Friday reflection

[Adel Elmoghrabi]

This week we have revisited the topic of Implicit Bias and have brought awareness to the issues of social cognition, with reference to the stereotypes and attitudes that impact our understanding, decisions and actions in an unconscious manner. It highlights our commitment to our patients in a non-judgemental fahsion.

[Kendall Bell]

This week we discussed implicit versus explicit bias in medicine and how it affects our practice. I think the overall take home message is that as physicians we are all humans, and have our own biases’ and in order to minimize how our biases affect the care we deliver we should identify them, acknowledge them and attempt to mitigate their effect on our practice. One bias I have found is patients that carry certain diagnoses with psychogenic components I tend to carry a bias towards them before interviewing them. For example if a patient has fibromyalgia I have a bad tendency to right off some of their complaints. I realize I have this bias so going forward I tell myself specifically don’t let this happen, take their complaints just as serious as the next patient.

[Pranav Shah]

Biases are so prevalent in our practice as physicians today. I had a conversation with a colleague about the march of refugees coming from Honduras into our country. Much of the media today talked about how these refugees are MS13 members, convicts, criminals, uneducated, and “non-american”. We discriminate and judge people on a day-to-day basis implicitly and it’s so hard to identify when we are doing it. It is a huge burden and responsibility to state that doctors should not have these biases when currently millions of Americans do. The “America first” movement is implicit and explicit bias.

So how can I address patient’s of different races, religion, and gender? I think the only answer is, consciously. To be aware of my biases, I think, is probably the only way to treat people regardless of them. At the end of the day, these seems like a change in attitude and culture to me. We need both internal and external stimuli/reminders in order to create a behavior change. Blogging about it and discussing it with out may help the internal stimuli, but I will need to create a more accepting environment around me as external reminders.

[Muahand Taha]

This week, we reviwed the topic of implicit and explicit bias. Physicians must be aware of Bias as it is very common in daily practice. some of biad we are aware of but many we are not. It is very important to recognise those bias as it will minimize medical errors and improve quality of care.

[Wadah Ameen]

Unfortunately, Explicit and implicit biases are part of everyday practice. We try our best to not be judgmental based on someone race, religion or background. Regardless, we might still unaware of many things that we do subconsciously. I believe first step to overcome such biases is by acknowledge them. Just like treating any medical conditions, first is to diagnose, then treat.

[Hajra Khan]

We had a very insightful discussion this Friday regarding the consequences of implicit bias, particularly when it comes to patient care. The most thoughtful takeaway I personally had was to not underestimate our power as physicians and our abilities to send ripples of change. The simple act of being aware of implicit bias and voicing this acknowledgement to ourselves, our patients, our staff, medical students etc. can create a strong culture and community of medical professionals and human beings capable of higher level of emotional complexity, clinical aptitude and ultimately deliver better medical care.

[Carli Denholm]

Physicians are people and as such we all have biases. Our implicit biases affect how we react to people around us and how we treat patients. We can combat the potential negative effects of our biases on our patient care by being aware of our biases. If we are aware of our bias, we can be cognizant of how it is affecting our behavior and adjust our behavior accordingly. There are tools to help us identify our biases such as the Project Implicity tests.

[Ahmad Abu-Heija]

I believe the discussion as to the implicit and explicit biases we have as physicians is significantly important to raise awareness to our bias to patients on a daily basis. Studies reviewed delineate the significance of such, however, offer limited solutions to such an implicit bias that we might utilize in efforts to relinquish such attitudes and behaviors that we possess and display. Yet, awareness should be emphasized in such situations to enable us to consciously modify our behaviors and effortfully work on diminishing such display of bias to better serve our patients, in a blinded manner to their race, ethnicity, religion, or background.

[ABDELRAHMAN M AHMED]

we need to understand and acknowledge our implicit biases to deliver appropriate are to our patients

[ABDELRAHMAN M AHMED]

we need to understand and acknowledge our implicit biases to deliver appropriate care to our patients

[Ahmed Yeddi]

Implicit bias operates in an unintentional, even unconscious manner. This type of bias does not require the perceiver to endorse it or devote attention to its expression. Instead implicit bias can be activated quickly and unknowingly by situational cues (eg, a person’s skin color or accent), silently exerting its influence on perception, memory, and behavior. Because implicit bias can operate without a person’s intent or awareness, controlling it is not a straightforward matter. It is of utmost importance to recognize those bias as it will minimize health disparities and improve quality of care provided.

[mowyad Khalid]

Bias is based in human nature. Our job as physicians is to be aware of it, and not let it affect our medicial decisions. Awarness, and discussiin is the key

[Jasleen Kaur]

This reflection week was based on the topic of Implicit Bias which brought awareness to the issues of social cognition, with reference to the stereotypes and attitudes that impact our understanding, decisions and actions in an unconscious manner, as mentioned in the articles.

I believe that there is a dual edge to this sword. A physician must maintain the calmness and commitment to patients in a non-judgmental fashion when facing the bias from a patient and even the unconscious from within.

I read HPI of my patient who is a 28 years old transgender female while on consult service admitted for SOB. I recollected myself before knocking the door, so that I do not make the error and refer her correctly as ‘Ms/ She’. As I have been a part of the article on implicit bias before, I was very conscious of my thoughts. From the time I greeted my patient to as soon as I started the questions to the patient about her wellbeing, she was very impolite and disrespectful towards me. “Go away…you get better degrees than us and come to this country’.

I made sure that I was always aware of the situation to enable myself to consciously modify my behavior and effortfully work on diminishing such display of bias to better serve her. I left the room after explaining my consult visit to the patient. The patient apologized to me after I came back to see the patient the next day.

Its good to discuss these topics among the colleagues for better awareness to reduce this subconscious bias: Implicit bias.

[Antonio Smith]

today im reminded of Serena Williams who in short, begged her physician to work her up for PE, but was initially not taken seriously. After receiving a CT scan, it was clear that she suffered a PE. This anecdote along with others highlights the medical fields reluctance to listen to the health concerns of Women of color. This disservice often leads to improper care and missed diagnoses. There was another instance in recent news where a healthy young mother died after given birth to her second child from an intrabdominal hemorrhage because of a delayed stat CT abdomen which took over 8 hours to be done. The husband was told that she was not a priority hours before her death.

these patients don’t come to see a physician to assist with a medical groups billing, or to make your day a living hell. Patients don’t come to you because they want to stroke your ego and make you feel good about your petty life because youre a physician. they come to be healed, to be advised, to be comforted, to be advocated for. If this is something you failed to realize during your very short career as residents/physicians, ill gladly take your badge, melt it down and place it atop of the landfill where it belongs.

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