From Awareness to Action: Addressing Implicit Bias in Clinical Practice

Overview

Biases and microaggressions have been shown to impact healthcare in many areas including contributing to (1) inaccurate or compromised clinical assessments, (2) Differences in treatment recommendations (3) Differences in communication quality with patients and (3) Erosion of trust between health professionals and patients. Though they have a potentially dangerous and long-lasting impact on healthcare, research has demonstrated that impact of bias can be mitigated with awareness, concern of impact and intentionality for change (allyship). This lecture will explore impact of biases and microaggressions in healthcare and provide tools and skills useful to mitigate their effects.

The session "From Awareness to Action: Addressing Implicit Bias in Clinical Practice" (1 hour) is designed to satisfy state licensure requirements on Cultural Competency & Humility and Implicit Bias in IL (MD, NP, PA), in MI (MD, NP, PA), in WA (MD, NP, PA), in OR (MD, NP, PA), in CT (MD, NP), in NV (NP, PA), and in CA (NP).

Learning Objectives

• Understand the impact of bias and microaggressions in healthcare
• Review data showing the impact of bias in healthcare
• Provide tools and skills to help move beyond our biases
• Understand the need for allyship in medicine