It’s likely every family physician cares for one or more 2SLGBTQ+ patients in their practice. It’s important for family doctors to have easy access to appropriate resources to address the unique health needs of people in these communities.
Family Medicine Professional Choices (FMProC | CProMF) question scenarios may include scenarios including heathcare delivery in this population.
You are assigned on a Family Medicine longitudinal clinic and you have completed a visit from a 38-year-old female patient for a well-being visit. You noticed there is no recent Pap test on her medical records, and when you inquire further, she said she is having sex with a woman and her family physician stopped Pap testing since she is having intercourse with a female. You know that the updated cervical cancer guidelines recommend screening women who have sex with women, at her the patient's age, every three years.
Rank in order the following actions in response to this situation (5=Most desirable, 1=Least desirable).
A. Recommend that the patient asks her family physician to review the updated guideline.
B. Discuss the Pap smear test advantages and disadvantages with your patient and ask her to consider the test on the coming visit.
C. Contact the family physician yourself and inform him of the updated guidelines.
D. Send an email to the physician and attach the updated Pap smear screening guideline for him to read it when time allows.
E. Discuss the Pap smear test advantages and disadvantages with your patient and ask her to undergo the test today.
Successful answer:
A. 5
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4
E. 1
While medical guidelines may change over time, family physicians are expected to be on top of the most recent guidelines. Your task first and foremost, is to your patient ensuring he or she receive excellent healthcare. Thus choices B and E come to the top ranking choices of this question. E would rank higher than B because it would not delay screening the patient as she has missed Pap testing and may have already developed early cellular changes that can be caught on Pap smear. Being an advocate for patients among the medical community, this would constitute an opportunity to improve the healthcare service for patients in general and the LGPTQ community in specific. However, the discussions between healthcare specialist should be delicate and focused on patients' healthcare delivery excellence. Option C would ensure such discussion with a colleague, while the Option A and D will depends on patient reminding her physicians to review guideline, and on the physician receiving email from you, respectively.