Responding to Bias: Equipping Residents With Tools to Address Microaggressions

Resident physicians frequently experience bias at work, with patients and families often being the source. Women and other trainees underrepresented in medicine are disproportionately impacted by these negative experiences, and experiencing bias contributes to resident physician burnout. Unfortunately, many resident physicians feel inadequately prepared to respond to bias.

We developed a 45-minute, peer-led, case-based workshop that equipped trainees with tools to respond to patient-expressed bias. Our toolkit centered on resident physicians by including an assessment of the trainee's emotional well-being, a team-based response, and an embedded debrief. The toolkit provided resident physicians with possible responses to bias directed towards themselves (bias-towards-self) or bias directed towards others (bias-towards-others). Surveys were administered pre- and postworkshop to assess change in participants' comfort in responding to patient-expressed bias.

Thirty-seven residents completed both surveys. The workshop significantly increased comfort in responding to bias-towards-self (p < .001; 95% CI, 1.00-1.50) and bias-towards-others (p < .001; 95% CI, 1.00-1.50).

We improved resident physicians' comfort responding to patient bias-towards-self and bias-towards-others through a toolkit and workshop designed specifically for trainees. The toolkit centers the resident physician perspective, incorporates clinical context, and embeds a debrief. Our novel approach situates the toolkit's teaching in a highly scalable, case-based workshop.