HERE IS THW MAIN POST

Your textbook and the Shen et al. (2018) article describe the impact of provider implicit bias and stereotypes on patient visit outcomes. Citing both your textbook and Shen et al. (2018), describe your main take-aways from the readings. What can you do to minimize such bias in your own clinical practice?

Amanda post respond to the main post

I want to take a moment to discuss implicit bias. I will be the first to admit, I know there are tons of biases in the world and I am sure that more often than not we are confronted with one or more biases in each of our days no matter the situation. I had gone to an implicit bias training last year through my school. It was mandatory, according to the New York City Department of Education and no one in my school had volunteered to attend first. Being the happy second-year teacher, I decided I would volunteer. The training people stuck me in a room with everyone that looked like me. My first reaction was, we are in NYC, theres no diversity? Something has to be wrong. It turns out, it was an exercise, to show us how we can create biases based on people in a room (eventually we were all brought back together in one space). Implicit bias is based on us as individuals holding specific attitudes or stereotypes without understanding or being consciously aware that we are. I think that in the issues surrounding health care and specific positive health psychology, we as clinicians must learn to understand how we can remove these stereotypes and be culturally responsive, as we as teachers are trained every year in culturally responsive teaching to better serve our student population. According to Shen (2018), attitudes regarding these stereotypes can influence the way we see treatment, how we interact with our clients and more importantly how the exchange and rapport is built. The author moves to say that the communication that we have with our client is directly impacted by how we perceive the person to be, even before they begin speaking. According to Taylor (2018), rapport and the way we interact with our clients through speaking and therapy can have a profound impact into how we see them, and communication is part of that aspect. It is important that as clinicians we remain unbiased, put our own thoughts and feelings aside and focus on the individual client so that they may have a fruitful treatment and make progress. There is also this idea of training; sometimes in the whirlwind of everything that happens in life, we can get so caught up in the moment or the busy day to day activities, that we lose sight of what is important. Allowing for clinicians to receive specific training on bias and implicit bias as well as culturally responsive practices is important.

References:

Shen, M. J., Peterson, E. B., Costas-Muiz, R., Hernandez, M. H., Jewell, S. T., Matsoukas, K., & Bylund, C. L. (2018). The effects of race and racial concordance on patient-physician communication: a systematic review of the literature. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 5(1), 117-140.

Taylor, S. (2018). Health psychology. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.