Lesbian Women’s Experience of Coming Out in an Irish Hospital Setting: A Heremeutic Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

There is a dearth of knowledge about lesbian women's lives and social experiences in Irish society. In their day to day living, lesbian women know how to act, react and behave to exist within society, having developed what Draucker (Journal of Advanced Nursing, 30(2), p. 361; 1999) calls 'everyday skilful coping'. However, these taken-for-granted ways of understanding of being in the world are thrown or brought to the forefront when lesbian women seek health care. The overall aim of the research is to investigate lesbian women's experiences of Irish health care as service users. Within this article, I will explore how four lesbian women understand and give meaning to 'coming out' to a health care provider. Coming out is a precarious affair whereby lesbian women choose when, where and to whom to relate their sexuality. The experiences of these women are explored by utilising Sartre's (1969) concepts of being objectified by the Other, shame, freedom, illustrating how the self can be disrupted.

Experiences of individuals with various sexual orientations with healthcare professionals

“…An important element of best practice examples is including the partner in healthcare provision (VandenLangenberg, et al, 2012), as partners play a crucial supportive role for (cancer) patients (Katz, 2009). In a private hospital, the experience was exemplary (Duffy, 2011).…”

“…Participants experienced stigma, prejudice, and discrimination (Lyons, et al, 2015;Hoyt, et al, 2017). Other examples of negative experiences include non-acceptance, prejudice, dichotomy, nonunderstanding, sexualisation (Duffy, 2011;Victor & Nel, 2016), and sometimes they were connected to offensive questions (Riggs, et al, 2014), respondents also described a lack of caring and understanding (Hoyt, et al, 2017). There was evidence of transphobia experienced by some LGBT individuals with healthcare professionals openness, non-judgment, acceptance, awareness of lack of knowledge, appropriate provision of healthcare services, LGBT-friendly physician, protection of privacy / confidentiality, respect, inclusion of partner, support, consideration, absence of direct disapproval, honesty, warmth, caring, professionalism, compassion, equality, confirmation of identity, absence of irritating questions, calmness, kindness, listening, sensitivity, empathy Katz, 2009;Duffy, 2011;Eady, et al, 2011;Vanden-Langenberg, et al, 2012;Riggs, et al, 2014;Lyons, et al, 2015;Marques, et al, 2015;Rasberry, et al, 2015;Hirsch, et al, 2016;Victor & Nel, 2016;Hoffkling, et al, 2017;Westerbotn, et al, 2017; Negative experiences of…”

“…LGBT individuals with healthcare professionals disrespectful healthcare, provision, non-acceptance, impatience, disrespect, offensive questions, nonunderstanding, lack of empathy, sexualisation, fear of negative experiences, violation of rights, lack of knowledge, ridiculing, insolence, lack of time, failure to care, judging, heteronormativity Katz, 2009;Duffy, 2011;Eady, et al, 2011;Riggs, et al, 2014;Lyons, et al, 2015;Rasberry, et al, 2015;Victor & Nel, 2016;Hoffkling, et al, 2017;Hoyt, et al, 2017;Müller, 2017;Westerbotn, et al, 2017 respondents which ranged from mocking to rudeness and dismissal (Hoffkling, et al, 2017). Some reported that school nurses were unkind, overworked and impatient (Rasberry, et al, 2015), a lack of empathy coming from nurses was common (Duffy, 2011). Disrespect was conveyed both through verbal abuse and nonverbally (Müller, 2017).…”

“…The majority of respondents experienced that healthcare professionals lacked knowledge (Westerbotn, et al, 2017); there is, for example, a lack of biomedical research addressing the specific issues of (transgender) individuals (Hoffkling, et al, 2017), and healthcare professionals' lack of knowledge was worryingly high (Müller, 2017). Fear of negative experiences may prevail over the possibility of positive acceptance (Duffy, 2011), and many fail to disclose their sexual orientation due to past negative experiences (Eady, et al, 2011). There were also reports of sexual violence (Lyons, et al, 2015).…”

Narrative Research, Sexuality, and Social Policy

“…In her phenomenological analysis of lesbian women's experiences of coming out in hospital settings, Duffy (2011) points out some critical ways in which hospital and nursing policies focused on patient care are interrupted by heterosexism. By focusing on lesbian women's accounts of experiencing homophobia and heterosexism with hospital staff and procedures, Duffy's nuanced analysis highlights necessary changes for health policy in Ireland to eliminate disparities in effective care based on sexual orientation.…”