Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills among Nurse Practitioners Providing Care to Transgender Patients

Abstract

Context: The transgender community experiences excessive discrimination in in healthcare. Data continue to reveal that health care providers lack sufficient knowledge in transgender health, as well as difficulty in referring individuals to competent providers, to ensure the continuum of care (Brennan, Barnsteiner, Siantz, Cotter, & Everett, 2012; Cruz, 2014). Methods: A modified Cross-Cultural Care Survey consisting of 56 questions was implemented via Qualtrics to 1,134 nurse practitioners (NPs) in the California Association of Nurse Practitioner to measure their cultural competence through the domains of attitude, knowledge, and skill. Results: Completed responses were obtained from 30 out of 38 NPs (78.9%). Knowledge was positively correlated with Skills (Pearson's r = .688, p < .001); negatively correlated with Negative Attitude (Pearson's r = -.458, p = .011) and positively correlated with Positive Attitude (Pearson's r = .371, p = .043). Skills was positively correlated with Positive attitude (Pearson's r = .646, p < .001); however, the negative correlation between Skills and Negative Attitude was not statistically significant at the .05 level (Pearson's r = -.345, p =.062). There was a negative correlation between Negative Attitude and Positive Attitude, but this correlation was only marginally not significant at the .05 level (Pearson’s r = -.358, p = .052). Conclusion: The results indicated that the balance between skills and negative attitudes may have created a barrier to care in transgender patients.