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Health Professions Students’ Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Toward Transgender Healthcare

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Abstract

Most graduate medical education programs dedicate almost no time in their curricula to the topic of transgender health. This study aimed to assess medical (MD), physician assistant (PA), and clinical nutrition (CN) students’ self-reported knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward healthcare for transgender patients and identify differences between groups. This cross-sectional study was conducted at a single United States academic health center. Students were surveyed using a questionnaire with 16 Likert-type items. A total of 178 MD, 96 PA, and 28 CN students completed the survey. Most (67%) respondents reported a “high” level of personal comfort in caring for a transgender patient, with no difference between groups (p = .57). MD students were more likely than PA or CN students to report greater knowledge of gender dysphoria management (p < .001) and transgender care guidelines (p < .001), as well as a greater skill level in caring for patients with gender dysphoria (p = .009) and inquiring about gender identity (p < .001). All three groups, however, reported overall “low” or “intermediate” levels of knowledge and skills. Our research demonstrates that MD, PA, and CN students exhibit an equally high degree of personal comfort in caring for transgender patients but lack the knowledge and skills to confidently care for them.

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Data Availability

Participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

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Funding

Funding provided by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences [NIH Grant UL1-RR024982].

Author information

Author notes

  1. Anita Vasudevan

    Present address: Sutter Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency Program, Santa Rosa, CA, USA

  2. Bethany G. Hart

    Present address: Prism Health North Texas, Dallas, TX, USA

  3. Tiffany B. Kindratt

    Present address: Department of Kinesiology, College of Nursing and Health Innovation, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA

  4. Patti Pagels

    Present address: Resource Center of Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA

  5. Mariana Carrillo

    Present address: Department of Health, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, Mexico

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX, USA

    Anita Vasudevan & Antonio D. García

  2. University of Texas Southwestern School of Health Professions, Dallas, TX, USA

    Bethany G. Hart, Tiffany B. Kindratt & Mariana Carrillo

  3. Department of Physician Assistant Studies, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA

    Patti Pagels & Venetia Orcutt

  4. Department of Clinical Nutrition, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA

    Tad Campbell

  5. Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA

    May Lau

  6. Children’s Health Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA

    May Lau

Authors
  1. Anita Vasudevan
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Contributions

AV participated in contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, data analysis, data interpretation, article drafting, article revision, and final manuscript approval. ADG participated in acquisition of data, data analysis, data interpretation, article drafting, article revision, and final manuscript approval. BH participated in contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, article revision, and final manuscript approval. TBK participated in data analysis, data interpretation, article revision, and final manuscript approval. PP participated in contributions to conception and design, article revision, and final manuscript approval. VO participated in contributions to conception and design, article revision, and final manuscript approval. TC participated in acquisition of data, article revision, and final manuscript approval. MC participated in acquisition of data, article revision, and final manuscript approval. ML participated in contributions to conception and design, article revision, and final manuscript approval.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antonio D. García.

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Conflicts of interest

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Ethical Approval

This study was approved by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center institutional review board.

Consent to Participate

All study participants gave informed consent to participate in this study.

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Not applicable.

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Vasudevan, A., García, A.D., Hart, B.G. et al. Health Professions Students’ Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Toward Transgender Healthcare. J Community Health 47, 981–989 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-022-01135-y

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