Transgender individuals who long to be nurses may be rewarded in a new method.
In staying on top of social change, Columbia University is nothing close to being an outlier. Indeed, the nursing school has just launched an entirely new program to promote the current concept of “inclusion.”
The interested parties are now able to get their degrees by completing “Transgender Non-Binary Health Care for Advanced Practice Nurses and PAs.”
On its website on the internet, the school has an explanation of the term:
The Columbia University School of Nursing's Certificate in Professional Achievement (CPA) in Transgender Non-Binary (Trans NB) Health Care for Advance Practice Nurses and Physician Assistants is specifically designed to help advanced-practice nurses as well as physician assistants enhance their skills and knowledge in providing quality treatment to trans NB individuals. The program trains advanced practitioners as well as physician assistants in order to help support their trans NB patients across the continuum of care . They also develop a care plan that includes follow-up regular care, as well as screening for preventative issues. The program also trains clinicians to integrate mental health care into the treatment of trans people along with their loved ones.
Columbia explains that the program is provided “completely online in a synchronous and asynchronous format.” The reasonis “To reach the widest audience and to assist in preparing a workforce of clinicians accessible to trans NB people regardless of geographic location.”
The 12 credits that are required are in the following order:
- NURS7400N
Health Evaluation for Transgender non-Binary (Trans NB) Individuals - NURS7402N
Mental health needs of transgender non-binary (Trans Non-Binary) People - NURS7410N
Clinical Practice for Transgender Non- Binary (Trans NB) Health - NURS7411N
Workshop on Transgender Non- Binary (Trans NB) Health - NURS7401N
Treatment Options to help Transgender non-Binary (Trans NB) Individuals
In March of last year, this school released an announcement praising”the “first-ever” initiative of its kind:
Health care professionals are given a lack of education on transgender issues. Laura Kelly, PhD, associate professor in nursing, and the director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program Estimates that nurses receive around an hour of instruction in caring for LGBT patients overall. “Even if you're on the East or West Coast, the care for trans folks is lacking,” she claims.
In a poll conducted in 2017, 31% of trans individuals said they did not have regular access to healthcare, and 22% also claimed they avoided visiting doctors because of the fear of discrimination.
Access to gender affirming health care could be the difference between life or death. Transgender patients are at greater chance of suicide, but gender-based affirming treatment dramatically reduces the risk.
It is also necessary for those who want to be treated according to gender, not by sex. Trans women may have issues regarding her testicles. If her penis is located north of it an even more sinister issue could be lurking.
Transsexuals may also have to receive the preventive treatment needed for their biological gender, like prostate cancer screening for people born male.
Demand is dominating supply.
To meet the shortage of practitioners trained to treat transgender patients, Columbia Nursing is launching the very first Certificate of Professional Achievement in Transgender/Gender-specific Health Care for Nurse Practitioners in September. “We are determined to have only transgender faculty in at the CPA program. The program currently includes 4 faculty who have experience as nurse practitioners who identify as transgender.” Kelly says.
To return to the list of courses, “treatment interventions” will include the following:
- Writing Support Letters
- Sexual Health
- Fertility
- Hormone Therapy
- Gender-specific Surgery Care
- Pubertal Suppression
Medicine has successfully resisted an esoteric swerve”
“Breastfeeding Academy criticizes “Breasts””
“UCLA Medical Symposium Demands Doctors Accept People Who Aren't Men or Women”
“To include non-binary Parents, Hospitals Eliminate the words ‘Breastmilk and ‘Father'”
“The Practising Midwife' Magazine Issues Transgender Issue featuring a Bearded Birthing Parent”
“Hospitals Are Beginning to inquire about Men's Health if they're Expecting a Baby”
“Students from the University School of Midwifery on the handling of the Birthing Penis”
“Gender identity” aside, If you are unsure if the hands-on anatomy arena has changed:
As mentioned in Campus Reform, not everyone's on the same level. As of 2015, Johns Hopkins Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Paul McHugh asserted thusly:
“[G]ender dysphoria…belongs in the family of similarly disordered assumptions about the body, such as anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder.”
He's not a knife-man:
“[Gender Dysphoria]” treatment must not be targeted towards the body, as is the case with hormones or surgery, in the same way as one treats those who fear obesity using liposuction. The aim of treatment is to rectify the false, incorrect assumption and also to address the psychosocial issues that are causing it. For children it is best to do this through group therapy.”
Despite Paul's assertions, industry executives as well as climate change opponents seem to have concluded “the science is settled.”
So how will Columbia's program do? It will be interesting to see.
