Cultural competence is among the skills that medical practitioners need to effectively deliver care. Essentially, using this skill, the practitioners are able to tailor interventions to accommodate the needs and cultural identities of their patients. For the most part, practitioners have been able to effectively leverage cultural competence. However, there are new challenges that are emerging and medical professionals seem unable to respond to them. The requirement that they should attend to the medical needs of transgender patients is among these challenges. Without the knowledge and skills needed to understand this group of patients, it is nearly impossible for the professionals to fulfill their mandate.
Influence of Culture on Self-Management of Care
I have had encounters with transgender patients. For example, in my work at the Veteran Affairs health center, I have encountered transgender women who visit the center for a wide range of services. I find that I am not adequately prepared or equipped to attend to their needs. An examination of the transgender culture reveals that it has tremendous influence on the self-management of acute and chronic health conditions. Research has shown that many transgender women fear suffering discrimination and therefore are reluctant to seek medical services (Lombardi, 2001). Regarding self-management of care, these individuals are more likely to resort to their own devices instead of engaging qualified professionals. Another impact that transgender culture has is that transgender people are forced to seek services from multiple providers. One provider offers services concerned with gender transition while another delivers regular and general care (Levesque, 2015). It is difficult for the transgender individuals to pay for the different sets of care and many are forced to neglect their health or use self-management techniques that are either unsafe of ineffective. In summary, the transgender culture is defined by a history of discrimination, violence and complex health care needs. These cultural issues combine to limit access, forcing transgender individuals to use resources and techniques whose effectiveness and safety is unproven.
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Integrating Cultural Preferences in Care Plan
In an earlier section, I noted that I have encountered some challenges when dealing with transgender patients. These challenges are manifested in my inability to integrate their cultural preferences into the care plans that I develop. Since I do not understand the transgender culture, it has become nearly impossible to ensure that the care plans reflect the needs and preferences of the transgender patients. In fact, I admit that I hold prejudices and hostile views which impair my judgment and have rendered me incapable of adopting care plans that accommodate the cultural preferences of the transgender patients.
I now understand that there are steps that practitioners can adopt as they seek to integrate the cultural preferences of transgender patients into the self-management of acute and chronic health conditions. Among these measures involves providing hormone therapy. It has been observed that a large number of transgender patients require hormone therapy to facilitate the transition process (Safer et al., 2016). The practitioners attending to these patients should ensure that this therapy is available and affordable. As they do this, they affirm the patients making them feel valued and ensuring that they do not use unsafe and ineffective methods to manage their health. Abandoning negative attitudes and embracing transgender individuals is yet another strategy that practitioners can adopt (Seelman et al., 2017). As already noted, many transgender individuals do not use medical services out of fear of discrimination, harassment and abuse. By assuring these individuals that the healthcare profession values them, practitioners can encourage them to turn to them for support and to have their medical needs met.
Resources
Among the factors that hamper the efforts of practitioners to effectively attend to transgender patients are limited resources. I have experienced first-hand the adverse outcomes that these patients endure when professionals lack the resources that they require. I would say that knowledge is perhaps the most important resource that I needed during my clinical experience. My inability to provide culturally-sensitive and competent care to transgender patients stems from my lack of insight on the needs and culture of the transgender community. I believe that if I possessed this knowledge, I would be better positioned to provide appropriate and adequate care. Support from my colleagues is another resource that would have played a vital role. I found that my colleagues were also unprepared to treat transgender patients. Furthermore, there are some who simply refused to attend to these patients, contending that their values conflicted with the culture of the patients. If these practitioners were more accepting of transgender patients, I believe that we would create a warm environment that invites the patients to seek our services.
To be effective in the provision of care in transcultural settings, practitioners need various resources. Cultural competence that is developed through education, training, and personal and professional experiences is among these resources (Cang-Wong, Murphy & Adelman, 2009). As in my case, practitioners also need the full support of their colleagues. The entire medical community must understand that effective transcultural care can only be delivered when practitioners embrace collaboration and are open to interacting with patients from a wide range of settings. In some cases, professionals may need financial resources. For example, in my clinical experience, I have observed that some transgender patients lack the funds necessary to pay for care. These instances underscore the need for medical institutions and practitioners to join forces with other stakeholders and cover the cost of care provided to patients from disadvantaged cultural communities.
References
Cang-Wong, C., Murphy, S. O., & Adelman, T. (2009). Nursing responses to transcultural encounters: what nurses draw on when faced with a patient from another culture. The Permanente Journal, 13 (3), 31-7.
Levesque, P. (2015). Culturally-sensitive care for the transgender patient. OR Nurse, 9 (3), 18-25.
Lombardi, E. (2001). Enhancing transgender health care. American Journal of Public Health, 91 (6), 869-72.
Safer, J. D., Coleman, E., Feldman, J., Garofalo, R., Hembree, W., Radix, A., & Sevelius, J. (2016). Barriers to health care for transgender individuals. Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity, 23(2), 168-171.
Seelman, K. L., Colon-Diaz, M. J. P., LeCroix, R. H., Xavier-Brier, M., & Kattari, L. (2017). Transgender noninclusive healthcare and delaying care because of fear: connections to general health and mental health among transgender adults. Transgender Health, 2 (1), 17-28.
