A survey of Canadian radiation therapists’ perspectives on caring for LGBTQ2SPIA+ cancer patients

Purpose: The lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, two-spirit, pansexual, intersex, asexual, plus (LGBTQ2SPIA+) population faces unique cancer health risks and barriers to competent healthcare. This study aimed to identify current knowledge, attitudes, and practice behaviours amongst radiation therapists regarding the LGBTQ2SPIA+ community to ultimately improve care given to this population.Methods: A 22-item online survey was sent out to Canadian radiation therapy department managers and forwarded to radiation therapists. The survey collected demographics and addressed knowledge, attitudes, and practice behaviours regarding the LGBTQ2SPIA+population. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and thematic analysis.Results: 214 radiation therapists completed the survey. Over 70% were unfamiliar with all terms associated with "LGBTQ2SPIA+''. 91.6% believed that being conscious of the LGBTQ2SPIA+ community is important to their role as a therapist; however, 34.5% reported "rarely'' or "never'' adapting practice behaviours when caring for this community. Only 17.3% felt they had received adequate information to comfortably care for the LGBTQ2SPIA+ population, with 86.9% interested in receiving more education on specific patient needs. The open-ended questions revealed four themes: uncertainty regarding knowledge of the LGBTQ2SPIA+ community; willingness and/or desire to improve practice behaviours; therapists are already aware of some unique needs of the LGBTQ2SPIA+ community; and some therapists believe that all patients should be treated equally. National generalizability is limited due to insufficient data collected from all geographical regions.Conclusion: Overall, this study was unable to provide national generalizability, however the results suggest that amongst the respondents there are knowledge gaps and inconsistencies in practice when caring for LGBTQ2SPIA+ cancer patients. Given the limited literature available, and the results from this study, more education and research is warranted to bridge knowledge gaps and aid in providing inclusive patient care.