34925 Understanding Implicit Bias: Your Role as Healthcare Provider

Course overview

The program discusses the healthcare providers role in minimizing implicit bias in patient care. Topics include the definition of implicit bias, methods to assess implicit bias, outcomes associated with implicit bias and interventions, and the role of the healthcare provider in minimizing implicit bias. Implicit, or subconscious, bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases, which can be both favorable and unfavorable, are activated involuntarily and without an individuals awareness or intentional control. Implicit bias may have negative consequences in healthcare settings, including swaying treatment decisions and clinical decision-making, leading to failures in patient-centered care and affecting patient outcomes. Nurses and other individuals who work in healthcare must be willing to examine their own possible biases in order to understand the basis for stereotypes and prejudice in our society, with the goal of improving healthcare provision for all individuals and reducing health disparities. This program discusses implicit bias, including methods of assessment and measurement, controversies related to assessment, how implicit bias may impact decision-making and patient outcomes in healthcare settings, and the role of healthcare providers in regard to addressing implicit bias.