Background: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) individuals are less likely to afford medical care, have higher rates of depression, and are more likely to feel discriminated against by medical providers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. These health disparities introduce a need for medical providers to be practiced in both LGBTQIA+ cultural competence and unique healthcare concerns; however, currently in the United States, there is no required pre-clinical medical education regarding LGBTQIA+ healthcare. Previous studies have shown that discussion-based learning and virtual patient interactions are effective in improving the knowledge and skills of medical students. Our purpose is to determine if a medical skills-based workshop utilizing simulated patient scenarios will improve medical students’ self-perceived knowledge and competence when providing care to members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Methods: A workshop was presented to 100 first-year medical students at one medical institution introducing LGBTQIA+ concepts, terminology, and unique healthcare concerns. An anonymous survey was administered after the workshop to determine participants’ self-perceived knowledge of LGBTQIA+ concepts and self-perceived competence in caring for members of this population. Knowledge was scored on a scale from 0 (low knowledge) to 10 (high knowledge); competence was determined by participants' level of agreement to several Likert-styled statements. A paired t-test was conducted to determine the significance (p < 0.05) of the difference in self-perceived knowledge before and after the workshop.

Results: Results indicated a significant increase (p < 0.001) of mean self-perceived knowledge in both LGBTQIA+ unique healthcare concerns and terminology in first-year medical students who completed the workshop. In addition, 84% of participants agreed or strongly agreed they felt more competent in their ability to use inclusive language when speaking with LGBTQIA+ patients. Particularly, participants who do not identify as LGBTQIA+ members demonstrated a benefit in their self-perceived competence of LGBTQIA+ terminology and knowledge of healthcare concerns.

Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate how an informational workshop utilizing interactive practice scenarios regarding LGBTQIA+ terminology and healthcare concerns strongly correlates with the improvement of self-perceived knowledge and competence of first-year medical students. Considering there is no standardized curriculum for LGBTQIA+ medical education, the pedagogy demonstrated can be extended to other medical institutions with the goal of molding future physicians who can provide quality care to members of the LGBTQIA+ community.