A Skills-Based Longitudinal Intervention for Clinician Educators: Addressing Implicit Bias in Patient Care and the Clinical Learning Environment.

INTRODUCTION

Implicit bias contributes to health care disparities. Addressing implicit bias is one focus of health professions education and learners desire instruction in the topic. Few faculties received skills-based instruction in addressing implicit bias during their own education and training and often feel ill-equipped to facilitate this instruction. Recognizing faculty are both learners and teachers in addressing implicit bias, the authors developed a longitudinal faculty development program informed by the implicit bias recognition and management (IBRM) framework.

METHODS

The program, IBRM for Faculty (IBRM4Fac), comprised 8 sixty-minute sessions delivered virtually from November 2020 to March 2021 at an academic safety-net health system. Program goals were skills development, including restoring rapport with patients, debriefing biased encounters, and addressing bias from patients. An external expert in IBRM led each session; materials included slides, worksheets to guide skills-development, and an audience response system. The mixed-methods program evaluation used preprogram/postprogram surveys.

RESULTS

Approximately 50 faculty primarily from the department of medicine were invited to participate in the program, N = 17 (34%) participated. Significant improvements occurred in 9/10 surveyed domains of IBRM (P < .05). Narrative responses analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis yielded three themes: (1) Personal strategy development; (2) Personal obstacles to sustained organizational change; and (3) Systemic barriers to sustained organizational change.

DISCUSSION: IBRM4Fac enhanced faculty confidence in addressing implicit bias, and helped faculty overcome identified challenges to implement strategies for teaching, role-modeling, and systems change in addressing implicit bias. Despite a small sample, our program could inform faculty development in addressing implicit bias in clinical and teaching encounters.