Before a licensed physician will see the degree at the end of his or her educational road, they will, among others things, master complex subject matter, give up sleep and deal with a level of stress most Americans can’t possible fathom. They will also learn to be excellent communicators and, perhaps most importantly, convince others to heed their advice.
And to that end, future doctors may have a little help in that regard, as the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) recently released a publication intended to help teach medical students how to meet the particular needs of LGBT patients, NPR reports.
Surveys have shown that many doctors have difficulty discussing medical issues specific to the LGBT community, Dr. Scott Leibowitz tells NPR. Leibowitz is assistant professor of child psychiatry at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and also served on the advisory committee for the AMC’s new publication. When doctors aren’t comfortable discussing certain issues with their patients, it can decrease the quality of care they’re able to provide.
Young adults who identify as LGBT, especially young women, are more likely to experience an array of health problems and less likely to make medical appointments than their heterosexual peers, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
LGBT women from their teens to early 30s are more likely to report their own health as being poor or to be diagnosed with asthma, depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and sexually transmitted diseases. Despite that, they also report being less likely to receive physical exams, the report goes on to say.
The new publication from the AAMC offers information to medical schools and students on some of the care disparities that effect the LGBT community and provides ways to bridge those gaps. Rather than suggest specialized classes or lectures, the document shows educators how they can modify existing curricula to be more inclusive of people who have sexual or gender identities that doctors may not have as much experience with. In addition to instruction on how to provide medical care specific to LGBT individuals, the document also covers how doctors can avoid giving the impression of judging patients or doing anything else that could make them uncomfortable.
The AAMC isn’t alone in trying to make quality health care more accessible to the LGBT community. Medical centers across the country are making strides in creating health care settings that are more accepting of and valuable to LGBT people, the Human Rights Campaign reports. In 2014, 427 health care facilities met all of the core four “Leader” criteria for LGBT patient-centered care in the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Healthcare Equality Index, more than twice the number that received it last year.
To be honored with the title, an organization has to demonstrate that it grants equal visitation rights to LGBT patients and their loved ones, trains staff on how to treat LGBT patients and doesn’t discriminate in either patient relations or hiring practices, according to the HRC.
