Transgender Healthcare in Graduate Medical Education: A Needs Assessment of Mississippi

Background Transgender patients experience long-standing health disparities influenced by improper training of healthcare professionals. Thus, there is a critical need to train medical professionals to care for this diverse population. Incorporating targeted and defined transgender healthcare training among the graduate medical education (GME) curricula could improve healthcare outcomes and alleviate healthcare disparities. The primary aim of this study was to assess transgender healthcare needs among Mississippi-based GME trainees by evaluating their perceptions. Methods We administered a 16-question anonymous and voluntary email survey to all GME trainees (n=647) from January to March 2022 (IRB 2021-1037). Results A total of n=126 (19.5%) surveys were completed by primary (n=52) and non-primary (n=74) care specialists in all post-graduate years (PGY). Non-primary specialists were more confident in their ability to manage health concerns (36.5% “for the most part”; n=27) (P<0.01) and comfortable in caring for transgender patients (37.8% “for the most part”; n=28) (P=0.03). However, primary care specialists better recognized that they play a role in promoting transgender health (3.9% “not at all”; n=2)(P<0.01) and were more interested in learning about transgender healthcare issues (90.4% “yes”; n=47)(P<0.01). PGY did not influence responses among all questions. Conclusions This study shows limited confidence and awareness in transgender healthcare among GME trainees at an academic medical center in Mississippi. These data indicate the necessity to implement transgender healthcare training and education into the GME curriculum. Nonetheless, the transgender healthcare curricula should be tailored by specialty to create culturally competent and inclusive healthcare providers.