Monday, September 28, 2015

Something We All Know

That when we are most vulnerable is when we are in an emergency room, there are so many horror stories about being mistreated by EMTs and emergency room staff that send shudders down our spines.
New article identifies issues for transgender treatment in emergency departmentsEmergency Nurses Association highlights need for transgender patient care awarenessEureka Alert
Public Release: 28-SEP-2015

DES PLAINES, Ill. (September 28, 2015)?- A new article about a transgender patient's "freak show" experience in a U.S. emergency department, published online in the Journal of Emergency Nursing, is prompting the country's largest professional organization of emergency nurses to encourage transgender patient care awareness.
[…]
The JEN article chronicles the experience of transgender patient Brandon James (a pseudonym) in an American emergency department. According to the case study, the patient's ED visit was filled with situations that a transgender person might experience wit [sic] healthcare providers who are unfamiliar with treating transgender patients. James, a masculine transgender man who transitioned using hormone replacement therapy five years before his ED experience in 2011, presented his driver's license which identified him as a female. His electronic medical records from previous medical visits also included female gender markers.

James said his emergency department check-in process was humiliating, with staff pulling in 2-3 additional people and debating his gender aloud. "It wasn't business-like at all. I was a spectacle. I was a freak show at the circus," said James. "It was definitely to draw attention to the fact that my outward appearance didn't match (my identification).
Unfortunately, this is all too common for trans people. I know of a trans person who fell on ice and the emergency personnel when they found out she was trans called her “it” and refused to treat her, and this happened here in Connecticut. Or as the article said, there is a parade of hospital personnel who make up reason so they can get a glimpses of the trans person in room 4B.

And you wonder why trans people dread going to get healthcare.

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