Clinical Track

Oral Presentations

MO07 - All Staff Training to Improve Gender Affirming Care in a Primary Care Setting: Aims and Outcomes

Presenter(s)

• CH

  Corinne Heinen, MD

  Clinical Associate Professor
  University of Washington
  University of Washington

  Nothing to disclose

Objective: To improve all-staff transgender sensitivity through in-person training.
Hypothesis: That an all-staff training session could achieve improvements in knowledge about transgender terminology, health disparities and trauma-informed care, modify attitudinal markers and improve ability to use of SOGI items in our electronic medical record.
Methods: We developed a 1-hour in-person training for the all-staff meeting in a primary care clinic in the University of Washington's clinic system regarding the topics above. All participants were given a pre- and post-training survey. Ten knowledge items were adapted from a LGBT nursing survey and eight attitude items were adapted from a medical student LGBT survey. Surveys were voluntary and anonymous.
Results: Aim #1: At least 90% staff/providers understand definitions of sexual orientation and gender identity terminology. This was achieved, with 78% pre vs 96% post who answered at least 80% of all knowledge questions correctly.
Aim #2: Increasing the number of staff/providers who self-report comfort communicating with a transgender patient in a sensitive and appropriate manner by 25%. This was not achieved. There was a 16% increase (68% pre vs. 79% post) in number of staff/providers who self-reported comfort.
Aim #3: At least 90% of staff/providers self-report improved ability to find where SOGI terms are located in EPIC. This was not achieved. Only 82% survey respondents reported improved ability to find SOGI terms in our EMR.
Conclusions:
- Training for clinic staff may immediately increase knowledge around SOGI terminology.
- Though more respondents reported having adequate training regarding transgender care after our training, fewer respondents felt competent with their communication skills. This may indicate improvement in the nature of training, increased awareness of knowledge gaps, and/or increased cultural humility.
- More training, perhaps hands-on, is needed to achieve the aim of having 90% of providers/staff feel as though they have improved ability to find where the gender identity smartform is in EPIC.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify key components of a training program to improve the capability of the staff of a primary care clinic to provide gender affirming care.
• Assess the efficacy of this learning approach in improving the knowledge base, self-reported level of comfort in communicating with gender diverse patients and ease of finding SOGI data within the electronic medical record.

1. Identify key components of a training program to improve the capability of the staff of a primary care clinic to provide gender affirming care.
2. Assess the efficacy of this learning approach in improving the knowledge base, self-reported level of comfort in communicating with gender diverse patients and ease of finding SOGI data within the electronic medical record.