Mitigating Implicit Bias in Healthcare

Course overview

Implicit bias is the unconscious attitudes, stereotypes, and beliefs that can influence an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Implicit bias can contribute to discrimination in healthcare, which results in patients receiving different levels of care due to uncertainty in communication and clinical decision-making related to these biases, prejudices, and stereotypes. Implicit biases can manifest as microaggressions. There are strategies to mitigate implicit bias; however, evidence suggests that one-time interventions are ineffective and that lasting change requires persistent, long-term strategies.