Purpose: To assess medical students’ self-perceived preparedness to care for gender diverse patients, with a focus on OB/Gyn clinical scenarios.
Background: Many transgender patients report avoiding routine healthcare due to fear of discrimination. In OB/Gyn this has numerous repercussions including lower rates of cervical cancer screening among transmasculine patients and difficulty accessing reproductive healthcare. One factor contributing to these disparities is a paucity of gender diversity content in medical school.
Methods: Third- and fourth-year medical students completed an anonymous online survey including multiple choice and short answer questions. A literature review was conducted to identify best practices for inclusion of gender diversity content in medical education.
Results: 54 students completed the survey (25% response rate). Significantly fewer students reported feeling prepared to take a medical history from transgender patients compared to cisgender patients (53.7% vs 94.4%, p< 0.001). In two OB/Gyn clinical scenarios, 51.9% of students felt prepared to discuss cervical cancer screening with a transmasculine patient, while 31.5% felt prepared to provide inclusive preconception counseling. The most common sources students cited for learning about gender medicine were independent learning outside medical school and fellow medical students.
Discussions: These data suggest that gender diversity content is an area for improvement in our institution’s curriculum, although response rate was a limitation. Transgender patients face health disparities that physicians may either perpetuate or mitigate, thus it is critical that students are taught inclusive gender medicine. Didactic sessions and clinical encounters have been shown to improve competence in transgender healthcare, especially when integrated longitudinally throughout medical training.
Topics: CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting, 2021, Student, Resident, Faculty, Clerkship Director, Clerkship Coordinator, Patient Care, Medical Knowledge, Practice-Based Learning & Improvement, UME, Quality & Safety,
Kyra Bonasia, PhD, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth; Allie Morgan, BSc; Grace Solomon, BA; Ella Damiano, MD
