Last Updated on July 12, 2022
UnityPoint Health, a major healthcare provider in Iowa, recently issued a list of gender-neutral pronouns that employees will be encouraged to use when dealing with patients.
A sheet reportedly distributed by the provider lists terms to “avoid” on the left-hand column while providing gender-neutral alternatives on the right. The chart encourages employees to refrain from using pronouns such as “he” or “she,” instead asking them to refer to patients by name. It also encourages employees to avoid terms like “boyfriend” or “girlfriend,” instead encouraging the use of “partner” or “significant other.”
The guidelines even encourage staff to avoid terms like “policeman” or “mailman.” They should instead use terms such as “mail-clerk” or “police officer.”
The guidelines were shared on Twitter by the Libs of TikTok account.
These were new guidelines given to medical workers at a major healthcare provider in Iowa pic.twitter.com/ZLJCa9rYmf
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 11, 2022
According to The Iowa Standard, UnityPoint Health is one of the main sponsors of pride events and the promotion of “gender-affirming care” to children throughout the state. Services provided by UnityPoint include gender-affirming hormone therapy, pre and post gender-affirming surgery support, and “gender-affirming voice therapy.”
UnityPoint Health — which was known as “Iowa Health System” until 2013 — is a network of hospitals, clinics and home care services in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. The organization was founded in 1993 — when Iowa Lutheran Hospital and Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines merged — and would go on to become the state’s largest hospital and health services provider.
UnityPoint currently operates 14 healthcare facilities and hospitals across Iowa.
