Sex and gender integration in the bachelor curricula of nursing, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy

Result

1. Work package: A scoping review was conducted linking foremost to topics on health and health care needs for people from the LGBTQ community. Furthermore, a framework for collaborative interprofessional education about sex and gender specific health from the US were identified and its educational tenets used as a foundation for the following work package.

2. Work package: In this survey, lecturers and course directors were asked to what extent they already take the dimensions of sex and gender into account in their curricula. 170 people took part in the survey. The result showed that the respondents consider almost all learning objectives to be important or very important, but the integration of these topics has only been realized to a limited extent.

3. Work package: Results were discussed and priorities identified together with experts in a workshop.

4. Work package: These priorities were used to create teaching and learning materials for all health professions. They are freely accessible to all teaching staff by spring 2025 (see link below). An overall report on the results is published on teh SUPSI website. A report on the literature review and one on the survey is avalable in the ZHAW Digital Collection.

Description

Background and aim:

Delivering fair and just health care is a fundamental ethical obligation within healthcare. Nevertheless, the professional competency standards outlined by the Conference of Rectors of the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences do not incorporate sex and gender as crucial dimensions. However, all interventions should be evidence-based, acknowledging sex and gender influence. In medicine these dimensions are explicitly addressed within the curriculum, but this is not the case for other health professions. Therefore, this project aims to raise competence on sex and gender related healthcare issues in nursing, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy.

Methods:

To foster the integration of sex and gender into the curricula, the following steps were applied: 1) a literature review to identify topics that need to be addressed with regard to sex and gender in the curricula was realized; 2) an online survey on the current integration of sex and gender in the curricula was conducted; 3) a consensus process among experts and project team to prioritize relevant topics was held; 4) the development of learning and teaching materials tailored to these topics cas been carried out.

Key data

Further documents and links

Publications