Assessing the Level of Awareness Regarding the Unique Medical Needs of the LGBTQ+ Community Among Emergency Department Physicians, as Well as Their Attitudes Toward Taking Medical Histories, Examining, and Treating Patients From This Community.

Overview

Assessing the level of knowledge and awareness regarding the unique medical needs of the LGBTQ+ community among emergency department physicians by distribution of questionnaires to all emergency department physicians (pediatric, OB/GYN, and general-internal medicine and surgery).

Emergency medical teams play a unique role in providing initial care to diverse populations, including marginalized or minority groups. Implicit prejudice can influence the interactions of emergency personnel and contribute to a lack of trust in healthcare providers among some members of the LGBTQ+ community. Previous studies have highlighted a lack of LGBTQ-focused education tailored to the specific needs of emergency department staff, with 83%-85% of such personnel reporting a deficiency in knowledge and practical tools. This lack of training begins during medical school and persists as students advance to residency and internship. Medical students, residents, and fellows have reported significantly lower levels of comfort in taking sexual histories and managing sexual health issues among the LGBTQ population. Moll et al. surveyed 319 emergency medicine residents in the United States. A significant minority of respondents felt that taking a medical history and performing physical examinations were more challenging with gay, lesbian, or bisexual patients (24.6%) and even more so with transgender patients (42.6%). The majority of residents (63%) do not ask patients about their sexual orientation when they present with abdominal pain or genital complaints. Reports of LGBT-phobic and discriminatory comments came from both fellow residents (16.6%) and faculty members (10%). Additionally, 2.5% of respondents felt uncomfortable working alongside other physicians from the LGBTQ community, and 6% did not agree that LGBTQ patients deserve the same quality of care as others. Training healthcare teams provides information and enhances skills, potentially leading to improved quality of care for LGBTQ individuals. Intervention programs report short-term improvements in the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare students and professionals regarding sexual and LGBTQ-specific healthcare. However, a unified conceptual model for training-covering duration, content, and methodology-has been, and remains, lacking. We aim to Assessing the level of knowledge and awareness regarding the unique medical needs of the LGBTQ+ community among emergency department physicians by distribution of questionnaires to all emergency department physicians (pediatric, OB/GYN, and general-internal medicine and surgery).