Monique Jindal1, Rachel L J Thornton2, Ashlyn McRae3, Ndidi Unaka4, Tiffani J Johnson5, Kamila B Mistry6. 1. is Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Illinois Chicago. 2. is Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 3. is a Resident Physician, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. 4. is Associate Professor, Division of Hospital Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, and Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. 5. is Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Davis. 6. is Senior Advisor for Child Health and Quality Improvement, Office of Extramural Research, Education, and Priority Populations, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, US Department of Health and Human Services, and Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Abstract
Background: Racism is a longstanding driver of health inequities. Although medical education is a potential solution to address racism in health care, best practices remain unknown. Objective: We sought to evaluate the impact of participation in a curriculum addressing racism on pediatric residents' racial biases and empathy. Methods: A pre-post survey study was conducted in 2 urban, university-based, midsized pediatric residency programs between July 2019 and June 2020. The curriculum sessions included Self-Reflection on Implicit Bias, Historical Trauma, and Structural Racism. All sessions were paired with empathy and perspective-taking exercises and were conducted in small groups to facilitate reflective discussion. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to assess changes in racial bias and empathy. Linear regression was used to assess the effect of resident characteristics on racial bias and empathy. Results: Ninety of 111 residents receiving the curriculum completed pre-surveys (81.1%), and among those, 65 completed post-surveys (72.2%). Among participants with baseline pro-White bias, there was a statistically significant shift (0.46 to 0.36, P=.02) toward no preference. Among participants with a baseline pro-Black bias, there was a statistically significant shift (-0.38 to -0.21, P=.02), toward no preference. Among participants with baseline pro-White explicit bias, there was a statistically significant shift (0.54 to 0.30, P<.001) toward no preference. Among all residents, there was a modest but statistically significant decrease in mean empathy (22.95 to 22.42, P=.03). Conclusions: Participation in a longitudinal discussion-based curriculum addressing racism modestly reduced pediatric residents' racial preferences with minimal effects on empathy scales.
Background: Racism is a longstanding driver of health inequities. Although medical education is a potential solution to address racism in health care, best practices remain unknown. Objective: We sought to evaluate the impact of participation in a curriculum addressing racism on pediatric residents' racial biases and empathy. Methods: A pre-post survey study was conducted in 2 urban, university-based, midsized pediatric residency programs between July 2019 and June 2020. The curriculum sessions included Self-Reflection on Implicit Bias, Historical Trauma, and Structural Racism. All sessions were paired with empathy and perspective-taking exercises and were conducted in small groups to facilitate reflective discussion. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to assess changes in racial bias and empathy. Linear regression was used to assess the effect of resident characteristics on racial bias and empathy. Results: Ninety of 111 residents receiving the curriculum completed pre-surveys (81.1%), and among those, 65 completed post-surveys (72.2%). Among participants with baseline pro-White bias, there was a statistically significant shift (0.46 to 0.36, P=.02) toward no preference. Among participants with a baseline pro-Black bias, there was a statistically significant shift (-0.38 to -0.21, P=.02), toward no preference. Among participants with baseline pro-White explicit bias, there was a statistically significant shift (0.54 to 0.30, P<.001) toward no preference. Among all residents, there was a modest but statistically significant decrease in mean empathy (22.95 to 22.42, P=.03). Conclusions: Participation in a longitudinal discussion-based curriculum addressing racism modestly reduced pediatric residents' racial preferences with minimal effects on empathy scales.
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