Background and Significance Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) are members of every community across the United States. They are representative of every socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, generation, and gender. However, LGBT individuals have historically and currently been an underserved population in healthcare. As more people in the U.S. openly identify as LGBT, approximately 10 million in 2016 (Gates, 2017), properly addressing sexual orientation and the unique health concerns of the LGBT population is necessary in the primary care setting. LGBT individuals have an array of unique health concerns that encompass both mental and physical health. In general, research has found that LGBT people …show more content…
There are limitations as to why LGBT individuals continue to have disparities in healthcare, including access to care, fear of stigma, lack of full patient-practitioner disclosure, and various other reasons. Improving both access to care for these individuals, but also training healthcare professionals to properly treat this unique population and their equally diverse health concerns is vital. However, primary care providers (PCP), could potentially lack the knowledge in treating sexual minorities and have limited access to consistent evidenced-based guidelines to provide competent and culturally sensitive care to LGBT people.
Research Question Do primary care providers (PCP) have adequate knowledge of evidenced-based guidelines and use current best-practice to treat sexual minorities for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT)?
Aim
The aim of this project will be to identify if primary care providers (PCP) feel confident, competent, and knowledgeable to treat individuals who identify as LGBT with current best-practice guidelines. A secondary aim will also be to assess the comfort level of PCP in addressing sexual orientation in the LGBT patient population.