While being located at the heart of the nation’s capital affords faculty members and students access to the United States’ seat of power, it also places GW Nursing close to some of the nation’s most disempowered populations.
As health care providers, educators and activists, GW Nursing responds to the needs of underserved and vulnerable populations within the greater Washington, D.C. area, including the nation’s largest transgender community and those living with HIV/AIDS.
In the District of Columbia, 2.77 percent of adults identify as transgender. The South, which includes Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C ., accounted for 53 percent of new AIDS diagnoses in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
GW Nursing faculty incorporate these realities into the bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) program’s community health curriculum and prepare students to treat the populations in our community, where students perform their clinical service and many work after graduation.
Insensitivity to transgender issues by health care providers can be a barrier for transgender people diagnosed with HIV and seeking quality treatment and care services. Few health care providers receive proper training or are knowledgeable about transgender health issues and their unique needs. This can lead to limited health care access and negative health encounters, according to the CDC.
To earn the community hours necessary to fulfill curriculum requirements, BSN students visited a transgender support group at Us Helping Us, organizing a health fair to share information about their unique health risks and effective cancer screening tools.
“We arrived there with the intention of creating a learning experience for them. But in the end, the experience was more of a learning experience for all of us,” said Alexandria Braithwaite, a BSN student. “I have so much more to learn about providing care for the LGBT community, and this experience was a great first stepping stone for me.”
GW Nursing faculty members Dr. Dana Hines, a member of the DC Center for AIDS Research who researches access to care among sexual and gender minorities — transgender women in particular — living with or at risk for HIV and Dr. Adriana Glenn, who teaches in GW Nursing’s BSN program, supervised the students’ work.
Group facilitators called the health fair “the best meeting that we ever had,” and said the students made participants feel understood and respected.
“I am so proud to be a part of this. I know we went in to teach about various cancer screenings, which we did, but I did not expect to be on the receiving end of the learning that day,” said Tamara Fowler, a BSN student. “Change needs to happen in regards to inclusive care, and it starts with us.”