Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Individuals: Interprofessional Educational Project for MSW and Pharmacy Students

Overview: Interprofessional practice in the health care system is shown to be beneficial to the overall health outcomes among minority populations. Described here is an educational project for social work and pharmacy students that was integrated into the curriculum. It enhanced understandings of transgender individuals while applying a human rights perspective.Proposal text: Since the mid 1990’s there here has been increasing awareness of the importance of health professionals collaborating in health care settings. This collaboration has shown to improve patients’ services and care outcomes (Iachini et al., 2018; Institute of medicine, 2001). In order to create such a collaboration, there is a need to include interprofessional didactic activities in the curriculum.
Social workers have been part of health care teams since 1905 (Browne et al., 2018; Gehlert, 2019) with roles in micro, mezzo and macro settings. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) and the transition into patient centered care expanded and deepened the need for social workers’ competencies and expertise (McCabe & Sullivan, 2015). The broad view and the recognition of human rights perspectives among social workers enables social workers to focus on minorities’ unique needs within the health care system.
The minority stress model (Meyer & Frost, 2013) suggests that sexual minorities face multiple social environment stressors related to their identities which affect their health and mental health (Hendricks & Testa, 2012; Price-Feeney et al., 2020; Williams et al. 2003). Research shows that gender affirmation procedures lower health and mental health risks among transgender persons. These include legal, social, and medical interventions that enable the transition into the preferred and most authentic self (Green et al., in press). Medical affirming care currently utilized includes surgical interventions, postponing of physical changes by puberty blockers, and gender affirming hormone therapies that enable the development of physical characteristics that align with the individual’s gender identity (Call at al., 2021).
To many in the transgender community, access to health care is an ongoing challenge, partially due to the legislations surrounding the health care services. Additional major challenges are posed by the lack of knowledge and understanding of health care providers of the unique needs of transgender individuals. One of the ongoing encounters between transgender individuals and the health care system occurs in the pharmacy settings, where hormones are being provided on a regular basis. Creating shared educational experiences for pharmacy and social work students will deepen the understanding of the two professions’ knowledge about the transgender population (Cox et al., 2014).
This presentation looks at an interprofessional educational project developed for an MSW and pharmacy students from the same university. The project included reviewing readings about transgender healthcare as they relate to both professions as well as a pre-recorded interview with a transgender individual, who later joined a live session. Shared lectures about diversity and social justice content as it relates to transgender individuals and review of the hormone replacement therapies currently used were given, and students worked in teams to create infographics focusing on key issues faced by the transgender community directed to healthcare professionals’ education.
Incorporating educational interprofessional projects into the curriculum leads to critical conversations between health care future professionals. It raises awareness of health care services from a human rights perspective and expands healthcare professionals’ knowledge and future collaboration and access to care of minorities and underserved populations.