Pediatric resident, PGY2 CHKD Norfolk, Virginia, United States
Background: Public awareness and legal protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and more(LGBTQ+) community continue to be a polarizing topic in the United States of America. As pediatricians, it is our mission to reduce healthcare disparity and provide the best care for children and teenagers regardless of sexual or gender identity. Use of preferred gender pronouns correctly is an aspect of graduate medical education (GME) professionalism competency. Proper utilization may reduce discriminatory care and shows respect for the patient and their wellbeing. However, it is only in recent years that use of patient’s preferred pronouns has begun to become standard practice, with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) releasing a policy supporting transgender and gender-diverse pediatric care in 2018. Objective: Assess the quality of our program’s gender/pronoun education and trainees’ level of understanding. Design/Methods: Our resident-led diversity, equity, and inclusion committee developed an anonymous survey which was sent to all of our residents to assess the quality of pronoun education. Results: Out of 79 residents, 50.6% (40) responded to our survey. 55% (22) of the responders recalled receiving pediatric pronoun education with 77.3% (17) providing a rating of fair/good. 27.8% (5) who had not received gender education said a patient’s sex (assigned at birth) can be used to identify patient pronouns compared to 13.6% (3) from those with education. 61.2% (11) without education felt providers should often/always introduce their pronouns compared to 72.8% (16) with education. 16.7% (3) without education felt that use of incorrect pronouns is not insensitive/offensive compared to 0% (0) with education. 90+ % of those with and without education believe providers should often/always ask patients their pronouns. 97.5% (39) of the responders would like clinical etiquette guidelines on both how to ask for pronouns and use of pronouns during patient care.
Conclusion(s): This survey illuminates gaps in both education and understanding of elementary gender issues in our residency program. Quality of education appears to be lacking with many residents believing that patients’ pronouns can be inferred from their appearance and/or assigned sex. Training sessions should include education on gender identity and the definition of gender vs sex in addition to examples of how to appropriately assess a patient’s preferred pronouns. The hope of this education is to allow our residents to provide informed, compassionate care to all patients, including those who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming.
