Improving the Quality of Care for LGBTQ Patients: A Policy Proposal and an Inter-Professional Approach

Paper 14

?Competence 1: Propose a policy and guidelines that will lead to improved outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population

Healthcare providers in hospital settings play a crucial role in ensuring that the LGBTQ population gets easy access to quality healthcare services. In most cases, healthcare providers have been a significant impediment to access to mental healthcare services by the LGBTQ population due to inadequate knowledge and skills in handling LBGTQ patients (Felsenstein, 2018). To enhance the accessibility of healthcare services for the LGBTQ population, I propose a policy that improves the Clinical skills of healthcare providers attending to LGBTQ patients. Healthcare providers need specific skills to serve LGBTQ patients professionally.

The hospital environment should welcome the LGBTQ population. Using materials such as flyers and labeling of different departments should create an environment where LGBTQ patients feel welcomed. As healthcare providers, we should provide an environment where trust and rapport with patients will thrive. Healthcare providers should be sensitive in interacting with patients, especially when establishing patient sexual orientation. Patients who feel uncomfortable should be referred to a specialist handling LGBTQ patients. Always be open and let the patient give you the required information (Aleshire et al., 2018). Healthcare providers should know the unique nature of the LGBTQ community regarding reproduction, parenting, legal rights, and other facets of their lives.

Continuous in-training of healthcare workers on LGBTQ matters is very important to healthcare providers. These kinds of training equip healthcare providers with the latest information concerning the LGBTQ population. The healthcare workers will handle LGBTQ patients professionally once fitted with the latest information regarding the LGBTQ population. Change of attitude by the Healthcare providers: Healthcare providers and the general population have held a biased attitude toward the LGBTQ population for a long time. The healthcare providers' long-held discriminatory negative attitude needs to be changed (Garrison and Iba?ez, 2016). There should be a restructuring of the curricula of medical schools to address issues related to the LGBTQ population adequately. It will create a good foundation for future healthcare providers to handle the LGBTQ population effectively.

Competency 2: Analyze the potential for an inter-professional approach to implementing a proposed policy to increase the efficiency or effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high-quality outcomes

Through creating a welcoming environment for LGBTQ patients, the patient develops a sense of belonging and feels that the hospital is ready to handle them. Creating trust and rapport when serving LGBTQ patients enables them to feel secure and share personal information with ease. Healthcare providers should be sensitive when handling LGBTQ patients. It makes the patients comfortable when responding to the healthcare providers. Asking open-ended questions allows the patients to react freely without feeling 'caged.' This approach makes the patient give more in-depth information than closed-ended questions. Encouraging staff regularly on LGBTQ matters makes them appreciate the importance of handling the LGBTQ population professionally (Ayhan et al., 2019). The regular in-training equips the team with updated information regarding the LGBTQ population and helps them develop specific procedures for handling LGBTQ patients. Changing a long-time attitude by healthcare providers will enable them to view LGBTQ patients differently. Changing these biased attitudes through healthy interactive forums will make healthcare providers handle LGBTQ patients professionally (Gibson et al., 2020). Restructuring the curricula of medical training institutions to include substantive learning materials regarding the LGBTQ population will prepare the learners to handle patients professionally.

Competency 3: Analyze population health outcomes regarding their implications for health policy advocacy. Advocate the need for a proposed policy in the context of current results and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population.

LGBTQ population has continued to face many barriers to accessing quality mental healthcare services. This discrimination against the LGBTQ population has led them to develop severe mental health conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, and many others. Most healthcare providers who do not fully understand the uniqueness of the LGBTQ population mainly cause this limited accessibility of mental healthcare services. The long-held biased negative attitude by healthcare providers has influenced how LGBTQ patients are handled in healthcare facilities where some are wholly denied attention. These factors have led most of the LGBTQ population not to seek mental healthcare services, fearing the treatment they will encounter with the healthcare workers (Gibson et al., 2020). To increase the number of LGBTQ populations seeking mental healthcare services, professionals must equip healthcare providers with the correct information and clinical skills to handle the LGBTQ population.

?Implementing strategies and procedures aimed at improving the clinical skills of healthcare providers will surely increase the outcome quality of LGBTQ patients seeking mental services. LGBTQ in the United States has, to a large extent, been recipients of mental healthcare discrimination. Mental health conditions are more preventable in the LGBTQ community than in the heterosexual community because of the stigma and trauma experienced by the LGBTQ (Ayhan et al., 2019). Lastly, inter-professional team members mandated policies and procedures to promote the quality of healthcare delivery and outcomes for vulnerable groups. They should work under a collaborative approach because access to mental health services by the LGBTQ population is as critical as it is to the general population.

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References

Aleshire, M., Ashford, K., Fallin-Bennett, A. and Hatcher, J., (2018). Primary Care Providers’ Attitudes Related to LGBTQ People: A Narrative Literature Review.?Health Promotion Practice, 20(2). DOI. 10.1177/1524839918778835

Ayhan, C., Bilgin, H., Uluman, O., Sukut, O., Yilmaz, S. and Buzlu, S., (2019). A Systematic Review of the Discrimination Against Sexual and Gender Minority in Health Care Settings.?International Journal of Health Services, doi.10.1177/0020731419885093

Felsenstein, D., (2018). Enhancing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Cultural Competence in a Midwestern Primary Care Clinic Setting. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development. DOI. 10.1177/2382120520965254

Garrison, N. and Iba?ez, G., (2016). Attitudes of Health Care Providers Toward LGBT Patients: The Need for Cultural Sensitivity Training.?American Journal of Public Health. Doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.303010

Gibson, A., et al. (2020). A Novel Curriculum for Medical Student Training in LGBTQ Healthcare: A Regional Pathway Experience.?Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development. DOI. 10.1177/2382120520965254

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