Save March Madness for Basketball: Recognizing Medical School Match Day, March 15
Today, March 15, is a day of bountiful and diverse celebrations, amidst National LGBT Health Awareness Week (Mar. 11-17). It’s the Ides of March, the height of NCAA basketball’s March Madness, the opening of the LGBTI Health Summit and Medical School Match Day, when medical students receive an envelope inviting them to join a medical institution.
For them, it means much excitement and little sleep. For us, it’s a day of hope. What do you want from physicians as the next generation is identified and paired with hospitals? Here’s my short list:
Be diverse, like the U.S., and speak the same language – not just share a native tongue – with your patients. Advise everyone who’s sexually active to receive STD testing.
Neither erase lesbians from condom discussions nor include them for reasons that don’t resonate with them. Ask questions, and talk about gloves and dams.
Let someone be tested for HIV and not have their name disclosed. Remember that everyone is at risk for HIV/AIDS, and all conversations should be fair game when they arm people to make the safest choices they can.
Welcome gay and other men who have sex with men to discuss and ask questions about sexual practice without judgment and stigma so that they can get the best medical counsel. And let’s remember bisexual people, too.
Address trans people by their preferred name, pronoun and gender and know that some men need pap smears and some women need prostate exams. Don’t forget the intersexed people, either.
