Unconscious Bias Training for our Simulated Patients: Showcasing a new and innovative workshop

Hammond, Anna; Frere, Tom; Whittaker, Jane; Stockbridge, Cal

Abstract

Poster Overview:
We have a large bank of simulated patients who interact with our students in teaching and assessment across all five years of our MB BS course, and were mindful of their different backgrounds and experiences when developing this session. Despite our best efforts with recruitment, we are mindful that that our simulated patient pool is less ethnically diverse than our student cohort.

Methods
We used both large group and breakout sessions in designing this interactive, multimedia two hour workshop which was delivered this via Zoom to our simulated patients.

We were careful to position this training as a safe space to share and learn, explaining that, because we are human, we all have unconscious biases, and our swift automatic responses are impacted by our previous experiences, upbringing and environment. Every day and clinical reasoning theory were used to help describe how we all have unconscious biases. These beliefs, attitudes and stereotypes can affect our understanding and decisions in a way that we are not aware of – if steps aren’t taken to avoid acting on such biases it can lead to unfair treatment and discriminatory practice (General Medical Council).

The workshop facilitators will describe an aide memoire (STAR) developed to help simulated patients challenge their automatic thinking when responding to students, checking whether their responses are being influenced by unconscious biases.

We were hugely impressed with the level of reflections and discussions during this session and will present both simulated patent feedback and our own reflections on the learning from this activity.

Citation

Hammond, A., Frere, T., Whittaker, J., & Stockbridge, C. (2022, October). Unconscious Bias Training for our Simulated Patients: Showcasing a new and innovative workshop. Poster presented at Medical Schools UK Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Network Online Meeting

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: Medical Schools UK Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Network Online Meeting
• Start Date: Oct 12, 2022
• End Date: Oct 12, 2022
• Deposit Date: Dec 18, 2023
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4491294
• Publisher URL: https://le.ac.uk/cls/cls-equality/medical-schools-uk-edi-meeting