Decreasing Ageism Bias Through an Interprofessional Clinical Simulation Experience

There are two aims to this study: does ageism exist in health care students and if so, is a clinical simulation featuring interprofessional education with standardized patients an effective mitigator?

This was a nonequivalent, mixed methods, multiple group pretest-post-test, one site design. Ninety-one subjects were included. The outcome measures included 3 ageism instruments, discharge recommendations and rationale, and debriefing assessment.

Data indicate ageism is common among health care students. Nearly 80% of students tested pre-intervention were found to favor younger over older people. Pre and post results found a difference ( P < .001) indicated the effectiveness of the mitigating intervention. Before the intervention, age was the primary factor for discharge decisions. For postintervention, the rationale changed to clinical and patient variables. Discharge locations similarly changed. The debriefing analysis revealed 5 student themes: lack of awareness, mitigation need, guilt, building interprofessional connections, and the beneficial nature of the experience.

Our results indicate a prevalence of implicit ageism in entry-level physician assistant and PT students which impacted clinical decision-making related to discharge plans. An interprofessional education with clinical simulation and standardized patients proved to be an effective bias mitigator within this group.