PP15 Can simulation fill the gap in transgender medical education for healthcare professionals?

Abstract

Background The Transgender Equality report found that transgender people encounter significant problems in using NHS services, due to staff attitudes and their lack of knowledge and understanding.1 Equality legislation in the UK prohibits discrimination of individuals based on their gender identity and yet the NHS is not ensuring zero tolerance of transphobic behaviour.1 2 Therefore it is vital that we fill this gap in educating healthcare professionals on responding to the needs of patients who identify as transgender. Summary of Work A survey was sent out to all staff at Darent Valley Hospital (DVH) in June 2020 enquiring about their experiences with the transgender community. The authors of this paper received LGBTQ+ basic awareness training. Following this, we created a transgender simulation scenario in which the transgender woman who hasn’t fully transitioned presents with signs and symptoms of testicular torsion. The scenario was firstly run for Foundation Year 1 doctors in our simulation suite, and then run in our Emergency Department as an in-situ simulation for the Emergency Department staff. Both verbal and written feedback was collected from the simulation sessions. Summary of Results 57 staff responded to the survey, with 41 of them (72%) stating that they had previous experience with treating transgender patients. 79% of the participants said that they had never had any teaching about transgender awareness in a medical context, or had accessed any e-learning modules on the subject. The simulation was well received and comments included ‘the scenario was really useful to highlight the differences in medical problems transgender people may face due to the medications they may be taking’, and ‘it is really important for junior doctors to experience working with transgender people to ensure they are aware of how important it is to make the patient comfortable’. Discussion and Conclusions Our results showed that many of the staff at DVH had experience with transgender patients but most of them had never had any sort of education on how best to care for them and meet their specific needs. The feedback from our simulation scenarios was overwhelmingly positive, and showed that there is clearly an appetite for education on transgender issues and this has been neglected somewhat by the NHS so far. Reference House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee ( 2016). Transgender equality: First report of session 2015-2016, London: The Stationery Office (HC390). Available at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmwomeq/390/39003.htm#_idTextAnchor216 (Last accessed 13/07/20) UK Government ( 2010). Equality Act. Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents (Last accessed 13/07/20)