Achieving Health Equity for LGBTQ plus Adolescents

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) adolescent population experiences health disparities due to barriers to care, including lack of ac-cess to culturally competent health care providers. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to in-crease access to culturally competent care through con-tinuing education, a physical makeover of clinic space, and a social marketing campaign. The impact of the project on the number of LGBTQ+ adolescent patients at the clinic and the rate of documentation of sexual ori-entation and gender identity data was evaluated via a chart audit. Changes in nurses??? and health care providers??? knowledge as a result of the continuing education were evaluated with a pretest and a posttest. The number of LGBTQ+ patients and provider knowledge increased following the continuing education. Sexual orienta-tion and gender identity data were documented during 87.5% of visits. The participants??? knowledge increased by 4.7% following the continuing education. Further, five physical changes to the clinic were completed and a social marketing campaign was launched. This qual-ity improvement project demonstrates that continuing education can be an effective way to increase cultural competence for the care of LGBTQ+ individuals. [J Con -tin Educ Nurs. 2022;53(8):348-354.]