CULTURALLY SENSITIVE HEALTH CARE: AN EXPLORATION OF MEDICAL PROVIDERS IDENTIFIED AS LGBTQ-FRIENDLY AT MIDWESTERN, NON-URBAN UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTERS

Training resources and guidelines about best practices for healthcare facilities and medical providers are readily available. Conversely, there are not a substantial number of physicians easily identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ)-friendly. For LGBTQ patients, this is particularly the case in higher education and student health services. Medicine, as a culture, has historically focused on curing sexual orientation, rather than treating LGBTQ patients, becoming one cause of many non-heterosexual patients’ experiences of compromised health outcomes, dissatisfaction, discrimination, high rates of stress, and a decrease in healthcare seeking behaviors. Another cause can be because of physicians lacking cultural competencies. LGBTQ-friendly doctors do exist, and non-heterosexual patients specifically seek them out, but scant scholarship about the progression of becoming an LGBTQ-friendly doctor is available. The researcher uses grounded theory to examine the lived experiences of five college health physicians and finds these emerging themes: Interpersonal experiences, medical education, and specialized skills. Implications of the study for practice and research include: more comprehensive medical school curriculum and clinical exposure to LGBTQ patients is needed; identifying LGBTQ-friendly physicians for patients, trainees, colleagues, and administrators is necessary