SAFE ZONE HEALTHCARE: GENDER AFFIRMING CARE FOR TRANSGENDER YOUTH IN PRIMARY CARE

Transgender and gender nonconforming youth are at an increased risk of negative health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and self harm. A safe zone needs to be established within the healthcare environment so transgender and gender nonconforming youth feel safe accessing care and reaching out to healthcare providers. These patients experience barriers to care such as healthcare providers having limited knowledge or lack of confidence in caring for non binary patients, having limited or no family support, and having questionable insurance coverage. There must be a paradigm shift within healthcare to overcome the barriers to care that these patients are experiencing. To start this shift, nurses in primary care at a large teaching clinic in the Midwest received an educational offering that was developed with guidance from Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring. The goal of this educational offering was to increase nurses’ knowledge and comfort levels when caring for a transgender or gender nonconforming pediatric patients. Online surveys were collected prior to and after the educational offering was instituted and showed an increase in knowledge and comfort levels with ample opportunity for further education. Transgender and gender nonconforming pediatric patients must receive gender affirming care within the healthcare system to create a lifelong trusting, healing relationship with care providers