Through appraising the evidence in our project, I found some unexpected results from the research. In the paper “Affirming Transgender Youths’ Names and Pronouns in the Electronic Medical Record”, by G. M. Sequeira, a small percentage of participants brought up a significant issue that I had previously overlooked concerning the electronic medical record (EMR). These individuals were concerned that if they requested a change in either their name or pronouns in the EMR, their family members with access to their records could see the documented changes, thus outing them. I hadn’t considered up to this point any of the possible repercussions of including an individual’s preferred name and pronouns on the electronic medical record, but there were patients under 18 who expressed concern with a parent seeing the change on the EMR. This begs the question of whether transgender patients should be treated differently depending on their age, or if safety can be accommodated in a different manner that makes the patient comfortable while receiving care and safe at home. To try and accommodate this, I think it will be important to have an in-depth conversation with any patient that has a name and pronoun preference to make sure they are safe at home and to see if there is a balance in caring for the patient versus what is reflected on the EMR.

In reflecting on the teamwork process, I can easily identify issues that have come up along the journey. As a team, we had difficulty communicating and staying on the same page about our resources and assignments. We were able to meet over zoom and discuss the communication issues and have had a much easier time since. We have been able to better collaborate and rely on each other as a team, and I think that working together to complete the final paper will go much more smoothly now that we have this established communication pathway.