Developing a Curriculum on Transgender Health Care for Physician Assistant Students.

PURPOSE Our goal was to (1) evaluate physician assistant (PA) students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward transgender patients, (2) develop and deliver a lecture on transgender health care, and (3) determine changes in knowledge, skills, and attitudes postlecture. METHODS A 32-item survey was developed and emailed to PA students. Students were then invited to a 2-hour lecture on transgender-specific psychosocial topics and clinical skills plus medical treatment for gender dysphoria. Lecture attendees retook the survey after 2 weeks. RESULTS Initial mean self-assessment scores regarding clinical knowledge and skills were below 3 on a 7-point Likert scale. All measures improved following the lecture (p < .001 for all). Overall, 86.7% of students were interested in the addition of transgender health into their didactic curriculum. CONCLUSIONS Our results illustrate insufficient student competence in transgender medicine. Our proposed transgender curriculum may be a useful guide for educators wanting to integrate this topic into their instruction.