overall LGBT-DOCSS [F (1, 843) = 17.154], Clinical Preparedness [F (1, 843) = 20.636], and Basic Knowledge [F (1, 843) = 7.118] than those who received less than 35 LGBT total hours (n = 824)