Developing a Curriculum on Transgender Health Care for Physician Assistant Students

PurposeOur goal was to (1) evaluate physician assistant (PA) students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward transgender patients, (2) develop and deliver a lecture on transgender health care, and (3) determine changes in knowledge, skills, and attitudes postlecture.MethodsA 32-item survey was developed and emailed to PA students. Students were then invited to a 2-hour lecture on transgender-specific psychosocial topics and clinical skills plus medical treatment for gender dysphoria. Lecture attendees retook the survey after 2 weeks.ResultsInitial mean self-Assessment scores regarding clinical knowledge and skills were below 3 on a 7-point Likert scale. All measures improved following the lecture (p <.001 for all). Overall, 86.7% of students were interested in the addition of transgender health into their didactic curriculum.ConclusionsOur results illustrate insufficient student competence in transgender medicine. Our proposed transgender curriculum may be a useful guide for educators wanting to integrate this topic into their instruction.