Implementation of culturally relevant sexual and gender minority/sexual orientation and gender identity training at an NCI-Designated Cancer Center.

BACKGROUND

Routine collection and use of sexual orientation and gender identity data can assist in understanding and addressing the health disparities that affect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+ (LGBTQ+), also known as sexual and gender minority, individuals and communities. This study explored the implementation of a culturally relevant sexual and gender minority/sexual orientation and gender identity training program at a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.

METHODS

The training consisted of 6 in-person 15-minute modules or 3 virtual 30-minute modules that occurred during established high-reliability organization huddles attended by oncology faculty and staff. Module topics were (1) Building LGBTQ+ Knowledge & LGBTQ+ Cancer Disparities, (2) Creating an Inclusive Environment, (3) Recovering From Misgendering/Making Assumptions, (4) How to Receive & Respond to Feedback, (5) Witnessing & Responding to Discrimination, and (6) Making and Sustaining a Change. All high-reliability organization attendees were considered eligible for participation and were provided with pretraining and post-training surveys. Survey items included comfort caring for sexual and gender minority patients, practice collecting sexual orientation and gender identity data, knowledge of sexual and gender minority health, and demographics.

RESULTS

A total of 344 individuals completed the presurvey and 187 completed the postsurvey. Postsurvey results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in self-perceived knowledge about sexual and gender minority health (scale: 0-100, with 100 = highest; presurvey vs postsurvey, 69 vs 84; P < .001). Respondents also reported statistically significant improvements in confidence in engaging with sexual orientation and gender identity questions (53 vs 79, P < .001) as well as intention to collect patient sexual orientation and gender identity information (49 vs 75, P < .001). Notably, sexual orientation and gender identity data collection tracking demonstrated a 311% increase in sexual orientation and 262% in gender identity disclosure during the study period.

CONCLUSION

Despite the availability of sexual orientation and gender identity data fields within electronic health records, sexual orientation and gender identity disclosure remains an ongoing nationwide problem. Use of culturally relevant sexual and gender minority/sexual orientation and gender identity training can help improve oncology staff and clinician sexual and gender minority knowledge and confidence when engaging patients with and subsequent documentation of sexual orientation and gender identity data, resulting in improvement of data completion.