Medical Management of the Transgender Patient: A Provider Education Quality Improvement Project

Abstract

Purpose: This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to develop an educational activity toaddress the shortcomings in the education given to medical providers on the medical management of transgender patients. Participants were also asked to approximate their intent to change future practice and the helpfulness of the activity to their future practice. Background: Approximately one-third of transgender patients stated they felt like they received unequal treatment or harassment during a medical visit. Of those patients, 23% said they did not seek medical therapy for fear of mistreatment. Undergoing hormone therapy as part of a transition puts the patient at a higher risk for worsened long-term health outcomes. Still, provider education can ease some of these perceptions from the patients. Methods: Participants were sought out from the El Rio Community Health Center’s new graduate nurse practitioner program. Participants underwent an educational session with pre- and post-surveys about perceived knowledge levels and confidence in taking care of transgender patients in the clinical setting. Open-ended questions were analyzed for trends, while quantitative data was analyzed within Microsoft Excel. Results: Six participants (n = 6) attended the educational session and completed both the pre- and post-surveys. The results of the surveys showed an increase in self-perceived knowledge and confidence as well as a moderate intent to change practice. Conclusions: The project demonstrated that a 30-minute educational session can have a positive impact on medical providers. Future iterations should include long-term follow-ups and compare outcomes on medical students versus practicing providers post-graduation.