Inclusion of LGBT Employees in Healthcare: Navigating Policies, Procedures, and Practices

Overview:

Healthcare is a unique culture dealing with vulnerable patients and employees committed to quality patient care.  However, research states that LGBT patients are treated in a more abusive manner than straight patients.  How does the misconduct to LGBT patients impact your LGBT employees?  We know that healthcare does employ LGBT people.  How does your organization prevent sexual discrimination at healthcare?  Do you intentionally recruit the LGBT community as employees in your healthcare organization?  Do you know how to assist a transgender employee in transitioning?  Does your marketing for employees (and patients) include images representing the LGBT community?

Healthcare organizations have made progress towards LGBT equality yet LGBT workers still go to work every day with fear that they might lose their jobs because of whom they love and who they are.  There is no federal law protecting the GLB community from workplace discrimination and harassment. There is confusion among organizations as to whether the federal civil rights law Title VII protects gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) employees.  The EEOC and several courts clearly have stated that GLB employees are protected by Title VII however other courts have disagreed.  Recently, the EEOC has filed its first two sexual orientation lawsuits.  These two cases demonstrate the EEOC’s commitment to moving forward to protect GLB employees from discrimination under Title VII. 

Transgender employees are protected under the Civil Rights Act Title VII because their discrimination is “because of sex” yet discrimination lawsuits continue to arise as to what bathroom and locker room transgender employees can use while at work.  Roughly 90% of transgender and 40% of GLB employees experience workplace discrimination according to some surveys. Heterosexism – the cultural expectation that everyone is, should be, or would prefer to be heterosexual - is the established norm of the workplace; a commonplace bias in American institutions.  This bias gets played out in both overt and covert behaviors which in turn negatively impact the organizational culture.  However, there have been organizational successes in diminishing the biases.  There is an opportunity for your organization to create strategies to ensure GLBT inclusion in your workforce.

Why Should You Attend:

There is confusion among organizations as to whether the federal civil rights law Title VII protects gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) employees.  The EEOC and several courts clearly have stated that GLB employees are protected by Title VII however other courts have disagreed.  Recently, the EEOC has filed its first two sexual orientation lawsuits.  These two cases demonstrate the EEOC’s commitment to moving forward to protect GLB employees from discrimination under Title VII.

Areas Covered in this Webinar:

• Recruitment and Retention
• Heterosexism assumptions
• Marketing and Advertising
• Guidance for the transition of transgender employees and prevent sexual discrimination at work
• Restroom access for transgender employees
• Workplace dress codes, transgender employees, and gender non-conforming employees
• IAT text

Learning Objectives:

• To examine perceptions and stereotypes
• To discover the business case for inclusion of LGBT employees in healthcare
• To describe the impact on LGBT employees when they fear being who they are at work
• To discuss transgender
• To establish gender transition guidelines
• To identify organization practices to minimize discrimination
• To discuss the outcome of LGBT supportive policies and practices
• To develop organization and individual strategies for LGBT inclusion into the  healthcare workforce

Who Will Benefit:

• Administrators, managers, supervisors, Human Resources professions
• Health professionals from hospitals, clinics, long term care, public health, memory care, any healthcare organization.
• Nurses, MDs, nursing assistants, pharmacists, physicians, VP of nursing, therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, VPs/directors/managers within the various departments of hospitals including clinical areas but also admitting, maintenance, laundry etc.

Speaker Profile:

Dr. Susan Strauss RN Ed.D., has worked as a registered nurse (RN) in a variety of nursing specialties. She has also been the director of healthcare quality improvement, director of education and development, and held other healthcare leadership roles. 

One of Dr. Strauss’s areas of expertise is with bullying and harassment in healthcare- working as an expert witness for lawsuits, training, and conducting investigations. She researched physician abuse to RNs in the OR to determine if the abuse varied based on the gender of the nurse.

Dr. Strauss has authored over 30 books, book chapters, and articles, and has been featured on local, national and international media. Susan has conducted seminars and consulted with organizations, including healthcare, globally.

Others Details

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