Describing the Nature and Correlates of Health Service Providers’ Competency Working With Sexual and Gender Minority Patients: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Disparities in the health services delivered to sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals are widespread across health service disciplines. Many health service providers do not have the knowledge, comfort, or skills necessary to provide health services to SGM individuals. The objective of the current systematic review was to review the correlates of competency (defined as knowledge, attitude, and skill) that health service providers possess for working with SGM individuals. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses was utilized to guide search and reporting strategies. PsycInfo/PsycArticles, PubMed/Medline, and Google Scholar databases were searched to find studies that addressed health service providers’ competency working with SGM individuals. There were 31 studies included in the review. Approximately half of the studies utilized the full definition of competency (knowledge, attitude, and skill). The most common competency assessed was knowledge, and the least common was skill. The majority of the studies addressed health service providers in the social sciences. Health service education needs to emphasize competency working with SGM individuals. Of particular importance is developing skill sets, as many providers reported that they did not have the skills necessary to provide culturally competent health services to SGM individuals.

Implicit Bias Toward Lesbian and Gay Persons Among Nursing Students: A Correlation Study

“…Another unexpected finding was that identifying as “Other” sexuality predicted a bias favoring straight people, whereas identifying as lesbian or transgender were not significant predictors. These findings contradict prior studies, which found that persons who identified as sexual minorities held a more neutral bias or favored their sexuality in-group (Wilsey et al, 2021).…”

“…Recognizing and valuing these differences is a necessary part of the knowledge required to realize the change advocated for eliminating implicit bias toward LG persons (Bristol et al, 2020). The second source of conflict is the finding of a moderate implicit bias favoring straight people, with this bias being more robust than in the general population (Wilsey et al, 2021).…”

“…Such an approach should promote diversity and inclusiveness among faculty, students, and staff (Brown & Waller, 2022). Therefore, it is recommended that researchers consider including both implicit and explicit bias measures to explore differences that may exist (Wilsey et al, 2021). The concepts of implicit and explicit bias should be introduced prior to measurement to understand and interpret the results (Sukhera et al, 2019).…”

Development and initial validation of a sexual and gender minority competency-based survey for health service professionals.

“…We do so by developing items, testing factor structure and reliability, and generating initial validity evidence through testing for associations with theory-informed correlates. The need for an SGM health competency measure that can be used across health services professions was highlighted by a review of the current state of SGM health care competency training literature (Wilsey et al, 2021). This review identified that existing measures of competency are limited for a number of reasons.…”

Decolonial, intersectional pedagogies in Canadian Nursing and Medical Education

“…Through a recent study, we intended to create and share scholarly knowledge about Canadian NursMed Education as an upstream determinant of health. While the intersections of income level, gender, sexuality, sex, ability, and more have robust research programs in the realm of interdisciplinary health professions (Brosnan et al, 2016; Nisker, 2019; Sheppard et al, 2017; Siller et al, 2018; Wilsey et al, 2021), the intersections at the forefront of settler‐colonialism, namely, racialized identity, religion, spirituality, and ancestry are re‐emerging as important areas of inquiry in 21st century Canadian NursMed Education. Our aim is to build on ongoing discussions about the process and impact of engaging pedagogies that attend to calls for social justice, decolonization, and intersectional diversity in NursMed Education locally and globally.…”