Background: This session will highlight the need for gender-neutral consumer health information and provide information specialists with tips and tools to improve health information in their spaces and work with clinicians to neutralize patient materials. Taking steps to neutralize language will ensure that all patients are understood and respected when seeking healthcare.
Description: The patient librarian studied patient materials that were being provided in the hospital and highlighted instances of gendered or neutral language. Outside LGBTQ+ resources were consulted in order to make better decisions about writing patient materials. Once writing techniques had been established, the patient librarian started offering healthcare professionals training sessions on developing gender-neutral and inclusive materials for patients. In addition, library staff worked closely with clinicians who had experience with gender-neutral health-related questions to set a standard for future materials.
Conclusion: Through this initiative, we hope that we can communicate to clinicians that inclusivity is important in a healthcare setting. We would like to continue working closely with healthcare professionals to make gender-neutral language the standard for all patient materials across the hospital. We will evaluate the success of our project based on the collaborations with those clinical staff members who produce consumer health information. We will keep track of the number of individuals who come to training sessions and contact us for editing purposes.
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