ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and allied (LGBTQIA+) individuals encounter challenges with access and engagement with health services. Studies have reported that LGBTQIA+ individuals experience stigma, discrimination, and health workers' microaggression when accessing health care. Compelling evidence suggests that the LGBTQIA+ community faces disproportionate rates of HIV infection, mental health disorders, substance abuse, and other noncommunicable diseases. The South African National Strategic Plan for HIV or AIDS, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted infections, 2023-2028 recognizes the need for providing affirming LGBTQIA+ health care as part of the country's HIV or AIDS response strategy. However, current anecdotal evidence suggests paucity of LGBTQIA+ and key populations' health content in the undergraduate health science curricula in South Africa. Moreover, literature reveals a general lack of health worker training regarding the health needs of LGBTQIA+ persons and other key populations such as sex workers, people who inject drugs, and men who have sex with men. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe the design of a project that aims at facilitating the inclusion of health content related to the LGBTQIA+ community and other key populations in the undergraduate nursing curricula of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. METHODS: A multimethods design encompassing collection of primary and secondary data using multiple qualitative designs and quantitative approaches will be used to generate evidence that will inform the co-design, testing, and scale-up of strategies to facilitate the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ and key populations content in the undergraduate nursing curricula in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Data will be collected using a combination of convenience, purposive, and snowball sampling techniques from LGBTQIA+ persons; academic staff; undergraduate nursing students; and other key populations. Primary data will be collected through individual in-depth interviews, focus groups discussions, and surveys guided by semistructured and structured data collection tools. Data collection and analysis will be an iterative process guided by the respective research design to be adopted. The continuous quality improvement process to be adopted during data gathering and analysis will ensure contextual relevance and sustainability of the resultant co-designed strategies that are to be scaled up as part of the overarching objective of this study. RESULTS: The proposed study is designed in response to recent contextual empirical evidence highlighting the multiplicity of health challenges experienced by LGBTQIA+ individuals and key populations in relation to health service delivery and access to health care. The potential findings of the study may be appropriate for contributing to the education of nurses as one of the means to ameliorate these problems. Data collection is anticipated to commence in June 2024. CONCLUSIONS: This research has potential implications for nursing education in South Africa and worldwide as it addresses up-to-date problems in the nursing discipline as it pertains to undergraduate students' preparedness for addressing the unique needs and challenges of the LGBTQIA+ community and other key populations. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/52250.
Subject(s)
Curriculum , Sexual and Gender Minorities , Humans , South Africa , Female , Male , Education, Nursing, BaccalaureateABSTRACT
Introducción: las dinámicas de atención en salud requieren que los profesionales que componen el equipo de salud trabajen en for-ma colaborativa. Sin embargo, durante su formación, las oportunidades de aprendizaje con otras disciplinas son escasas. Se reportan los resultados del primer proyecto para promover el aprendizaje interprofesional en los internos que rotan por el Hospital Josefina Martínez. Método: de marzo a julio 2018, se realizó un taller constituido por dos sesiones, en cada rotación de internado. Participaron internos de cinco carreras en forma conjunta (kinesiología, odontología, nutrición, fonoaudiología y terapia ocupacional). Se adaptó la encuesta de disposición al aprendizaje interprofesional, para ser aplicada antes y después de cada taller. Se calcularon las medianas, rangos intercuartílicos (Q1; Q3y se compararon los puntajes mediante test de Wilcoxon. Resultados: hubo una disposición positiva inicial al aprendizaje interprofesional, con mejoría significativa después de los talleres en todas las dimensiones de la encuesta: Trabajo en equipo y colaboración (<0,001), trabajo centrado en el paciente (<0,001), y sentido de identidad profesional (<0,05). La diferencia del puntaje global de la encuesta también fue significativa (<0,001). Conclusiones: se demostró un cambio favorable y significativo en las respuestas de los internos después de los talleres, en todas las dimensiones de la encuesta. En los comentarios, destacaron la relevancia de aprender con estudiantes de otras carreras, describiendo que aumentó su conocimiento sobre éstas y reforzando el impacto que dicha integración tiene en mejorar la atención y resolución de problemas en salud.
Background: The dynamics of health care require that the health professionals work collaboratively; however, during their training, learning opportunities with other disciplines are infrequent. The results of the first project to promote interprofessional learning in the clinical internship at Hospital Josefina Martínez are reported. Methods: From March to July 2018, two workshops for each internship rotation were carried. Students from fivecareers participated together (Kinesiology, Dentistry, Nutrition, Speech Therapy, and Occupa-tional Therapy). The readiness to interprofessional scale survey was adapted, to be applied before and after each workshop. Medians, interquartile range (Q1; Q3) were calculated, and the Wilcoxon test was used to compare the results. Results: There was an initial po-sitive readiness for interprofessional learning, with a significant improvement in all the dimensions of the survey, after the workshops: Teamwork and collaboration (<.001), patient-centered care (<.001), and sense of professional identity (<.05). The differences from the overall survey were also significant (<0.001). Conclusions: A favorable change was demonstrated in the responses of the students after the workshops, overalland in all the dimensions of the survey. In the comments, the students highlighted the relevance of learning with students from other careers, describing that it increased their knowledge about different professions and strengthening the impact that this integration has in improving attention and resolving health problems.