Responding to Bias: Equipping Residents With Tools to Address Microaggressions

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Physician Well-being
• Diversity and Inclusion in Medicine

Background:

• Resident physicians frequently encounter bias from patients and families.
• Underrepresented trainees, including women, disproportionately experience bias.
• Experiencing bias contributes to resident physician burnout and feelings of unpreparedness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a toolkit and workshop to equip resident physicians to respond to patient-expressed bias.
• To improve resident physicians' comfort and preparedness in handling bias situations.

Main Methods:

• A 45-minute, peer-led, case-based workshop was developed.
• The toolkit included emotional well-being assessment, team-based response strategies, and debriefing.
• Pre- and post-workshop surveys assessed changes in comfort responding to bias-towards-self and bias-towards-others.

Main Results:

• Thirty-seven residents completed the study.
• The workshop significantly increased comfort in responding to bias-towards-self (p < .001).
• Comfort in responding to bias-towards-others also significantly increased (p < .001).

Conclusions:

• A novel toolkit and workshop effectively improved resident physicians' comfort in responding to patient-expressed bias.
• The approach centers the resident physician's perspective and incorporates clinical context.
• This scalable, case-based workshop offers a practical solution for enhancing physician resilience.