Discrimination and prejudice, overt or subtle, present significant barriers to reducing the efficacy of healthcare provision in this case specifically towards LGBTQ+ and transgender persons. Inclusive and non-discriminatory environments are pivotal in ensuring that those populations classed as marginalized can access much-needed care. This paper will instead attempt to delve into a safety quality issue that the health care facility can look at for an easy transition of LGBQT and transgender. During this assessment, a quality improvement initiative will be proposed which contributes to improving patient safety and reducing costs through analysis of factors that contribute to risk in patient safety, identification of evidence-based solutions, discussion of the role of nurses in coordinating care, and recognition of key stakeholders.
Factors Leading to Patient-Safety Risk
The prevalence of discrimination and prejudice towards LGBTQ+ and transgender individuals within health facilities creates patient harm risks that remain a broader issue for the healthcare world. The capacity to obtain proper treatment muddles failings of engaging people who were allegedly charged is proof lies an inherent problem which stems from fear, misunderstanding and lack of training of health providers (Casanova-Perez et al., 2021). The presence of such factors contributes to the formation of an atmosphere where LGBTQ+ and transgendered individuals are mainly facing a challenge with getting quality health care services that meet their demands.
The impact of discrimination is not limited to the healthcare interaction only; LGBTQ+ persons develop poor health outcomes. Also, refusal to give necessary health data since fear that they will be judged or discriminated against negatively impacts assessment and individualization of care planning. Thus, in the vicious cycle of impaired patient care, LGBTQ will soon have bad health outcomes because their special healthcare needs and risk factors remain unattended (Casanova-Perez et al., 2021). Discrimination also contains psychological aspects that strengthen the peril to LGBTQ+ persons regarding patient safety. However, and arguably more importantly the factor of embarrassment or scorn truly prevents LGBTQ+ and transgender individuals from obtaining necessary medical care. These include overt denial of care, language and behaviour used to demean individual dignity and respect. Additionally, there is widespread cultural incompetence among health professionals creating an environment where patients feel confused within the healthcare system believing that They are rejected in all areas of life and not understood as well as dissatisfied.
Evidence-Based Solutions to Improve Patient Safety
Critical to reducing the occurrences of discrimination against LGBTQ+ patients and the risk to patient safety in healthcare settings is establishing solutions that are based on inclusivity, cultural sensitivity and fairness in care delivery. Creating awareness and a culture of continuous learning is a bottom-up approach. The organizations should be providing complete cultural competence training to every personnel, creating awareness about the health disparities experienced by LGBTQ people, terminologies, and means of respectful communication. This program also helps to deconstruct stereotypes and grow empathetic, giving the health care practitioners proper tools for caring positively when dealing with LGBTQ+ patients (Matsuzaka et al., 2021). Furthermore, establishing as well enforcing inclusive policies is taking form as the foundational columns in supporting the safety of the patients as well as their care. Healthcare settings must take up unambiguous non-discrimination policies as articulated by clearly defined articulation denouncing discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. These guidelines should be rendered clearly to all the concerned parties, conveyed and held through responsible mechanisms along with the view of providing a compassionate space for the LGBTQ people who would desire treatment.
Additionally, it is essential to secure safe spaces for developing their confidence as well as facilitating open dialogues. Identification of localized spaces or even visual indicators like effective displays of signages as well as rainbows can help develop safe spaces within the healthcare premises. This physical demonstration of support assures individuals’ safety and very much encourages them to offer key health information that eventually improves the quality and effectiveness of treatment. Similarly, this can be considered an attempt to offer culturally sensitive and quality care to the LGBTQ+ clientele as far as the addition of gender identity data collection to patient intake forms is concerned (Matsuzaka et al., 2021). By developing more detailed and accurate demographic data, healthcare providers will better understand the specific additional health care needs of LGBTQ+ patients, and be able to anticipate potential issues associated with such treatment delivery turning such possibilities into necessary proactive measures.
Nurses’ Role in Coordinating Care
Nurses play a central role in care coordination, which helps improve patient safety and reduce associated costs-versus-benefits considerations, particularly about the LGBTQ+ and transgender populations. Since their frontline position relates to the direct care of patients, nurses are better able to develop frequent interactions with the patients, meaning there is an opportunity for encouraging practices that consider inclusivity and equity in offering care to this subset of patients. Nurses should focus on building better relationships with the patients always respecting, empathizing and being sensitive to their cultures in cases like LGBTQ+ and transgender. Besides, they provide culturally competent care for their patients in the sense that treat them how an LGBTQ+ patient would expect (Sherman et al., 2021). Through active listening of the patient’s here-and-now experiences that validate for them, there is provision for a safe space whereby persons feel free to reveal critical data about their health statuses alongside personal needs and preferences.
Nurses form short communication bridges and solve problems as they build trust which provides therapeutic connections to allow patients to have desired engagement levels that would develop optimal health results from knowledge in holistic therapeutic sessions. Apart from this role, the nurses play teaching and advocating positions for patients as well as fellow health professionals about knowledge-sharing skills bias in creating an awareness atmosphere within hospital environments (Sherman et al., 2021). Equity and justice are an integral part of the daily practice to promote continuous learning and self-reflection. Nurses use advocacy as their essential tool for transformative change toward a society free from discrimination against LGBTQ+ groups.
Stakeholders for Driving Safety Enhancements
Driving the safety arrangements, regarding the issue of no discrimination against LGBTQ+ and transgender people in healthcare settings, forward demands cooperation with various stakeholders. The important representatives of the stakeholders include the administrators of health care, policymakers, educators, community organizations along groups advocating in favour of LGBTQ+. Healthcare administrators have a key role to play in establishing an inclusive environment and resource allocation aimed at training and policy development towards reducing discrimination and promoting patient safety (Ding et al., 2020). Also, the policymakers can enforce laws and legal frameworks that provide safeguards to the rights of LGBTQ+ and transgenders, besides bringing healthcare facilities to account for their discriminatory practices. Hence, there should be considerations to integrate the topics of LGBTQ+ health in nursing curricula and continuous education programs, so that future nurses can gain knowledge and competency in providing the best possible compassionate care to their patients.
In addition, collaboration is very important with professional entities like associations and accreditation bodies within the healthcare industry. They can be instrumental in setting the standards and guidelines to comply with best practices of LGBTQ+ and transgender-inclusive practices such that practitioners of healthcare-like nurses are guided. Such collaboration affords the possibility of developing criteria for accreditation assessment of cultural competence, non-discrimination concerning sexual orientation and gender identity, and patient safety criteria relating to these same issues (Ding et al., 2020). The active involvement with such stakeholders is especially helpful for the nurses in their efforts to develop a holistic model that helps them provide care services to all individuals regardless of whether they are LGBTQ+ or transgender.
Conclusion
LGBTQ+ and transgender individuals in healthcare settings, therefore, face considerable patient safety risks from discrimination or bias. This should involve the use of evidence-based approaches, a multi-disciplinary approach and nurses’ knowledge of care coordination and collaboration with stakeholders to ensure safety improvements. In this way, diverse welcoming environments can be provided by healthcare organizations in which health outputs are optimized for each patient involved through a lifestyle created by inclusivity and appropriate all-embracing training with the right policy advocated. Healthcare providers, such as nurses should continue to be driven by the principles of equity, dignity and nondiscrimination for every individual’s care according to them.
References
Casanova-Perez, R., Apodaca, C., Bascom, E., Mohanraj, D., Lane, C., Vidyarthi, D., … & Hartzler, A. L. (2021). Broken down by bias: Healthcare biases experienced by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ patients. In AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings (Vol. 2021, p. 275). American Medical Informatics Association. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8861755/
Ding, J. M., Ehrenfeld, J. M., Edmiston, E. K., Eckstrand, K., & Beach, L. B. (2020). A model for improving health care quality for transgender and gender nonconforming patients. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 46(1), 37-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjq.2019.09.005
Matsuzaka, S., Romanelli, M., & Hudson, K. D. (2021). “Render a service worthy of me”: A qualitative study of factors influencing access to LGBTQ-specific health services. SSM-Qualitative Research in Health, 1, 100019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2021.100019
Sherman, A. D., Cimino, A. N., Clark, K. D., Smith, K., Klepper, M., & Bower, K. M. (2021). LGBTQ+ health education for nurses: An innovative approach to improving nursing curricula. Nurse Education Today, 97, 104698. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2020.104698
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