LGBTQ+ Equity Training for Healthcare: Questions to Ask

Your board, your funder or a patient has asked whether your staff is trained to care for LGBTQ+ people. What do you do next?

Start by finding out what's on the market. A quick look at the main providers shows a wide range of formats, prices and promises. Here is how to sort through them, and the questions we'd ask before signing anything.

What the Options Look Like

Providers of LGBTQ+ healthcare training usually offer some mix of these formats:

Self-paced online courses. OutCare Health, for example, lists on-demand courses that award continuing education credit, from an hour-long LGBTQ+ 101 to longer courses on mental health, trauma-informed care and gender-diverse care.
Live virtual sessions. Short, one-hour sessions for individuals or whole teams, sometimes with a question-and-answer period and surveys before and after.
Simulation. Practice visits with a trained standardized patient, followed by feedback.
Train-the-trainer sessions. Your own staff learn to deliver the training, which helps when you have turnover.
Executive briefings. A short session for leaders, separate from the staff training.
Custom programs. A provider reviews your intake forms, documentation and policies, then builds training around what it finds.

Some providers also build in follow-up, such as online peer groups and moderated discussions with experts. The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, for example, offers training and technical assistance free to federally qualified health centers and through a paid consulting program to other organizations.

Questions to Ask Any Trainer

1. Do you assess us first? The better programs begin with a readiness assessment. The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, for example, surveys all staff and leadership separately on knowledge, attitudes and preparedness, and reviews key documents and policies before training starts. If a provider can't tell you what your staff already knows, the content is a guess.

2. Who is in the room, and is the content built for them? A front desk, a nursing team and a board need different material. We recommend keeping board members and staff in separate sessions.

3. What changes besides attitudes? Training that stops at awareness rarely lasts. Ask whether the provider will look at how you collect sexual orientation and gender identity information, at your forms and electronic health record, and at your waiting room.

4. What results can you show? Be careful with satisfaction scores. One provider reports that 97% of participants in a compliance training said they gained knowledge and 96% were satisfied. Those figures are self-reported, and the page gives no method for them. Self-reported satisfaction tells you people liked the day. Ask for what changed afterward: policies updated, patient complaints, retention of LGBTQ+ staff.

5. What happens after the session? One session fades fast. Ask about follow-up calls, written commitments with names and dates, and a check-in.

6. Who designs and delivers it, and who do they have lived experience with? Trans and gender diverse clients and staff need particular attention. Ask who will be in front of your team.

7. Does it count for credit, and do you need that? Many courses award continuing education credit, and some state rules require training for certain kinds of care. Know which applies to you before you buy.

Match the Format to the Goal

To give every new hire the basics: a self-paced course, with a discussion afterward.
To get a team talking and practicing: a live session plus a simulated patient visit.
To make the training last through staff turnover: train-the-trainer, with your own champions.
To find out where you stand: a readiness assessment of staff and leaders.
To fix what patients actually experience: a review of forms, records and the physical space.

What We Do

Our LGBTQ+ equity training for healthcare covers affirming care and employment practice, with particular attention to trans and gender diverse clients and staff. Sessions run in person for groups up to 30 and online for up to 60, and every session ends with written commitments by name and date, plus a 60-day check-in. You can read more on our equity trainings page, or tell us what you're working through.

Onward. Together.

Sources

OutCare Health, LGBTQ+ Affirming Healthcare Training.
National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, Training and Technical Assistance.
Equitas Health, Education and Training. Our automated tool could not open this page, so Ace should read it directly.
American Medical Association Ed Hub, LGBTQ+ course. This page needs a sign-in, so Ace should read it directly.