Norm-critical pedagogy: teaching medical students an LGBTQI+ sensitive professional practice

Medicine (Perspectives on Learning) 2023-04-25

Abstract

Medical students crucially need to develop sensitivity to LGBTQI+ issues in the context of healthcare, as well as critical self-reflective skills to appreciate how the clinician’s own identities and social positions impact upon their professional contact with patients and families. This paper suggests how this kind of teaching, informed by an intersectional, norm-critical perspective, might be initiated for third-semester medical students at the Physician’s program of Lund University, Sweden. I propose a set of learning activities combining individual assignments (an interactive video lecture, a multiple-choice test, and a brief self-evaluation task) with learning in small groups (case work, group discussions and role-plays) to promote active learning and develop students’ clinical skills and professional judgement. The proposed activities are grouped around a single time-point by necessity due to restricted resources on the program-level, severely limiting long-term retention of knowledge and skills. Consequently, the aim of these activities is to plant a seed of critical reflection which, if nourished, may grow into a culturally humble approach to clinical practice. From here, future physicians would be better equipped to meet and treat LGBTQI+ individuals, as well as people minoritized on different grounds.