R. Morton1, J. Rasey1, W. Ge1,2
1Youngstown State University, Graduate Studies in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Youngstown, United States, 2Youngstown State University, Center of Excellence in Sports Medicine and Applied Biomechanics, Youngstown, United States
Background: A patient-centered approach is the key to cultural competence which relies on identifying and negotiating many factors including sexuality and gender issues. Patients from the LGBTQ community face unique health disparities. One solution is to enrich curriculum with LGBTQ health content in educational institutions. However, very little was known on comfort level, attitudes, and preparedness to address LGBTQ Health in Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students in the United States. Understanding these critical factors in DPT students is very important for physical therapy educational programs to assess the curriculum in cultural competence related to LGBTQ health. In the long term, it may improve the quality of physical therapy programs and healthcare systems, improve patient outcomes, and benefit society as a whole.
Purpose: The purpose of this project was to determine comfort level, attitudes, and preparedness to address LGBTQ health in practice in DPT students in the United States.
Methods: Convenience sampling was used to recruit DPT students enrolled in Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE)-accredited DPT programs in the United States. The research design was a cross-sectional nonexperimental national survey of DPT students in the United States. The survey was administered electronically using the SurveyGizmo (Boulder, CO) online survey software and tool. Chairpersons or Program Directors of all CAPTE-accredited physical therapy programs in the United States were contacted by email to forward the survey and informed consent information to all DPT students in their physical therapy program. The 12-item survey aimed to evaluate participants’ perspective regarding LGBTQ health across three domains: comfort level with caring for LGBTQ patients, attitude towards LGBTQ patients, and formal training in LGBTQ healthcare.
Results: A majority of the DPT students (91.7%, n=931) agreed that they felt comfortable treating patients who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual, and a little fewer students (75.7%, n=768) agreed that they felt comfortable treating patients who identify as transgender. An overwhelming majority of respondents (96.7%, n=982) agreed that it was the responsibility of all healthcare providers to care for patients who identify as LGBTQ. Conversely, only 20.6% of students (n=209) agreed that their training at their program had prepared them to care for patients who identify as LGBTQ. Most students (66.0%, n=670) indicated that they were interested in receiving further education about LGBTQ health. Ordinal logistic regression analysis indicated that some demographical factors, including age, gender, number of years in a physical therapy program, and student’s own sexual orientation, have impacts on some of the responses.
Conclusion(s): Most DPT students in the United States report high comfort level with and positive attitudes towards patients who identify as LGBTQ but feel underprepared by their physical therapy programs and demonstrate an interest in more training.
Implications: The findings provide insights for DPT programs to assess the curriculum in cultural competence and LGBTQ health. The results inform DPT programs need to enhance their educational curriculum involving LGBTQ health. Improved DPT programs will improve the quality of their graduates as workforce in healthcare system and ultimately improve patient outcomes with patient-centered care.
Funding, acknowledgements: None.
Keywords: LGBTQ health, education
Topic: Education
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: Youngstown State University
Committee: Institutional Review Board
Ethics number: Protocol 165-19
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
