By Susanne.
What does your routine visit to a doctor typically look like? We check in, the triage nurse takes a note of our weight, height, our blood pressure, measures body temperature and then we typically wait 10, 15 minutes maybe longer. Doctor walks in, logs into “mychart” and if we are here just for an annual visit, they check the numbers, order a blood test, perhaps immunizations, and renew your medicine. Conversations are short and to the point. Doctor needs to move on to another patient. I don’t know about you but the process is bordering on alienating.
Seeing a therapist is definitely longer and more personal. The job of a therapist is to hear us. The focus is on us, the patients.
But truly, how well do we know our healthcare provider as a living and breathing person? We would like to contribute to a change of that attitude. Our hope is to interview healthcare providers and allow them to tell us their story. Who are they? What drove them to be doctors, therapists, nurses, psychiatrists, surgeons, endocrinologists… How do they view the LGBT community? Are they one of us? How do they see the position of trans people in today’s world? What’s next in trans healthcare? What music do they like? What books do they read? What makes them laugh? What makes them cry?
If you are a healthcare professional, you want to tell us your story, you find our questions intriguing and you would love to help us get to know you better, send us a message! We would love to feature you in our zine.
As an author of this text, beyond the patient/physician roles, in my opinion, we are all human – of flesh and blood we’re made as they say in a song. So why not take an opportunity to learn about each other better.
To a trans person, healthcare is more than just a place where to get a vaccine, flu medicine or a routine catch up. To a trans person healthcare becomes an essence of our existence, perhaps more than to a cis person. And so, we need a healthcare provider to be our trusting friend, a part of the family. It’s more than essential, it’s life saving. We must get to know each other better on any possible level.