Attitude of healthcare professionals towards transgenders – a qualitative study

Abstract

The transgender community of Pakistan has been the victim to discrimination, harassment, and violence. Despite continuing efforts to voice their concerns, active members of their movement have been publicly ridiculed and physically attacked (Tribune, 2018). Clinging to the edge of their lives, some transgenders have received derogatory treatment at hospitals, resulting in their death (Dawn, 2016). With respect to their ongoing mistreatment in society and the incidents that have led to loss of not only quality of life but also life itself, the research aimed to explore the attitude of healthcare providers towards members of transgender community. Attitude as conceptualized in previous researches, consists of beliefs, emotions and behaviors about and towards a target object (Breckler, 1984; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). Employing a qualitative methodology, a total of 18 participants were purposely approached for interview, belonging to different healthcare settings in Lahore. An interview guide was developed on the basis of the conceptualizations of Breckler (1984) and Hill and Willoughby (2005). Thematic Model of analysis was used to interpret the data using the guidelines of Miles and Huberman (1994). As the method was both inductive and deductive, a total of eight preset codes and nine emergent codes were discovered and reviewed by independent coders to check inter-rater reliability. It was found that the healthcare professionals generally had tolerant and positive attitude towards transgenders, while few harbored hostilities towards them. Our findings also highlighted that positive beliefs and cognitions were not consistent with behavior due to the influence of social norms. Culture seemed to play a vital role in determining the attitude of the individuals and gave insight of how it reinforces stigma associated with a particular population.