Two Psychiatric Nursing students want to change the way the LGBTQ2S+ community receives acute and community care in hospitals and other health care settings. 

During their recent practicums, Balraj Maird and Nisha Khattra saw firsthand how LGBTQ2S+ individuals experienced prejudice in health care facilities, which often prevented them from seeking treatment in time of need.  

Balraj recalls meeting a LGBTQ2S+ patient at St. Paul’s Hospital, in Vancouver, who didn’t seek care for her mental health issues for fear of being discriminated against. The patient knew she needed help, but distrust and fear prevented her from reaching out. She eventually found herself forcibly admitted to hospital after a suicide attempt. 

“If we can work on making the hospital a better place for her to come to when she’s feeling down and sad, and not getting to the point of attempting suicide, that would be the ultimate goal,” Balraj says. 

Nisha points out that using a LGBTQ2S+ patient’s personal pronouns demonstrates respect and validation for their identity. During her practicum at St. Paul’s, she deliberately wrote down the patient’s pronouns in all handover materials during shift changes at the hospital.  

Despite her effort, Nisha observed that some staff, especially casual nursing staff, did not address the patient using correct pronouns, making this vulnerable LGBTQ2S+ individual feel disrespected. 

Read more: How this Douglas alum built a blossoming career as an activist for the LGBTQ+ community 

Making hospitals more inclusive  

“We want to prepare ourselves to provide LGBTQ2S+ individuals with the most culturally competent and safe care possible,” Nisha says. 

After this experience, Balraj and Nisha embarked on a journey to alleviate the stress and stigma often felt by the members of the LGBTQ2S+ community when they seek medical care. 

The two studied 21 peer-reviewed articles to look for practices that would be most effective in increasing LGBTQ2S+ cultural competency in a health care setting.  

Cultural competency is the intricate integration of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that improves cross-cultural communication and interpersonal relationships. 

They found that health care providers report feeling underprepared to work with LGBTQ2S+ patients due to a lack of knowledge of their unique health needs. Cultural competency could be achieved to enhance interactions between LGBTQ2S+ patients and health professionals, according to their study. 

Balraj and Nisha highlighted the value of workshops and self-reflection in bridging these knowledge gaps. “Workshops are pretty effective in increasing health care providers’ knowledge of working with this population, getting to know their needs and understanding how stigmatized and discriminated against they are,” Balraj says.  

“We also found that health care professionals who practise self-reflection throughout their careers were able to identify these knowledge gaps,” Nisha adds. 

When working with LGBTQ2S+ clients, they advise that health care providers use inclusive and gender-neutral language, and exercise sensitivity when asking questions about sexual orientation.  

Two years into their practicums, the duo is thrilled to find that hospitals are gradually implementing the recommendations in their study. “We’re seeing a lot of workshops on LGBTQ2S+ care knowledge. Health care providers are becoming more knowledgeable about pronouns, and patients’ chosen names as well,” Balraj notes. 

Read more: This Douglas student is championing trans-inclusive sports and recreation 

Student research opportunities 

For their efforts, Balraj and Nisha won the People’s Choice Award at Douglas College’s Student Research Days last year and presented their research at the WNRCASN 2023 Symposium. 

Nisha says she is thankful that a wide variety of research opportunities are offered at Douglas College. 

 “If there’s something that students are really passionate about, they have the opportunity to actually go pursue it and gain more knowledge,” Nisha says.