An Innovative Curriculum to Empower Trainees and Faculty to Address Patient-Initiated Identity-Based Misconduct in...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Healthcare Communication
• Professionalism in Medicine

Background:

• Effective communication strategies for managing biased patient and visitor comments are lacking in medical training.
• Identity-based misconduct in clinical settings requires specific management approaches.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the I-RESPOND toolkit curriculum's effectiveness in training physicians to address identity-based misconduct.
• To assess changes in physician confidence and behavior following communication strategy training.

Main Methods:

• A workshop utilizing the I-RESPOND toolkit was delivered to resident physicians and faculty across 12 departments.
• Interactive didactics, toolkit introduction, and practice sessions with feedback were employed.
• Retrospective pre/post-workshop surveys and a follow-up survey were used for evaluation.

Main Results:

• Participants reported significantly increased confidence in responding to identity-based misconduct post-workshop (p < .001).
• A high likelihood (4.2/5) of using learned strategies was reported, with 32% intervening in real-time.
• Workshop evaluations were completed by 66 of 204 participants.

Conclusions:

• The I-RESPOND curriculum effectively enhanced physicians' confidence and skills in managing patient and visitor misconduct.
• Increased awareness of misconduct impact can inform institutional policies on disruptive discriminatory behavior.