Creating a Gender-Affirming Care Protocl in the Pediatric Ambulatory Care Setting

The number of pediatric youth identifying as transgender, gender non-conforming, or gender-diverse treated in the ambulatory care setting has steadily increased in recent years. The literature recommends promoting gender-affirming clinical care environments so that transgender youth can access gender-affirming inclusive and safe clinical care. Providing gender-affirming treatment to youth decreases depression and suicidal ideation lifetime odds in patients (Call, 2021). In alignment with Rivera’s gender-affirming nursing care model (GANC) and the Pediatric Endocrine Society’s (PENS) Transgender health Position Statement, an intervention to utilize a protocol to advance gender-affirming care was established. This quality improvement project focused on implementing gender-affirming care practices among pediatric ambulatory care nurses. The project enables them access to add/edit the patient’s preferred name and gender identity, and chosen pronouns were added to the electronic medical record demographics sheet storyboard. The results showed a significant increase in participants’ scores before (M = 8.29) and after (M = 12.14) the intervention was implemented. Pediatric nurses have an ever-expanding role and opportunity to improve organizational gender-affirming care practices through education and complete SOGI data documentation in the EMR.