Resource Center’s LGBTQIA+ Health program, which provides primary medical care to the DFW LGBTQIA+ community and allies, is proud to welcome a new provider to its facilities, Rene Resendiz RN-FNP-C.
Resendiz is a Family Nurse Practitioner and registered nurse, who under the direction of Medical Director Dr. Marc Tribble, will work with patients to make sure they receive culturally competent and non-judgmental primary care as well as access to services like PrEP and gender-affirming care.
“I’m excited about what Resource Center and its LGBTQIA+ health program do for the community and I’m excited to be a part of it,” said Resendiz, who is also bilingual in Spanish. He joins the Center with a background in emergency medicine as well as providing medical care to underserved communities.
After graduating from high school Resendiz worked as a patient care technician at Texas Health Resources in hospice, oncology and the emergency department while pursuing his degree in registered nursing. After earning his degree in nursing, he worked for several years as a registered nurse in the emergency room while also volunteering at the Center’s Nelson-Tebedo facility where he provided treatment for STIs.
Resendiz eventually decided to further his education by pursuing his master’s degree in family nurse practice at the University of Texas at Arlington. While in school, he had the opportunity to learn from and work with another Nurse Practitioners who provided HIV treatment, HIV prevention and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to patients. After that experience, he knew he wanted to continue providing medical care to the LGBTQIA+ community and underserved populations.
“When I was allowed the opportunity to be in that space, I knew that I was doing the right thing. The goal was always to go back to the LGBTQIA+ community in some way,” said Resendiz.
Resendiz says he is looking forward to providing patients with a safe space to express their concerns and questions especially when it comes to sexual health.
“Unfortunately, in primary care a lot of the time sexual health gets put on the back burner or doesn’t get mentioned due to shame and stigma. It’s important to me that my patients understand that sexual health plays just as big of a role as their asthma, high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and any other health issues. Managing sexual health is a priority to me and it’s important to meet the patient where they are.”
One of the goals of LGBTQIA+ Health is to help eliminate any barriers that keep underserved populations from receiving adequate care such as transportation, lack of education on LGBTQIA+-related health issues and/or judgement from a provider.
“We shouldn’t be making it harder for people to receive the life-changing care that they need like access to HRT and HIV preventatives like PrEP. We know that people will seek this type of care no matter what and we want people to do it safely,” said Resendiz.
In addition to primary medical care, LGBTQIA+ Health also provides rapid start treatment to patients newly diagnosed with HIV. This means when a patient receives a positive HIV test result at Nelson-Tebedo, staff can call Resendiz directly to get them into treatment as soon as possible.
“There’s a lot of value in rapid initiation for HIV treatment because not only is there still a lot of lingering stigma and fear when a patient learns that they’re HIV positive, but the longer a person goes without treatment, the higher the chances are HIV-related complications and illnesses will arise. Having the opportunity to get someone into care immediately brings an enormous amount of calm to a very chaotic moment in their lifetime.”
Resendiz will be seeing patients in-person as well as via telemedicine at the Center’s Health Campus Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and some Saturdays. Patients can be seen for primary medical care which includes annual physicals and treatment for chronic conditions, diabetes, gender-affirming treatment, HIV and STI treatment, hypertension, immunizations, internal medicine, PrEP access, and wellness and prevention. Most major insurances are accepted. To schedule an appointment, call 214-540-4492 or email lgbtqhealth@myresourcecenter.org.
