Exploring the approaches and impacts of education interventions for transgender and gender diverse health on pre-registration healthcare students: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Accessing adequate education on transgender and gender diverse health remains one of many significant barriers to transgender and gender diverse people receiving inclusive and affirming healthcare. This review aimed to explore the approaches and impacts of education interventions in transgender and gender diverse healthcare on pre-registration health professions students to determine recommendations for health professions curricula.

METHODS

This scoping review applied a 5-stage methodological framework of (1) identifying the research question, (2) searching for relevant studies, (3) selecting studies, (4) charting data, and (5) collating, summarising and reporting results. The search was conducted through Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus and PsycINFO databases using key terms relevant to transgender and gender diverse identities, education, healthcare students and professions. Eligible studies were reviewed in blind duplicate, with 56 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Interpretive description was used to document data, followed by comprehensive analysis through data coding and thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Studies showed that education interventions improved student confidence, attitudes, comfort, preparedness, knowledge, and/or competence in transgender and gender diverse health. Six key themes were identified, including: (1) transgender and gender diverse health education as a positive experience for students; (2) required across health education curricula; (3) the value of including lived/living experience; (4) more time and content is required; (5) including discipline-specific content; and (6) the value of applied and multimodal learning approaches.

CONCLUSION

This review identified positive impacts on pre-registration health profession students through the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse health into health professions' curricula. Students are motivated to learn about transgender and gender diverse health within the core curriculum with discipline-specific content, through multimodal applied learning approaches. Future research should explore transgender and gender diverse health education measuring long-term impact on students as healthcare professionals and transgender and gender diverse client outcomes.