The year Jess Crawford graduated from their bachelor’s of nursing, gender identity and expression was added as protected from discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, during their entire bachelor of nursing degree, students only had one hour of discussion about trans health and gender identity.

“A white, transgender woman came in and spoke to our class. It was awesome to hear her lived experience, but there was no other education around trans health,” they say. “She was framed as an expert on the topic, but we know that intersectionality impacts people differently. We can still include and amplify lived experiences in the classroom, but there needs to be a lot more information on trans people massaged throughout the curriculum.”

Now a master’s student at the College of Nursing in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, they are researching the experiences of nursing educators and nursing students learning and teaching trans health. They will use data from the University of Saskatchewan, University of Manitoba, Red River College and Brandon University to better understand what nursing students know about trans health and how educators approach the topic.