Table 3 Direct statements from students

“More training and learning of the inequities faced would be helpful in understanding how to make a change in our profession.”

“I would love more education in PT school surrounding 2SLGBTQIA + patients.”

“Thank you for initiating this research, this is an important topic that does not receive enough attention”

“Thank you for doing this research, it is changing/benefitting the lives of many.”

“It would be amazing to see more education and resources about 2SLGBTQIA + integrated in the MPT curriculum.”

“All of the clinical skills are demonstrated on heteronormative cisgender men at [university]”

^a “I find that the issues of health and access for these clienteles are relevant to explore in a course, but acceptance and openness to others, as well as knowledge of the plurality of identities should be basic knowledge and innate. I would be interested in a course that talks about clinical conduct with this clientele, but not a course that teaches me who this clientele is. We are in 2021, we should know.”

“As a heterosexual, cisgender female, more education (and practical scenarios) on how to treat individuals and things to assess differently in transgender clients/patients related to their specific health requirements (e.g., bottom/top surgeries, binding, etc.) would be useful. I am also curious on how to conduct treatments/assessments with LGB individuals that may be different from hetero individuals, if any.”

“My program has discussed gender identity and associated health inequalities and gender-affirming procedures more than the inequalities that LGB individuals face. We have not talked at all about two-spirit individuals. Despite your introduction regarding intersectionality, with all the inequities that Indigenous people face, and how prevalent those issues have become in the media recently, I would have been interested in answering more questions directly related to the two-spirit community. My program did not touch on intersectionality. With our lessons related to gender, as well as other lessons related specifically to Indigenous culture and health, I feel that this was a missed opportunity to learn about intersectionality. I am aware that my program and university highlight Indigenous issues (more so than other schools in my personal experience and through conversations with peers). If this is the case, and even we aren’t learning about two-spirited individuals, who is? Again, it seems that the Physiotherapy education in [province] is missing this relevant and important topic.”

“We do have sessions on the basics of queer identity, but we need a lot more as it relates to treatment especially for transgender folks. For example, a lot of cardiac or respiratory equations use sex as a variable. Further, we need training on how to develop safe language with a patient on how to refer to their body or mobilize/touch their body. Also, we could use dos and don’ts, such as not telling a trans patient you couldn’t tell they were trans. Overall we need more time for discussion. We had an anonymous whiteboard for our session and one person kept repeatedly posting “why can’t people just choose one gender” when introduced to the concept of gender fluid. It was unclear why, but their question was not addressed.”