Hello everyone. My name is Holly, and I am Ph.D. student in Communication and a supporter of TS and TG issues. For the past two years, I have worked on a research project that I hope will facilitate positive changes for the TS and TG communities. I am entering the second part of the project, and I need your help to make it a success. My greatest hope is that this portion of the project will open valuable lines of discussion that will prove beneficial for you, too.
I am studying interactions between TS or TG patients and healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, therapists, or other professionals in the healthcare industry). I would like to hear your stories about your best and/or worst interactions with healthcare professionals. The goal of this portion of the study is to gain a better understanding of what your personal experiences can tell us about the communication needs of TS or TG patients in healthcare contexts. Whether your stories involve issues of privacy and confidentiality, preferred name or pronoun use, (in)sensitivity to physical issues, or any other topics, I hope to uncover which issues and experiences are most important. I hope that studying your stories, in your own words, will help me to focus the future directions of the study. I also hope that sharing your stories will spark valuable forum conversations.
So please share your stories, and respond to each others' stories, as well. You may also email me directly, if you prefer not to post your story on the forum. (hollyhirsch@tamu.edu) I will use your stories to conduct a narrative analysis of patient-provider interaction. I will gladly share a copy of the final paper, if you are interested. Please note that, by sharing your story with me, you are giving me permission to use the story as part of the study. There is more information about the study below, and I will happily address any questions or concerns that you have.
A little more about the study:
The overall goal of the study is to provide practical information for healthcare service providers communicating with TS and TG patients. The first phase of the study involved an analysis of existing literature bridging TS and TG studies and health communication issues. I presented that paper at the International Communication Association Conference in Dresden, Germany, where it received a Top Paper Award. I was very encouraged by the response from the research community and received encouragement for finding funding for later phases of the study! However, in researching the paper, I found that the majority of current research focuses on psychological and physical details of healthcare, but very little focuses specifically on interactions between patients and healthcare providers. I hope to fill this gap of knowledge, since patient-provider communication plays such a major role in an individual's overall healthcare experience. I have also proposed a third phase of the project, which would involve a case study of a healthcare community offering care before, during, and after sex reassignment surgery.
Thank you for your help. I hope that the project will provide helpful information for you in the short term and for the TS and TG communities in the long term. I will also post this information on the Transsexual Talk section.
Cheers,
Holly
