What is LIMA, who are we & what are we doing - a 🧵 We are a network of medical students, doctors & activists campaigning for better LGBTQ+ teaching for medical students and doctors to improve healthcare professionals' Medical Curriculum and queer patients' experiences. (1/7)

🌟 This festive season, we're here for YOU. Need support or a listening ear? 💜🌈 🎅 24th Dec: Open till 6 pm 🎄 25th Dec: 10 am - 6 pm 🎁 26th Dec: 9 am - 6 pm 📅 27th Dec: Back to normal You’re never alone 💬💖 Call us: 0345 3 30 30 30.

Thank you to everyone who attended today and congratulations to our oral presentation prize winners and runners up! Please get in touch if you are a student wanting to join our student groups, or a healthcare professional wanting to join our advisory board.

One suggestion was regarding medical school admissions - can this be a way of assessing applicants’ ability to be inclusive and their openness to learning?

Real life case studies can equally be powerful as a learning resource.

Hearing from individuals voices and lived experiences is an excellent learning opportunity.

How can we ‘meet in the middle’? One suggestion was pre-learning that students must go through prior to sessions, however there are challenges of getting students to engage with pre-learning.

We discussed how it’s challenging to meet the learning requirements for various students. E.g. some students will have significantly more knowledge and confidence in LGBTQ+ health than others.

Including LGBTQ+ patients in simulated learning can allow students to practice their skills in a safe space. It's important to compensate people for their time.

Single best answer questions (which are widely used in med ed) can be challenging to assess behaviours, however some med schools currently assess professional behaviours via written examinations. Essay-based questions may allow students to better demonstrate inclusivity skills.

(3) assessment drives learning, but how do we include LGBTQ+ health in assessment? Especially in written examinations, how can questions be created to assess this? Attendees felt that professional behaviours could more reliably be assessed in practical examinations (e.g. OSCEs).

"How would you design teaching on LGBTQ+ health?" Responses included (1) Teaching should be integrated into all topics and all year groups, alongside other patient groups and protected characteristics. (2) Empowering students when on placement to challenge behaviour from others

"What experiences have you had?" There were both positive and negative experiences shared, including NHS trusts supporting staff training, and barriers in implementing teaching in medical schools.

Rachel identified that studies did not use student views on what they want their teaching to look like. Out of 40 student respondents, 12 reported no teaching, and 25 reported insufficient amounts of teaching.

Their literature review found that learning outcomes vary significantly. Teaching involves simulated patient interactions, didactic teaching and case-based discussion. They felt that research lacks insight into long-term effectiveness of interventions.

Rachel set up the HEAL (Healthcare Equality and Advocacy for LGBTQ+) society at Cardiff. Last year she intercalated in Medical Education, in which she did a research project into trans and gender diverse healthcare teaching in undergraduate medical curricula

Now we have a workshop led by Rachel who is a final year medical student and on the LIMA executive committee.

Some resources for further learning shared by Ash and Nat.

Currently there is no research into the use of testosterone after pregnancy or during infant feeding. NHS guidance is that testosterone can pass through milk into the baby.

In Nottinghamshire, there is a "My Pod" which is a private space for anyone to express or breast- or chest-feed.

There are concerns regarding the safety of trans and non-binary people feeding in public. One study found that some people found this a positive, empowering experience. However, it's important to consider the current climate towards trans and non-binary people.