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Preparing Medical Students to Address the Needs of Vulnerable Patient Populations: Implicit Bias Training in US Medical Schools

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Abstract

Little is known about how medical students are trained to identify and reduce their own biases toward vulnerable patient groups. A survey was conducted among US medical schools to determine whether their curricula addressed physician implicit biases toward three vulnerable patient groups: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) individuals, persons experiencing homelessness, and migrant farmworkers. Of 141 US medical schools, 71 (50%) responded. Survey respondents indicated that implicit bias is not routinely addressed in medical education, and training specific to vulnerable populations is infrequent. Recommendations for incorporating implicit bias training in medical school curricula are discussed.

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Funding

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UH1HP30348, entitled “Academic Units for Primary Care Training and Enhancement.” This information or content and conclusions are those of the authors and should not be construed as the official position or policy of nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS, or the US Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 2500 North State Street, Jackson, MS, USA

    Matthew C. Morris

  2. Department of Family and Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN, USA

    Robert Lyle Cooper, Wansoo Im, Paul Juarez & Patricia Matthews-Juarez

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Cancer Biology, Neuroscience & Pharmacology, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN, USA

    Aramandla Ramesh

  4. School of Graduate Studies and Research, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN, USA

    Mohammad Tabatabai

  5. Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Thomas A. Arcury

  6. Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Marybeth Shinn

Authors
  1. Matthew C. Morris
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  2. Robert Lyle Cooper
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  3. Aramandla Ramesh
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  4. Mohammad Tabatabai
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  7. Wansoo Im
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Correspondence to Matthew C. Morris.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Meharry Medical College Institutional Review Board and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Morris, M.C., Cooper, R.L., Ramesh, A. et al. Preparing Medical Students to Address the Needs of Vulnerable Patient Populations: Implicit Bias Training in US Medical Schools. Med.Sci.Educ. 30, 123–127 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-020-00930-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-020-00930-3

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