Exploring Personal Factors that Contribute to LGBT Competence in Physical Therapy Education.

Background: Stigma, lack of knowledge, and personal biases of healthcare providers contribute to negative healthcare experiences in the LGBTQ+ population. Targeted education improves provider knowledge and awareness of personal biases resulting in self-perceived improvements in readiness to provide competent care. There has been minimal investigation into healthcare curricula and provider personal factors such as cognitive flexibility (CF) related to competent care of the LGBTQ+ population. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between CF and perceived LGBT competence in student physical therapists (SPT) and student physical therapist assistants (SPTA).

Subjects: 166 SPT and 49 SPTA.

Methods: Anonymous Qualtrics survey including demographic information, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Development of Clinical Skills Scale (LGBT-DOCSS), and the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS).

Results: No significant relationship between LGBT-DOCSS and CFS scores in SPT (P=0.424), but a positive relationship in SPTA (P<0.001). Overall LGBT-DOCSS scores were significantly different among SPT (P=0.005), but not between SPTA (P=0.757).

Conclusion: LGBT competence improves with knowledge acquisition as demonstrated by SPT. Health professions education should include more population-specific content to improve LGBT competence. Further exploration of non-cognitive factors is needed to fully understand their impact on LGBT competence.