Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Aug 16, 2020
Date Accepted: Jan 17, 2021
Exploration of gender-sensitive care in vocational rehabilitation providers working with youth with disabilities: Co-development of a simulation
ABSTRACT
Background:
Although research shows that there is a need for gender-specific vocational supports to help youth with disabilities to find employment, health care providers often report needing more training in this area. There are currently no existing gender-sensitive care educational simulations within vocational rehabilitation for clinicians who provide care to youth with disabilities. Therefore, developing further educational tools that address gender-sensitive care could help them to enhance the care they provide, while optimizing patient outcomes.
Objective:
The objective of our study was to co-develop an educational simulation and identify issues relevant to providing gender-sensitive care within the context of vocational rehabilitation for youth with disabilities.
Methods:
We used a qualitative co-design approach with a purposive sampling strategy that involved focus group discussions and journal reflections to understand and address issues relevant to gender-sensitive care within vocational rehabilitation for those working with youth who have a disability. Ten rehabilitation providers participated across two sessions (5 per session) to design the online simulation tool. The sessions (2.5 hours each) were audio recorded, transcribed and analyzed thematically.
Results:
Two main themes arose from our analysis of co-developing a simulation focusing on gender-sensitive care. The first theme involved the relevance of gender within clinical practice; responses varied from hesitance to acknowledging but not talking about it; to those who incorporated gender into their practice. The second theme focused on creating a comfortable and safe space to enable gender-sensitive care (i.e., included patient-centered care, effective communication and rapport building, appropriate language and pronoun use, respecting gender identity, awareness of stereotypes, and responding to therapeutic ruptures).
Conclusions:
Our online gender-sensitive care simulation addressed vocational rehabilitation among youth with disabilities was co-created with clinicians. The simulation highlights many issues relevant to clinical practice and has potential as an educational tool for those working with young people with a disability. Clinical Trial: n/a
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