 Hi everyone and welcome back to another vlog. My name is Claire Carmichael and I am a newly qualified nurse working as a GP nurse. Today's vlog is all about I'm going to be talking about LGBTQ plus and everything that comes with it. I've been thinking about doing this vlog for a while and now I've had the opportunity to actually go into it a bit more and talk about it and all that jazz. And just a little word of warning for the trolls out there who are thinking right now about commenting below. Trolling people trolling trolling trolling doesn't sound right I don't know anyone out there that wants to put some negativity on this and say bad things about people that identifies LGBTQ plus don't bother I am prepared I've got all of it you know I've heard it all it's not Adam and Steve it's Adam and Eve no don't bother I'm ready for you and also no where the block button is so you can try and have a little troll you can try and put a negative spin on it you can try put other people down for loving each other don't fret I will block you because as you know the people that do follow me as you know I don't do this for the follows I don't do this for the likes I do not do this for the watch time the views whatever I do this because I want to help other people I'm a genuine caring person and I just it makes me feel so good being able to help other people out there and this is a vlog that really really needed to be done I think so what does LGBTQ plus stand for so it stands for lesbian gay bisexual transgender and then more recently they added the queue which means queer slash questioning and then there's the plus for any additions um because there's just so many different terminologies now different ways that people identify themselves just so many different things that I would be here all day trying to explain every single one of them so I'm just going to cut it down as briefly as I can but explaining as best as I can so that you understand and hopefully help you and help your patients so if you are working as a nurse despite your own beliefs whatever you believe in whatever religion you are whichever culture you are in if you are caring for someone that goes against those beliefs that you have I'm sorry you have to put your own beliefs and religions aside you are caring for a human being we are all human beings we're all the same beings put on this planet to just love care share kindness not everyone does that unfortunately but we are all human beings we deserve to be treated with rights respect dignity and care and kindness every single person in this world deserves that so if your patient or colleagues or friends if they want to identify as LGBT non-binary anything like that then that is absolutely their choice to be identified as that person and it's absolutely their choice to be in love with whoever they want to be and I don't see any any wronging in that at all lesbian so lesbian is someone who is attracted to the same sex as themselves so they identify as female and they are attracted to the same sex who is female female to female gay so this is male to male so someone that identifies as a male is also attracted to a male bisexual is somebody who identifies as female or male and they are attracted to both sexes male and female transgender so a transgender person is someone who identifies as the opposite sex that they were actually originally assigned to so someone may be born with male body parts or female body parts but actually they feel like they're in the wrong body they were born into the different body and then they want to sort of go through a change to put them in back into the right body so that they can feel whole again so that their soul and their personality can match that of the body so someone might have been born male but actually identifies as female because that's the way they feel like they should have been born they should have been born into a female body non-binary and gender fluid I want to talk a little bit about this as well so a non-binary person or someone that identifies as gender fluid is somebody that will not identify as either male or female they feel like they're a free spirit in a way they don't feel like they're associated to any particular part I just wanted to raise the awareness that that person neither identifies as male or female and the sort of pronouns you would use for these sort of people would be they there them those sort of pronouns are what you use instead of him her she he it's other types of words and it's getting used to actually saying those sort of things and it's no different to if you were talking to maybe your friend about a patient or your day at work you don't give away names and you don't say she he usually it's more my patient today well they did this and they did that it's no different to doing that so people need to get used to using the correct pronouns and I just want to say if you're not sure ask the person the person's not going to be offended that person is going to be a lot more offended by calling them the wrong pronouns without even speaking to the patient or even your colleagues if it's your colleague they're going to be getting a lot more upset and hurt that you've just assumed and called them the wrong thing than actually sitting down and having that conversation with them and the only person that's embarrassed or shy about it is you if you've got that problem it's the only person it's going to affect really is you and then it's going to affect the patient if you start using the wrong terminology and it might come across as malicious or bullying or harassing anything like that that's when it's going to start hurting other people so it's about having those open honest conversations and saying to someone okay what would you like to be named what would you like to be called we already do it every day as a nurse hello my name is Claire Carmichael what is your name what name would you like to be called why can't we normalise it in every single day conversation you have to make that normal so that the patient knows that actually this is a normal process and that's just going to help massively I think and again if this is something that you don't agree with then that issue lies with you it doesn't lie with the other person because the other person is happy they're not harming anyone and they're in love with whoever they want to be with okay and it's not for you to judge that person it is not for you to put that person down it's it's wrong and you shouldn't be doing that in my opinion instead you should respect their choices and support them like any good human being should do and obviously in healthcare profession whether you're under the nmc gmc whether you're under the healthcare social work act then you have to follow that code you whatever profession you are nurse doctor healthcare assistant you've got a certain level of standards and code that you have to follow it doesn't matter about your religious beliefs culture beliefs anything like that you have to follow your code and you have to give the best care possible to your patients no matter on their age race identity and sexuality sexual orientation none of that disabilities nothing you have to give the best care possible to that patient regardless of where they're from who they are and what they've done now then this is for you who identify as lgbtq plus or non-binary or gender fluid for example what you tell and disclose your colleagues and your patients is absolutely your choice it's your personal life you don't have to feel under pressure to discuss that with anybody it is up to you whether you want to share that information with your patients with your colleagues you might get some comments from other people you might hear things from patients that say differently and you just have to try and normalise it the only thing we can do right now is by normalising this and making it acceptable and it shouldn't be like that we are living in 2020 but it's still like that out there unfortunately and we've got a lot of challenges and people to tackle and normalise this but we will get there and if we stand together and share and yeah celebrate love i think we'll be all right i think with lgbt community as well there's a lot of mental health problems around this issue because people won't come out people can't feel they can't come out to their families people feel they can't come out because of the backlash the stigma around it the scared the worried and this is heartbreaking this is horrible is again is 2020 people shouldn't feel like that people need to feel loved and supported and if you have a friend who might identify as lgbt or you have suspicions open that conversation maybe with them make it normal for them open your arms and say do you know what i'm here for you if you need to talk with anybody if you need a shoulder to cry on please i'm here for you and support that person i think if if everyone could just do that instead of being so negative and shine away from it i think the world would be a massively better place anyway that is all from me because this vlog is going to be 100 hours long if i keep going and the sun is coming round look at it so i need to try and stop this vlog now but anyway i hope it's been useful just please be mentally aware when you're out there whether you identify as lgbtq plus or you have friends colleagues patients that identify as that please be respectful treat them with dignity respect care for them as you would anybody else and never ever judge another person and if you are concerned or worried about someone or you're not sure about something like terminology with somebody ask sit down and have that conversation just say do you know what i'm really really sorry i have to ask this but i don't want to get it wrong they were honest to god they would much farther you did that than anything else so please have the conversations and if you do identify as lgbtq plus please comment below if you have any further information to give other people to share any websites anything like that any links you want to share so that is it from me i hope you'll have an amazing week and don't forget to keep shining and keep being you