In addition to "working the floor" I also teach nursing, and two of my students this past week posed an excellent question. I had my (second year) students working on taking patient health histories, and the following question came up: If a nurse has a patient whom s/he suspects is transitioning from one gender to another (and the patient hasn't disclosed this information), how does one respectfully ask if a) this is indeed the case, and b) how far along is the patient in their process of transition. Additionally, when is a transgendered individual considered to be anatomically male/female? (I'm assuming that hormone therapy and surgery have been done). Finally, one more question: for transgendered individuals who have not yet made the physical transition, and even though they're using, say in this case a female name, when all of their ID is still in their birth/male names, I'm assuming that this patient would be identified for medical purposes as "male," even though he wishes to be addressed and treated like a woman (or vice-versa in the case of a woman transitioning from female to male).
