It’s Pride Month, so it seems all the liberals are trying to prove how “woke” they are by catering to the LGBTQ+ crowd. If you go to a Major League Baseball game you can donate to your favorite LGBTQ+ organization when you buy your ticket. Many cities have held Pride parades. And now, a major university has launched a course to teach young nurses how to care for the LGBTQ+ community.
New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing will now offer a course in LGBTQ+ health. The school’s website says this about the new offering: “It is rare for nursing schools to offer coursework dedicated to the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ individuals, despite the unique issues they face and growing interest from students. Our goal is to empower new nurses to provide care for people across sexual orientations and gender expressions that promotes health and improves patient outcomes,” said Jeff Day, DNP, AGPCNP-BC, clinical assistant professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, who developed and is teaching the elective course.
One physician explains why this type of course is necessary:
“While ideally LGBTQ+ content would be woven throughout the entire nursing curriculum, we recognized that this amount of change takes time, so we developed an elective course to help fill the gap in LGBTQ+ educational content” said Day. The NYU nursing school website additionally explains, “Research shows that undergraduate nursing programs spend an average of only 2.12 hours teaching content about LGBTQ+ health topics. Some nursing schools have taken steps to add LGBTQ+ content to their curricula: At NYU Meyers, educators recently introduced an LGBTQ-focused simulation to prepare nursing students to create a safer healthcare environment for all patients irrespective of their gender and sexual identity. The simulation demonstrates the use of inclusive language during an imagined emergency room visit.”
Other schools have added similar offerings. For example, Columbia University now offers a specialization in Transgender Non-Binary Health Care for Advanced Practice Nurses and PAs. The certificate program is described on the website and says it “is designed for advanced practice nurses and physician assistants to advance their knowledge and skills to provide quality care to trans NB people. The program prepares advanced practice nurses and physician assistants to support the health of trans NB people along the continuum of care and formulate a care plan that addresses follow-up, ongoing care, and preventative screening. The program also prepares clinicians to integrate mental health in the care of trans-people and their families.”
It seems there are new woke specializations popping up in healthcare. Of course, it is important that people are able to be honest with their healthcare providers when issues arise that may be difficult to talk about. One would hope that any nurse or doctor would take their patient as they find him or her, but that is likely not always the case. What do you think of these new course offerings?
