Affirming & Informed: An Interactive, Multidisciplinary Curriculum on Paediatric Gender-Affirming Care

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Pediatric Healthcare
• Gender Studies

Background:

• Gender-affirming care is vital for transgender and gender diverse youth.
• Limited healthcare providers are trained in this specialized area.
• Barriers to access persist due to insufficient integrated training opportunities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the curriculum of a multidisciplinary training program for pediatric gender-affirming care.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of this training for medical and behavioral healthcare providers and trainees.

Main Methods:

• The "Affirming & Informed" program is a multidisciplinary, multimethod training initiative.
• Pilot testing involved pre- and post-surveys assessing knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and intended behaviors.
• Data were collected from registered participants undergoing the training.

Main Results:

• Participants demonstrated high baseline attitudes and intentions to provide gender-affirming care.
• The training led to significant improvements in knowledge and awareness regarding the needs of transgender youth.
• Participants found the content highly relevant and expressed interest in advanced training.

Conclusions:

• The "Affirming & Informed" curriculum effectively enhances provider knowledge and awareness in gender-affirming care.
• Multidisciplinary training offers substantial value for all healthcare providers caring for this population.
• Integrated training addresses the collaborative needs of an underserved patient group.