Europe’s nurses need more training to ‘reduce biases’ around LGBT+ issues

Calls have been made to ensure nurses across Europe are trained to be “compassionate and culturally aware” towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) people, after new research found staff from strict religious backgrounds were more likely to have “negative attitudes” towards these patients. Researchers at Middlesex University have warned that health and care professionals require further training to help “reduce biases and stereotypes” and ensure that LGBT+ people access the care they need. Their study surveyed more than 400 health and care workers and academics from the UK, Germany, Cyprus, Denmark, Romania and Spain around their awareness of LGBT+ issues and terms, their level of training, experiences of witnessing discrimination, and levels of compassion and negativity towards LGBT+ people in their profession and society. Key findings revealed that staff from Romania had more negative attitudes towards lesbian and gay people than all other countries. Meanwhile, those from Germany and Romania were also less likely to know about homophobic or transphobic discrimination.