Special-“T” Training: Extended Follow-up Results from a Residency-Wide Professionalism Workshop on Transgender Health

Objective Transgender people face unique challenges when accessing health care, including stigma and discrimination. Most residency programs devote little time to this marginalized population. Methods The authors developed a 90-min workshop to enhance residents’ ability to empathize with and professionally treat transgender patients. Attendees completed pre-, post, and 90-day follow-up surveys to assess perceived empathy, knowledge, comfort, interview skill, and motivation for future learning. Results Twenty-two residents (64.7 %) completed pre- and post-workshop surveys; 90.9 % of these completed the 90-day follow-up. Compared to baseline, there were statistically significant post-workshop increases in perceived empathy, knowledge, comfort, and motivation for future learning. However on 90-day follow-up, there were no statistically significant differences across any of the five domains, compared to baseline. Conclusions This workshop produced significant short-term increases in resident professionalism toward transgender patients. However, extended follow-up results highlight the limitations of one-time interventions and call for recurrent programming to yield durable improvements.