Educating Nevada's School Nurses to Implement the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network Safe Space Tool Kit to Support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Asexual Youth in their School Districts

Educating Nevada's School Nurses to Implement the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network Safe Space Tool Kit to Support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Asexual Youth in their School Districts Background: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual (LGBTQIA+) youth in the school setting are a vulnerable and marginalized population. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (2019), approximately 5.5% of Nevada's population self-reports or identifies as LGBTQIA+, ranking Nevada as having the third highest LGBTQIA+ community in the nation. This population is highly impacted by minority stress that translates to the health disparities and inequalities observed in this population (Salerno et al., 2020). Available data indicate a lack of inclusion of LGBTQIA+ patient content in nursing curricula, often related to faculty not having the knowledge or confidence to provide adequate guidance to students on this topic (Lim et al., 2015). School nurses, specifically in the Elko County school district (ECSD), were not educated to address the specific health disparities for LGBTQIA+ youth in their school settings resulting in a practice gap for these nurses and indicating a need for this pilot project. Purpose: This pilot project's purpose was to implement a toolkit to increase the knowledge and confidence of ECSD nurses to recognize and respond to the needs of the LGBTQIA+ students. The population, intervention, comparison and outcomes (PICO) question that was addressed included the following components. P: School nurses. I: Implementation the GLSEN Safe Space Tool Kit to create safe spaces C: Current practice O: Knowledge and confidence regarding health disparities of LGBTQIA+ youth. Methods: This project was predicated on the afore mentioned PICO format and was guided by Leiningers Theory of Transcultural Nursing. This theory asserts that when there is a lack of culturally competent care, it negatively impacts the health, recovery, and well-being of patients (de Chesnay & Anderson, 2016). Following an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), the need for the project was established and education was implemented on the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) toolkit for twenty participating school nurses in the ECSD. A pre-test/ post-test interventional designed was used to assess the knowledge and confidence scores before and 30-days after an educational intervention with t