Classroom Instruction: Medical Students’ Attitudes Toward LGBTQI⁺ Patients

ABSTRACT

The Association of American Medical Colleges declared it essential that medical students receive instruction on the health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI⁺) individuals. The integration of LGBTQI⁺ health and instruction in medical curricula, however, is scant. A pre-post confidential survey study was completed by first-year medical students (N = 103; 85% response rate) in the context of classroom instruction. The California State University Northbridge instrument assessed students’ perspectives on LGBTQI⁺ Patient-Care, Comfort with LGBTQI⁺ Patient Interactions, Gender and Sexuality, Civil Rights, and LGBTQI⁺ Education. Post-instruction, students reported a significant increase in understanding of bisexuality (p = .02), being transgender (p = .006), and LGBTQI⁺ couples’ adoption rights (p = .003). The findings support the incorporation of LGBTQI⁺ instruction into medical curricula and suggest that educators may consider consulting pre-intervention data before teaching LGBTQI⁺ health content, which would allow material to be tailored toward learner-specific needs.

KEYWORDS:

• LGBTQ health
• LGBTQ medical curricula
• lgbtq medical education
• medical students
• medical education

Acknowledgments

All authors listed have contributed sufficiently to the project to be included as authors. We presented our preliminary findings as a plenary oral presentation at the American Medical Association Research Symposium (National Harbor, Maryland, November 2018). We thank our LGBTQI⁺ students for their feedback on our sessions across the years. Without their input and willingness to be vulnerable with us, this work would not be possible.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available to interested readers, with the condition that it will not be used for other scientific or non-scientific presentations without permission from all authors. The data are available from the corresponding author, K. S., upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The authors use LGBTQI⁺; the “+” used for inclusivity. Throughout the Introduction and Discussion, the LGBTQI⁺ acronym is reported as it was used in the published work we reference, including the use of sexual and gender minorities over the use of any acronyms.