Rose Gwen, Mullock Ken, Gatin Elijah, Fayant-McLeod T, McCarron Michelle C E, Clark Megan, Madill Stéphanie J
School of Rehabilitation Science, University of Saskatchewan, 104 Clinic Pl, Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z4, Canada.
Trans Sask Support Services, 429 9th St E, Prince Albert, SK S6V 0Y1, Canada.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2025 Apr 25;22(5):678. doi: 10.3390/ijerph22050678.
People who are trans and gender-diverse are underserved by the healthcare system; one way to improve healthcare access is with peer healthcare navigators. We piloted two trans peer health navigators from April 2021 to March 2022 in a small Canadian province. The purpose of this study was to explore how trans peer navigators experienced their work and work environment through reflective journalling. The navigators journalled roughly weekly. They were encouraged to interrogate their own biases and to think about what was omitted from conversations with others. Each journal was treated as a qualitative case study, anonymized and analyzed thematically using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Six themes emerged: expected work, unexpected work, teamwork, lived experience, challenges, and systemic factors. These themes were complexly interwoven with a network of subthemes that frequently fell under multiple main themes and were highly emotionally charged, many both positively and negatively. The importance of navigators being transgender themselves was highlighted. The rewards came from being able to provide meaningful help to people in their community and the challenges came from not being respected by other healthcare providers and systemic barriers that prevented them from helping clients. The navigators successfully adapted their services to bridge some systemic barriers. This research has implications for improving both navigators' and clients' experiences.
跨性别者和性别多样化者在医疗保健系统中未得到充分服务；改善医疗保健可及性的一种方法是通过同伴医疗导航员。2021年4月至2022年3月，我们在加拿大一个小省份试点了两名跨性别同伴医疗导航员。本研究的目的是通过反思性日记探索跨性别同伴导航员如何体验他们的工作和工作环境。导航员大约每周写一次日记。他们被鼓励审视自己的偏见，并思考与他人交谈中遗漏了什么。每篇日记都被视为一个定性案例研究，进行匿名处理，并使用解释现象学分析进行主题分析。出现了六个主题：预期工作、意外工作、团队合作、生活经历、挑战和系统因素。这些主题与一系列子主题复杂地交织在一起，这些子主题经常属于多个主要主题，并且情感负荷很高，许多主题既有积极的也有消极的。强调了导航员自身为跨性别者的重要性。回报来自能够为社区中的人们提供有意义的帮助，而挑战则来自不被其他医疗服务提供者尊重以及阻止他们帮助客户的系统障碍。导航员成功地调整了他们的服务，以克服一些系统障碍。这项研究对改善导航员和客户的体验具有启示意义。
