Guest Editorial: Promoting cultural competency in the nursing care of LGBT patients

Abstract

The eight principles of nursing practice developed by the professional nursing union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) of the United Kingdom, in collaboration with the UK nursing regulatory body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and the UK government's Department of Health for England set out 'what patients, colleagues, families and carers can expect from nursing'. Patients, members of the public and healthcare staff were involved in developing the principles. They describe what safe and effective nursing care looks like, and the behaviours, attitudes and approaches adopted by nursing staff applying the principles in their practice. They describe what it means to treat people with dignity and humanity; to take personal responsibility for care provided; to manage risk; to put people at the centre of decision-making about their health and well-being; to communicate effectively; to ensure professional knowledge and skills are up to date; that care and treatment is co-ordinated, of a high standard and assures the best possible outcome; and that nurses lead by example (RCN, n.d.). Together with initiatives such as the Chief Nursing Officer for England's rallying call for the evidence of the '6 Cs' of care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment in nursing (NHS England, 2014), these principles offer a framework for patient and public feedback and professional reflection on the quality of nursing.Arguably, when these principles underpin each individual's experience of prevention, treatment and care it will improve the health and experiences of healthcare for the whole community, including that of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people. However, evidence suggests that LGBT patients in England have poorer health and worse healthcare

LGBT + young people’s perceptions of barriers to accessing mental health services in Ireland

“…This places an unfair burden on LGBTI + individuals, particularly young people. Although positive attitudes among nurses towards LGBT + people appear to be improving (Dorsen, 2012; Lim & Hsu, 2016), heterosexist practices are still commonplace, with some nurses mistakenly believing that a person's sexual orientation or gender identity is not relevant to the care they should provide (Beagan et al., 2012; Fish & Evans, 2016). These are practices that, no doubt, contribute to LGBT + individuals’ sense of invisibility within services and that can limit the potential for a therapeutic alliance to be developed (Beagan et al., 2012; Stewart & O'Reilly, 2017).…”

A Systematic Review of Sexual Minority Women’s Experiences of Health Care in the UK

“…There is a need for including issues around care for SMW in medical, nursing and allied professional training curricula. A recent review of UK issues around nursing care [43] concluded that, although a number of studies internationally had investigated LGBT nursing care and how it could be introduced into the nursing curriculum, there were no recent UK studies. There was little attention paid to LGBT patients’ needs in many university nursing programmes, resulting in nurses being less than confident when nursing LGBT patients [43].…”

“…A recent review of UK issues around nursing care [43] concluded that, although a number of studies internationally had investigated LGBT nursing care and how it could be introduced into the nursing curriculum, there were no recent UK studies. There was little attention paid to LGBT patients’ needs in many university nursing programmes, resulting in nurses being less than confident when nursing LGBT patients [43]. Concepts of homosexuality were difficult for nurses who were not being exposed to SMW, because SMW were not coming out in a nursing context.…”

Improving the Health Care of Transsexual Individuals

“…Tüm sağlık profesyonellerinin her bir basamağın farkına varabilmesi ve bu farkındalıklarını eyleme dönüştürebilmesi önemlidir (39) . Kesintisiz sağlık bakımı hizmeti sunan hemşireler, bakım uygulamalarını eşitlik ve adalet ilkeleri doğrultusunda, bireyin onuruna, eşsizliğine ve bütünlüğüne olan inancı ile gerçekleştirmektedir (40,41) . Hemşirelik, sağlık hizmetinin yaş, cinsiyet, ırk, inanç, kültür, cinsel yönelim, görüş ayrımı yapılmaksızın herkese eşit bir şekilde sunulmasını savunmaktadır (40) .…”

“…Bu ilkeler, her bireyin olduğu gibi LGBT'li bireylerden oluşan topluluğun da sağlığını koruma ve geliştirmesini aynı zamanda kaliteli bir sağlık bakım hizmeti almalarını desteklemektedir. Bu açıdan bakıldığında, hemşireler, transseksüel bireylerin bakımının sunumunda önemli bir pozisyonda bulunmaktadırlar (41) .…”