On March 28th, 2019 Dr. Charles Vega, both a practicing physician and medical school instructor, organized a patient simulation with the 4th year medical students to give them experience interacting with a female transgender patient. Both Brit Cervantes and I were asked to be evaluators of these sessions and I was very happy to be a part of this experience.
I am currently a 1st year MEPN (Masters Entry Program in Nursing) student at UCI, and have previously been active with the Gender Advocacy Project of the North County LGBTQ Resource Center in Oceanside, from 2015 – 2018 as well as being the Gender Care Coordinator for our transgender primary care services at the Federally Qualified Health Center I previously worked at, also in Oceanside. I worked hand in hand with physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Psychiatrists, Clinic Managers, Medical Assistants, Operators, and Patient Service Representatives in training them to become more trans-informed. I also worked with the IT department when the Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity (SOGI) upgrades were made to our EHR system.
It was a privilege to be able to monitor these soon-to-be-practicing-physicians in their interaction and communication with a trans patient. Nearly all of the medical students had a warm and appropriate manner in not only gathering on pertinent information for the visit, but also in recognizing her gender identity and every single student showed a very non-judgmental response to learning that the patient injects estrogen that is not currently being prescribed to her. Every medical student also reported how much they enjoyed and appreciated having this experience prior to graduating.
I applaud UCI’s School of Medicine for recognizing how important it is to have real-life LGBTQI scenarios for medical students, for them to learn how to act as a trans-affirming provider and to be ready with appropriate resources as well. I also am excited that the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing are working together more than ever on LGBTQI competency and simulation exercises. I personally believe that every medical and nursing student at UCI should have strong LGBTQI competency and comfort by the time they graduate, and I am excited to play a small role in this important goal!
Michelle Zittlau-Johnson, BSc, MPH
University of California Irvine Bill and Sue Gross School of Nursing
Masters of Science Nursing Candidate | 2020