Effectiveness of Transgender Care Content in a Nurse Practitioner Program

Abstract

Background: Research has shown that healthcare provider’s knowledge and attitudes toward transgender individuals impact transgender health. Most providers are not trained to provide care for LGBT individuals. This study examined the effectiveness of an educational intervention designed to improve the medical attitudes of nurse practitioner students regarding transgender patient care. Method: The medical attitudes were evaluated before and after the educational intervention using the Assessing Medical Attitudes Toward Transgender Care Survey. Medical attitudes were defined as levels of comfort, confidence or competence. Results: The results showed an overall increase in the students’ level of comfort and competence toward transgender care after the education activity. Areas which met statistical significance (p<.05) were educational hours, preparedness, personal comfort in prescribing hormone therapy and personal comfort in referring to gender reassignment surgery. Conclusions: Findings support that education on transgender health care increases levels of comfort and competence among nurse practitioner students.