glbtnurse

If anyone cares to join me in setting up a GLBT nursing publication for nursing education purposes please send me a private message. I think it would be beneficial to has dialogue on this issue because there are obviously differing view points. I think the goal of studying homophobia and GLBT specific patient issues ie) high suicide rates in GLBT youth populations, is to ensure that they are treated like everyone else (being attentive to their specific needs). Even though many nurses / doctors that are comfortable with GLBT nurses and patients (treat them like everyone else) I honestly believe that there are many that 'tolerate' the lifestyle grudgenly simply because they are in an environment where everyone is dependent on one another. I'll give you an example of what makes me upset: I went to talk to a patient in the OR to perform my preoperative assessment. I opened the chart and written everywhere in red pen is homosexual - high risk for HIV / Hep C, tested negative, caution. I have operated on many people, from all walks of life ( known substance abusers, with HIV, with Hep C etc ) but the nurses on the wards have usually written in the appropriate section ( known HIV risk or Hep c +ve). I was disgusted with how it was plastered all over the place especially seeing how he was just tested and proven to be negative. Why was he treated differently? I know promiscious unprotected sexual behavior that is often associated with the GLBT population places you at risk for such diseases and I am not disputing that. But how can we educate and stop such discrimination as I just discribed. I felt sorry for this man because he read through his own chart, he knew what people were thinking , and I had to apoligise for the actions of others.

I agree that there should be no difference in the treatment of heterosexual vs. homosexual patients HOWEVER the GLBT community can be seen as a cultural group unto themselves. As a nurse you pay attention to cultural differences everyday and implement them into your care plans without even noticing it. (painting with broad brush strokes here ) An asian patient may have a family that is more apt to take care of them [feeding/a.m. care] whereas an American family places more value on independence and encouraging their family member to do things on their own to build up strength. Both cultural grouping have the same good intentions but are coming from different perspectives and would appreciate it if nurses recognized where they were coming from to build a strong pt-nurse relationship. GLBT patients sometimes have different stressors than the heterosexual population and nurses should be attentive to those needs as much as those of any other cultural grouping. Finally, when I talk about GLBT nursing care I don't think it is a matter of asking about their sex life as one post stated rather it is knowing how they identify themselves.

What I meant by gay / lesbian nursing website is that it would act like a publication where glbt nurses could exchange information about their specific experiences in the health care environment. In addition to that, one has to look at the GLBT populations' specific health care need and how one could steer health promotion to become more effective. Examine issues like homophobia in health care settings etc.

Dapototi I couldn't agree more with you. I suppose you have had 'run ins' with patients then. Would anyone think a gay/lesbian patient website be of any use to nurses?

are there any resources that you know of on the web that discuss care of glbt patients? how do you find gay / lesbian nurses are treated at work in the hospitals? is there any difference how how patients treat them?