As one of the key healthcare providers, nurses should advocate for the elimination of discrimination regarding transgender community members. According to Bradford et al., there is an urgent need to provide culturally-competent and transgender-friendly health care services. In my point of view, nurses should receive the adequate education based on several sessions to understand how to provide care to meet the specific needs of transgender persons.
For example, the evidence shows that they have certain problems with HIV/AIDS as well as the hormonal therapy, which is complicated by the presence of discrimination. In this regard, I would prepare clinical practice guidelines explaining the expectations of these patients and the ways to address their concerns. Nurses should be polite and culturally-sensitive to transgender community members, which can be achieved through acquiring relevant knowledge and skills.
One more solution to the problem of discrimination in healthcare is encouraging help-seeking behaviors of transgender patients. The recent study conducted by Seelman, Colón-Diaz, LeCroix, Xavier-Brier, and Kattari proves that there is a correlation between the delayed care and fear of being abused by health care providers. Therefore, nurses should motivate transgender patients to receive health care services based on fear elimination. One may, for example, note that the establishment of trustful relationships with patients is likely to increase transparency between them and healthcare providers.
Once transgender patients understand that they are treated adequately, they would also become more open, thus promoting improvement in care quality. Sincere interest in patients’ health concerns and their specific needs is the goal that should be assigned a top priority for nurses. I believe that greater awareness, sensitivity, and cultural competence are the main elements of addressing transgender community discrimination in healthcare.