Title: Assessment and Documentation of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Home Healthcare
Description: This dissertation examines the assessment and documentation of sexual orientation and gender identity in the home healthcare setting, specifically patient and nurse perceptions of such data collection, as well as what is documented in nurses’ narrative notes about patients’ sexual orientation and gender identity. Chapter One describes the problem of health disparities among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) patients and how lack of documentation contributes to this problem. In Chapter Two, an integrated review of the literature on patients’ attitudes and perceptions related to the collection of information about sexual orientation and gender identity in the healthcare setting is reported. In Chapter Three, a qualitative study to determine nurses’ experiences, attitudes, and perceptions related to collecting information about sexual orientation and gender identity in the home healthcare setting is reported, and emergent barriers and facilitators discussed. In Chapter Four, a data mining study to examine what is documented about sexual orientation and gender identity in narrative home care nurses’ notes in an electronic health record is described.

Finally, in Chapter Five, the findings of the three studies are summarized, overarching conclusions reported and implications for policy, practice and research are discussed.