As all healthcare organizations know, employee training is critical for policies to be lived out fully and consistently. Organizations have found training particularly important for ensuring LGBTQ patient-centered care. Training employees in LGBTQ concerns not only ensures that LGBTQ patients receive equitable and culturally competent care. It also helps to improve the general hospital climate towards all LGBTQ people, specifically LGBTQ employees.
The Joint Commission’s LGBT Field Guide explicitly notes that a hospital can only provide welcoming and competent care through a workforce that is prepared to do so. The Field Guide urges healthcare facilities to provide its employees with training in LGBT patient-centered care, stating that “hospitals should offer employees high-quality training that equips them with the tools to provide equitable, knowledgeable, and welcoming care for LGBT patients and their families.” The Field Guide further provides a list of suggested LGBT topics to cover in trainings, varying methods to train employees, and other key recommendations in training employees in LGBT patient-centered care.
To meet the first component of this requirement, healthcare organizations must have key facility employees receive expert training in LGBTQ patient-centered care. Training programs should offer all incoming and current staff the information and skills they need to provide culturally competent care and services to their LGBTQ patients.
Training requirements vary by facility and are determined by whether or not the facility has previously met the HEI Executive Briefing Training Requirement, which is typically met during the first year of HEI participation. Facilities that have previously met the HEI Executive Briefing Training Requirement, need to meet the HEI On-Going LGBTQ Education Requirement. A facility can learn which training requirement it needs to meet by logging into the HEI survey and reviewing the training section.
To receive credit in the HEI, a facility must:
Complete the required amount of trainings through HEI approved sources. Trainings completed via The CAL or the National LGBT Health Education Center will be added directly to your organization’s training totals. You must request HEI credit hours for all other trainings using our online form.
You can check your organization’s current training hours directly in the HEI survey.
More information:
For a healthcare facility to meet the Executive Briefing Training Requirement, at least one senior manager in each of the following work areas must complete the online, three-part training series entitled “LGBTQ Patient-Centered Care: An Executive Briefing” by the HEI survey deadline:
The senior managers that attend this training must be the highest ranking staff member from each of these work areas for the specific facility. Senior managers are typically at the level of Director or higher.
“LGBTQ Patient-Centered Care: An Executive Briefing” training is an engaging and interactive self paced eLearning series consisting of 3 courses. The series serves as an introduction to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) identities and addresses diversity as a health issue, discrimination—specifically in healthcare, social issues, and strategies for delivering accessible and affirming healthcare. In addition, this series discusses policy and accreditation changes related to serving LGBTQ patients and identifies ways to assist healthcare facilities in creating inclusive environments for LGBTQ patients.
In full, this series takes 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete and offers 2.75 CME credit hours. You must complete all 3 courses in the “LGBTQ Patient-Centered Care: An Executive Briefing” activity to receive CME credit. LGBTQ Patient-Centered Care: An Executive Briefing is offered by the HRC Foundation through The CAL. No other training can be substituted to meet the Executive Briefing Training Requirement.
In addition to the requirement listed above, facilities that have not previously meet the HEI training requirement are encouraged to have other staff take part in any of the free trainings available for HEI credit.
Facilities that have previously met the HEI Training Requirement must have members of their staff participate in on-going expert training in LGBTQ Patient-Centered care. To meet this training requirement, facilities with up to 500 staff members must complete a minimum of 25 hours of on-going training approved for HEI credit. Facilities with 500 or more staff members must complete a minimum of 50 hours of on-going training approved for HEI credit.
Ideally, at least 25 (or 50) different staff members will participate in a training of an hour or longer. However, we use the 25 (and 50) hour figure rather than specifying people to allow for some flexibility since the length of trainings may vary and to account for the fact that some people will want to take more than one training.
We encourage staff members that are new to the topic to take one of the general introductory trainings on LGBTQ patient-centered care available through any of the following sources:
HRC's The Center for Affiliated Learning (The CAL): View Training Information
The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center: View Training Information
Veterans Health Administration: View Training Information
Other Pre-Approved Trainings: There are a number of external LGBTQ trainings and conferences that have been pre-approved for use in the HEI. View Training Information
Internal Trainings: A healthcare facility may receive on-going training credit for course(s) that they sponsor on LGBTQ culturally competent care and/or specific LGBTQ health topics. These trainings must be pre-approved before HEI credit will be given.
View Training Information to learn more about the Requirements and Guidelines for HEI Approval of Internal Trainings in LGBTQ Patient Centered Care.
Regardless of which training requirement a facility needs to meet, the second component of the HEI Training criteria is that a facility make all of its patient serving staff aware of the free trainings available through the National LGBTIA+ Health Education Center AND The CAL.
To receive credit in the HEI, a facility must:
Upload a sample of how you inform employees of the free LGBTQ training options offered by HRC Foundation and our partners (i.e. a copy of an email blast, screenshot of the information on the employee intranet, etc.).
More information:
Promoting the availability of training options increases the ease with which facilities can meet the LGBTQ patient-centered training requirement and also increases the cultural competency and visibility of the LGBTQ-inclusion at your facility.
The HEI asks organizations to promote the availability of the free HEI training opportunities to all of their patient care services staff in at least one of the following ways:
Although the HEI only requires one form of communication about these training opportunities, we have found that the organizations that have the most success in easily meeting their training requirement are the ones that communicate these opportunities in multiple different ways and multiple times.
See our page of resources to help you promote the trainings, including sample text and pre-designed posters.
Examples:
Sent out in an email blast:
Information posted on facility intranet:
Information included in training updates/newsletter:
Information posted on flyers or electronic displays in places where employees will see them:
The length of the trainings vary, but most are one hour long. The trainings available on The CAL vary the most since they are presented as eLearning series. Each series has two or more courses that are typically ½ hour in length. The total length of each series is clearly indicated in the series description and all series are on-demand—meaning you can stop the training at anytime and pick up right where you left off later. Most of the trainings offered through the National LGBT Health Education Center are one hour—it is noted where trainings are longer. The VHA trainings range from 1 to 1 ½ hours.
In general, we do not encourage group trainings as an option with our training program. There are over 60+ trainings for people to choose from so we want people to have the option to choose the trainings that best meet their needs and interests. The trainings also offer free CME/CEU credits which we cannot offer in a group setting. Finally, the trainings on The CAL are interactive so someone needs to manually interface with the system.
However, group trainings can be a good option for front-line staff, those without computers, and other staff that do not need CME/CEU credit. You can do group viewings with trainings on The CAL or the National LGBT Health Education Center, but someone will need to navigate through the different videos and slides.
We encourage you to chose one of the LGBTQ introductory trainings for group viewing. Please be sure to submit individual sign-in sheets for all attendees in the group, so we can credit your facility. You will get an hour (or more depending on training) for each attendee.
The trainings offered through both The CAL and the National LGBT Health Education Center provide AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. The CME/CEU credit types for the VHA courses vary.
For the courses on The CAL and The National LGBT Health Education Center, each participant will have to first create an account for the site and then they may select which courses they would like to take.
No. The next time you log in to the National LGBT Health Education Center’s site, you will be prompted to update your account information to add your facility ID number. By adding this number, you will ensure that your facility gets credit for any trainings you take.
At least one senior manager (Director, Vice President or Chief level) in each of the following work areas must complete the online, three-part training series entitled “LGBTQ Patient-Centered Care: An Executive Briefing.”
The senior managers that attend this training must be the highest ranking staff member from each of these work areas for the specific facility. Senior managers are typically at the level of Director or higher.
Yes. However, you must still have 5 senior managers attend, so you can substitute any additional senior manager from the four other management groups.
We ask that you complete this form to pre-approve your senior managers completing the Executive Briefing Training Series. This ensures that the managers that you select meet our requirements and allows us to easily verify that the requirement has been met.
No external training can be substituted for the Executive Briefing Training.
Facilities with up to 500 staff members must complete a minimum of 25 hours of on-going training. Facilities with 500 or more staff members must complete a minimum of 50 hours of on-going training. This is a per facility requirement, not a per person requirement. Ideally, at least 25 (or 50) different staff members will participate in a training of an hour or longer. However, we use the 25 (and 50) hour figure rather than specifying people to allow for some flexibility since the length of trainings may vary and to account for the fact that some people will want to take more than one training.
All staff that interface with patients are invited and encouraged to participate in these trainings. There are no specific staff requirements for the on-going training like there is for the “LGBTQ Patient-Centered Care: An Executive Briefing” training.
Yes, with pre-approval, a healthcare facility may receive credit for their own training course(s) on LGBTQ culturally competent care and/or specific LGBTQ health topics. See our page on internal trainings for more information.
Yes, staff may attend other expert led trainings on LGBTQ health that provide CME/CEU credit (such as conferences, other webinars, etc.) and have that training count towards the on-going LGBTQ education requirement. In order to receive credit though, the training must first be submitted through our approval form.
This can be done in multiple ways such as through an email blast, notification on the hospital’s intranet or training site, flyers or posters in employee areas, etc. We encourage the use of multiple methods to inform staff of the training opportunities available. Survey submitters can find resources such as flyer and poster templates and content to use in other formats.
Yes, even if you have been approved for your own training and/or have met the requirement completely with your own training, you must still make your staff aware of the free trainings offered through the HEI.
No. You must still promote all of the trainings available through the HEI.
For the HEI 2022, the HEI will accept any trainings completed from June 1, 2020 through the final survey deadline for that year (including any granted extensions).
Training records from The CAL and The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center are regularly sent to the HEI team—so you do not have to submit anything. You can find more information about requesting HEI credit for all other types of training.
On the Login page for your survey, you will see a training summary box titled, "Training Information & Resources." Here, you will find all relevant training information pertaining to your facility such as what training requirement your facility needs to fulfill (Executive Briefing or On-Going LGBTQ Education) and the total amount of training hours your facility has completed.
Please reach out if you do not have the link to access your facility's personalized login page information.