Beltran et al. note barriers to care faced by transgender patients, including “limited physician experience and training.” While educational activities to “help clinicians gain comfort and skills in caring for transgender patients” are available, the authors note, “(r)esearch suggests that longitudinal and integrated transgender health education improves learner skill and comfort, activates learners’ desire for more practice, and communicates that providing gender-affirming care is important and valued.” To investigate “whether and how exposure to transgender health skills during medical school impacted trainees’ competency in this area during residency,” they compared performance in an OSCE station with a transgender patient by two groups: residents who had participated as students in an exercise with a transgender SP (“continuum residents”) and residents who had not had that experience (“noncontinuum residents”).

  

Results showed “notable differences” between the groups: “(c)ontinuum residents, compared to noncontinuum residents, exhibited better performance on the domains of case-specific information gathering, gender-affirming care skills, and global ratings. Furthermore, continuum residents’ greater experience and comfort in this area was highlighted by the fact that their noncontinuum counterparts exclusively received SP feedback about their lack of experience and comfort.” Nonetheless, “(r)esidents across both groups described having few prior clinical encounters with transgender patients and described how the case increased their comfort and preparation for caring for transgender patients.” 

Read the full article in the [Journal of Graduate Medical Education] [https://jgme.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/jgme/16/2/article-p182.xml?isSearch=true k]. 

  

Communications and Connections Committee Mission: “To bring high quality reporting of current research, trends, techniques and information regarding SP methodology and other relevant industry articles to the attention of the membership through the web-based ASPE eNews blog.”