Caring for Transgender patients in the ICU: Current insights for equitable care

There is ever more focus on issues surrounding Transgender/Trans people and their healthcare needs, and while there is a dearth of evidence related to Intensive Care, this paper aims to address considerations for ICU nurses when caring for Trans patients. These include both the overall approach to person-centred care for Trans patients as well as the physiological considerations that necessitate nursing interventions. The term Trans is an umbrella term which refers to a person whose gender identity differs from the biological sex they were assigned at birth. Not everybody ascribes to a gender identity which is either male, nor female; people who identify outside of this binary might be described as Non-Binary or a number of other terms. Further terminology is outlined in Table 1.