Humanizing Healthcare: Supporting LGBTQ+ Healthcare Professionals and Trainees
Abstract
The public perception of the healthcare profession has been shifting in recent years largely attributed to the rise of scientific and medical skepticism impacting perceptions of the value of healthcare professionals and care itself (Goddard & Patel 2021). While healthcare professions remain associated with higher public value, healthcare professionals and trainees are expected to adhere to rigid expectations of medical professionalism that may contradict other aspects of their identities. LGBTQ+ identity in particular may pose conflicts to the expectations of healthcare professionalism, contributing to lower self-perceived value for LGBTQ+ healthcare professionals and trainees compared to non-LGBTQ+ healthcare professionals and trainees (Wolfe 2023). The norms, practices, and beliefs that characterize healthcare and medicine, otherwise known as the Culture of Medicine, promote adherence to cis and heteronormative norms that endanger the wellbeing of employees and patients who are perceived as deviant. LGBTQ+ healthcare professionals may offer protection against violence, mistreatment, and abuse related to minoritized sexual and gender identities. Using a mix-methods analysis, this paper evaluates the extent to which LGBTQ+ healthcare professionals and trainees recognize patient and employee treatment related to LGBTQ+ identities. Healthcare professionals and trainees in the United States completed a virtual survey between May and September of 2023 (N=911) that collected information on experiences related to LGBTQ+ work and educational information. Results suggest that LGBTQ+ healthcare professionals and trainees are uniquely positioned to recognize and characterize patient and employee treatment. Specifically, transgender and nonbinary healthcare professionals and trainees act as witnesses and protectors for patients with marginalized identities, including LGBTQ+ identities. Additionally, institutional inclusivity practices and policies are protective against identity-related stress in the workplace and educational settings for lesbian and gay healthcare professionals and trainees. Quantitative and qualitative results indicate professional consequences related to LGBTQ+ identity-based stress are driven by LGBTQ+ status, involvement in LGBTQ+ workplace groups, and inclusiveness of the institutional climate. Qualitative responses indicate transgender healthcare professionals experience additional stress in the workplace due to involvement in LGBTQ+ workplace groups. These findings suggest that although workplace inclusivity practices are vital for addressing the added stress experienced by LGBTQ+ healthcare professionals and trainees in the workplace, institutions must make efforts to transfer the burden of equity initiatives from transgender professionals and trainees. Future research should investigate how LGBTQ+ healthcare professionals and trainees intervene in issues of patient and employee mistreatment and identify effective ameliorative techniques.