Sex and gender integration in the bachelor curricula of nursing, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy
At a glance
- Project leader : Tiziana Sala Defilippis
- Co-project leader : Ursula Meidert, René Schaffert
- Deputy of project leader : Marcija Borojevic-Pantic
- Project team : Pauline Roux, Véronique Hasler, Sibylle Juvalta, Virginie Stucki
- Project budget : CHF 300'000
- Project status : ongoing
- Funding partner : Federal government (Projektgebundene Beiträge / P-7 Chancengleichheit und Hochschulentwicklung)
- Project partner : Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana SUPSI, Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale
- Contact person : Ursula Meidert
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 was applied: 1) a literature review to identifying topics that need to be addressed with regard to sex and gender in the curricula. 2) an online survey on the current integration of sex and gender in the curricula; 3) a consensus process among experts and project team to prioritize relevant topics 4) the development of learning and teaching materials tailored to these topics.
Results:
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 was identified and its educational tenets used as a foundation for work package two.
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 the learning objectives to be important or very important, but the integration of these topics has only been realized to a limited extent.
3. Work packag: Priorities were identified together with experts in a work shop. These are now being used to create teaching and learning materials for all health professions. These will be freely accessible from spring 2026 at: www.gems-platform.ch/en