Anti-racism training for healthcare professionals: A critically appraised topic
PDF

Keywords

Culturalism
Professionalism
Bias

How to Cite

DAnnibale, K., Russ, A. C. ., Tierney, R. T., & Mansell, J. L. . (2022). Anti-racism training for healthcare professionals: A critically appraised topic. CommonHealth, 3(1), 28–33. https://doi.org/10.15367/ch.v3i1.498

Abstract

Context There is documented presence of racism in health care, resulting in negative health outcomes for minoritized people.  While there is a focus on anti-racism and anti-bias training for providers, it is unknown whether these programs are beneficial. Therefore, the clinical question is “Does anti-racism training increase knowledge of racism in health care professionals? “ Methods PubMed was searched in July of 2021 using a specific Boolean phrase of (racism*[tiab] OR "anti racism"[tiab] OR "racism"[MeSH Terms]) AND (train*[tiab] OR educat*[tiab]) AND (("health personnel"[MeSH Terms] OR ("health*"[All Fields] AND "personnel"[All Fields]) OR "health personnel"[All Fields] OR ("healthcare"[All Fields] AND "professional"[All Fields]) OR "healthcare professional*"[tiab] OR "healthcare provider*"[tiab] OR physician*[tiab] OR "athletic trainer*"[tiab] OR "physical therapist*" OR dentist*[tiab] OR "dental hygienist*"[tiab] OR doctor*[tiab] OR "medical professional*"[tiab] OR "medical provider*"[tiab] OR nurs*[tiab] OR "physician assistant*"[tiab])).  For inclusion, a study had healthcare professionals who completed anti-racism training and self-assessment surveys providing measurable outcomes. Only articles from the previous 5 years were considered. Titles were reviewed for relevance, followed by abstract and full text, when needed. The STROBE checklist for cross-sectional studies was used for appraisal. Results The search yielded 274 articles. Of those, 259 were eliminated based on title and 12 were eliminated based on reading the full text. 3 were selected for inclusion.  The first study utilized a clinical workshop developed to decrease the likelihood of clinicians expressing bias and stereotypes in interactions with patients of color. The average Likert scale for survey items included 4.8/5 for “information relevance and delivery”, 4.8 for “introduction to culture”, and 4.7/5 for “introduction to communication”.  In the second study, cultural awareness training was aimed at increasing clinicians’ ability to provide culturally safe care using authentic personal stories. The average percentage of improvement was 27% for “attitude toward minorities”, 23.8% for “Inclusion of other in self”, and 23.8% for “interaction closeness.”  The third study deployed an 8-hour training adapted to an online setting. Results demonstrated scores of 4.5/5 for “found training valuable”, 4.3/5 for “training will improve clinical care”, and 3.9/5 for “ability to create inclusive environment post-training”. The STROBE scores for these articles were 18/22, 20/22, and 21/22. Conclusion There is consistent self-reported evidence that anti-racism training is beneficial to clinicians. It is important to note that these studies were only conducted on the provider side, there is a need for information collected from the patient’s experience post-training. Due to the consistent, limited quality of evidence, a SORT score of B is recommended.

https://doi.org/10.15367/ch.v3i1.498
PDF