Guest article provided by: Samantha Keller, Samantha is a contributing writer for OnlineMSWPrograms.com which provides both current and future social workers and other healthcare professionals with education and career information. Below you will find her perspective on caring for patients of the LGBTQ+ community.
One of the wonderful things about travel nursing is the ability to meet people from all walks of life and within a variety of cultures. With so many options to choose from, a travel nurse never knows where the next assignment may lead. In order to provide optimal patient care, travel nurses must practice cultural sensitivity in every setting to which they are assigned. Since members of the LGBTQ+ community include individuals of varying ages, socioeconomic statuses, genders, races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds—understanding their unique needs is essential to providing the best in patient care.
With so many options to choose from, a travel nurse never knows where the next assignment may lead. In order to provide optimal patient care, travel nurses must practice cultural sensitivity in every setting to which they are assigned. Since members of the LGBTQ+ community include individuals of varying ages, socioeconomic statuses, genders, races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds—understanding their unique needs is essential to providing the best in patient care.
Embracing Cultural Diversity in Travel Nursing
Trusting relationships are important in any setting—and the healthcare environment is no different. However, as noted in How To Be Culturally Sensitive Working with Clients with a Range of Identities, trusting healthcare providers may be difficult for some individuals. There are a variety of factors involved in this dynamic—such as a history of discrimination, disparity in representations of diverse people as care providers, and lack of recognition of the unique challenges that some patients face.
As a travel nurse, you’re frequently required to adapt to new people and new environments
—so you’re familiar with both the challenges of doing so and how helpful it is when someone tries to understand your specific needs. In this sense, you may have a special understanding of the importance of embracing cultural diversity as you travel around the country, caring for patients with unique needs of their own.
Honing Cultural Sensitivity
Cultural sensitivity requires that nurses possess the skills that are needed to affirm diversity and embrace the values of people from different social or cultural backgrounds. Practicing it is key to building relationships with patients, since it helps nurses broaden their perspectives to better understand the unique needs that patients may have.
An important aspect of honing cultural sensitivity is engaging in self-examination.
One place to start is by evaluating whether you have any internal assumptions, phobias, biases or beliefs that may influence your behavior. It’s also important to be aware of your own reactions and body language.
In addition to self-examination, nurses can use empowering strategies to help patients feel understood and accepted—such as those included in The National Education Association’s (NEA) Diversity Toolkit:
- Use inclusive language in written and verbal discussions.
- Ask each client for their preferred pronouns, even when you feel sure of their gender.
- Ask for permission before touching or hugging each person.
- Encourage patients to have a family member accompany them if privacy is needed.
- Know the cultural or diversity-related resources in your community.
Caring for LGBTQ+ patients
Understanding important terms related to LGBTQ+ patients is essential to understanding their unique needs.
The NEA’s Diversity Toolkit: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity defines several key terms:
- Sexual orientation is “an identity based on whether someone is attracted to people of a sex different from their own, the same sex, or both sexes (i.e., heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual).”
- Gender identity is “a person’s internal sense of being male, female, or somewhere else along the gender spectrum.”
- Transgender is “an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from their biological sex or the sex they were assigned at birth.”
Another excellent resource is The Cleveland Clinic Diversity Toolkit, which is an in-depth guide to hundreds of cultural, religious and ethnic identities. When working with LGBTQ+ patients, the toolkit recommends keeping key points in mind, including the following:
- Create a non-judgmental, open, caring atmosphere. This is essential due to the “intense difficulty some patients experience disclosing same sex behaviors in a clinical setting.”
- Maintain strict confidentiality. An “inadvertent ‘outing’ of a patient could have a significant impact on their family relationships, livelihood, social status, and personal safety.”
- Explain the medical record documentation process. “Gay patients may be particularly conscious of protecting their medical information.”
- Extend respect. “Friends and partners of gay patients should be given the respect and privileges usually afforded to a spouse or relative.”
- Avoid using gender specific terms. Use “gender neutral terms like ‘partner, mate, companion or spouse.’”
- Recognize that families may have nontraditional structures. Examples may include same sex parents, or multiple parent situations.
- Remember that a patient who has a child is not automatically heterosexual.
- Support children who express an attraction toward the same sex. Don’t assume that the information is false.
As a travel nurse you will have many opportunities to care for patients from all walks of life—which is why embracing diversity and practicing cultural sensitivity are essential to providing excellence in patient care.
