Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Project

College/School

College of Nursing

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Project Mentor

Robin Narruhn

Readers

Brianna Woodruff

Abstract

Background - Implicit and explicit biases held by medical staff towards obese patients reduce obese patients’ outcomes, engagement with medical care, quality and even quantity of life. Studies agree an intervention is needed to reduce obesity bias in medicine, but limited research has been conducted regarding reducing provider bias, and only one study on weight bias has been done in this population. Methods - Participants from Seattle University College of Nursing (SUCON) were recruited for an interrupted time-series study measuring implicit bias and explicit bias with validated tools before and after an educational intervention. The intervention was an asynchronous online narrated module intended to educate employees in the medical field on obesity. The module was based on a similar intervention used in the previous study targeting obesity bias in a similar population. Results - 61 participants completed the pretest survey and viewed the intervention, 30 participants completed the post-test survey one week later and were paired with their pretest results. For the paired sample of 30, explicit bias improved by 2% , P-value of 0.0286. For implicit bias, the paired sample post-intervention had an 11% reduction of bias, P-value of 0.0014. Both P-values indicate statistical significance. Conclusions - The intervention moderately improved explicit bias and significantly reduced implicit bias in a paired sample of participants. Continuing to utilize the educational module is an effective way to reduce bias in the population. Other methods of reducing bias should be compared to these results.

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