Incorporating Sex and Gender into Culturally Competent Simulation in Medical Education.

Simulation provides a vehicle to introduce sex and gender competent training into the education of medical trainees. Using the previously validated Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Sex and Gender Specific Health PubMed Advanced Search Tool, we reviewed the existing sex- and gender-based medical simulation education literature. A single article specifically addressed the incorporation of sex- and gender-based medicine in the development of simulation-based training. The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Sex and Gender Interest Group then collaboratively developed recommendations for the incorporation of these concepts into simulation training. Collaboratively developed recommendations were as follows. Knowledge-based competency in sex- and gender-based medicine involves understanding the relevant key terminology. Attitude-based competencies include an understanding of tendencies toward bias in patient assessment and care, which can be addressed in the self-reflection component of a simulation debrief. Skill-based competencies include communication skills, assessing the social context in which a patient is pursuing medical care, and recognition of gender-based cultural models of health and disease. Successful implementation includes specific faculty development, administrative and financial resources, gender-specific simulation equipment and selection of standardized patients, and scenarios that address sex- and gender-based medical care. The adoption of sex and gender competent simulation has the potential to significantly impact medical training and the provision of empathetic and humanistic care while reducing sex- and gender-based health care disparities.