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Advocating for LGBTQ+ Education Student pharmacists have the empathy and desire to help LGBTQ+ patients. Many schools are examining their curricula to find ways to broaden their scope. By Athena Ponushis LGBTQ+ people face an array of health disparities. They are at higher risk of having anxiety, depression, mental illness and substance use disorder. They are more likely to struggle with poverty and isolation. They are more likely to contemplate and attempt suicide. These challenges are consistent across the LGBTQ+ population, yet pharmacy school curricula are inconsistent, and the approaches to educating future pharmacists on LGBTQ+ issues differ drastically among institutions. A cross-sectional survey recently published in Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning shows how transgenderrelated care is taught to variable degrees in Pharm.D. programs: A little more than half the schools surveyed reported transgender-related care was currently addressed somewhere within the curriculum, yet only half the respondents felt confident that their graduating pharmacists would be competent in providing care to transgender patients. Most responding schools teach only one or two hours of transgender-related care in their entire curriculum, and the schools that do not presently teach it
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Academic Pharmacy NOW 2021 Issue 1
have no plans to incorporate additional courses. Dr. Cheyenne Newsome, coauthor of the research paper and assistant professor of pharmacotherapy at Washington State University College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, expected that some schools would not include this content at all. But when she saw the results—nearly 50 percent of schools do not teach transgenderrelated care and have no interest in doing so even after taking the survey and thinking on the matter—she was disappointed. “That’s creating so many graduates who have no exposure to learning about how to care for trans people, so even if they have the best of intentions, they are not equipped with the knowledge and skills to provide good care,” Newsome said. LGBTQ+ content may not yet be required in the Pharm.D. curriculum and some schools may decide not to include it, but students are keen to learn how to care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning/ queer individuals. Faculty who have introduced LGBTQ+ content into their
courses report that students welcome the topic, are active and engaged in discussions and eager to learn more. Additional research papers, all as candid and compelling as the crosssectional survey, have sounded a call to action for LGBTQ+ content to be required and customary so future pharmacists can help improve health outcomes for individuals who, having been repeatedly mistreated when seeking care, do not seek medical attention when they need it most.
Fulfilling an Oath How can pharmacists best serve LGBTQ+ people? A recent American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education article title sums it up: “The Pharmacist as an LGBTQ Ally.” The article defines an ally as one whose purpose is to help, to provide support and assistance in an ongoing effort or struggle. The commentary argues that most colleges of pharmacy are not well equipped to teach future pharmacists how to counsel LGBTQ+ individuals, while it reiterates the oath of a pharmacist, to “consider the welfare of humanity and relief of suffering my primary concerns.”
