“What Would You Do?” Scenario Cards (Printable Set)

Print this set and keep it at the nursing station or in the break room. Each card is a real situation staff face, with the challenge and a few discussion prompts. Use one per huddle, or post one a week to spark conversation. The full interactive versions — with possible responses and key takeaways — live at prideincare.org/resources/what-would-you-do.

Card 1 — Assumptions About an Older Gay Man

A 74-year-old gay resident is assumed to be lonely and alone — until his partner of 41 years shows up and gets dismissed as a “volunteer.” Staff mean well, but assumptions stack up: a blank next-of-kin field, a male visitor assumed to be a volunteer, a comment that he should be “grateful someone visits.”

Challenge: The harm is quiet — no slur, nothing obvious to document. The resident is unlikely to complain; he will simply stop bringing his partner around.

Discuss: What would you do when the partner arrives? How do you fill the blank intake field for every resident? How do you correct a colleague’s “joke” privately?

Card 2 — A Black Trans Woman’s Dignity

A 54-year-old Black trans woman is admitted. Staff keep “forgetting” her pronouns, the whiteboard reads her old name, and a PSW comments on her body during personal care. She is withdrawing and has asked her sister whether anyone here sees her as a woman.

Challenge: Racism and transphobia are both in play. Fixing only the pronouns misses the comment; fixing only the comment misses the signage.

Discuss: What visible things can you fix today? How do you coach the PSW without shaming them? How do you ask the resident what would help?

Card 3 — Pronouns and Dementia

A 68-year-old trans man with early-stage dementia is admitted. Some staff think pronouns “don’t matter anymore” if he forgets them. His sister is firm: he has been Daniel for 40 years and that is who he is, always.

Challenge: Staff are genuinely unsure what respect looks like when memory is unreliable. The answer: dementia changes memory, not identity.

Discuss: How do you answer the question “does it really matter?” How do you brief agency staff consistently? How do you follow up with the family?

Card 4 — Body-Shaming and Sexuality

A 63-year-old gay man with a larger body is shamed by staff for his size (“no wonder you’re alone”) and dismissed when his partner visits. He has now refused his shower three times this week and told a PSW, “They all think I’m disgusting.”

Challenge: The harm is disguised as banter and “health advice.” But a resident refusing care because of staff comments is a clinical crisis the team caused.

Discuss: What is the rule about comments on residents’ bodies? How do you restore his care today? How do you document the cause, not just “declined”?

Card 5 — Assumptions About a Racialized Person with Mobility Challenges

A 58-year-old racialized woman who uses a wheelchair is spoken to loudly and slowly, as if she does not understand English. She is fluent. She tells a nurse, “I am not a child and I am not hard of hearing. I am in a wheelchair. Those are different things.”

Challenge: The harm is wrapped in good intentions. A wheelchair tells you nothing about language, hearing, or cognition.

Discuss: How do you correct the assumption specifically? How do you close the loop with the resident? How do you raise it at huddle without shaming anyone?

Card 6 — Staff Discomfort with Intersex Identity

A 46-year-old intersex resident hears a PSW say, “That’s not natural. God made you one way.” They tell a nurse they do not feel safe and do not know who else thinks they are a mistake.

Challenge: A sincerely held belief expressed in a resident’s most vulnerable moment. You cannot police belief; you must hold the line on conduct.

Discuss: How do you separate belief from conduct in the conversation? How do you restore the resident’s safety the same day? What is the standard for every team member?

Card 7 — When Family Doesn’t Accept a Resident’s Identity

A 72-year-old queer resident’s adult sons pressure staff to “limit that woman’s visits” and “help her change.” She is afraid of what happens when she can no longer speak for herself.

Challenge: The family is not a villain — they are grieving. But the resident is the resident, and her wishes come first.

Discuss: How do you hold a kind, firm boundary with the family? How do you help her name a substitute decision-maker on paper? What do you share, and with whose consent?

Card 8 — Respecting Two-Spirit Identity and Indigenous Culture

A 64-year-old Anishinaabe Two-Spirit resident has his identity dismissed as “just being gay” and his request to smudge deferred three times. He says he feels like he is “disappearing a little more every day.”

Challenge: The harm is invisible to staff causing it. Two-Spirit is a distinct Indigenous identity, and spiritual practice is care.

Discuss: How do you respond when a resident corrects a term you have used for years? How do you make smudging happen this week? Who can guide you on cultural safety?

Card 9 — A Racialized Gay Couple

A racialized gay couple in their 60s are treated differently than the white gay couples in the home — “you people are so loud,” comments about food smells, an interpreter assumed. They are thinking of moving.

Challenge: No single comment is an obvious violation. But a pattern is forming that the white couples do not experience, and race is part of it.

Discuss: How do you listen without defending the home? How do you name the pattern out loud? What assumptions is the team making about who is “loud” or needs an interpreter?

Card 10 — Infantilization of a Trans Person with Intellectual Disability

A 34-year-old trans man with an intellectual disability is called “sweetie” and “good girl” by a new staff member who says he “doesn’t really understand gender.” He is spoken over in his own support meeting.

Challenge: Ableism and transphobia work together — the disability is used to cancel his identity. He told staff: “Nobody asks me what I think. They decide for me.”

Discuss: How do you correct the assumption that disability cancels gender? How do you centre him in the conversation? How do you brief every shift, including casual staff?

Full interactive versions of every scenario — with possible responses, key takeaways, and reflection prompts — are at prideincare.org/resources/what-would-you-do. Want help running these with your team? Book a free call at prideincare.org/contact or email hello@prideincare.org.