263 - Bias Reduction in Medicine Pediatrics+: Preliminary findings of a novel antiracism curriculum for pediatricians

Publication Number: 1249.263

HANNIBAL PERSON, University of Washington School of Medicine, SEATTLE, WA, United States; Freda F. Liu, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States; Stephanie Tavarez, University of Hartford, Bergenfield, NJ, United States; Marshall Brown, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, United States; Richard Shugerman, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, United States; Jason Deen, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States; Amalia Magaret, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States; Demet Toprak, Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, WA, United States; Roberto E. Montenegro, University of Washington School of Medicine, SEATTLE, WA, United States; Thida Ong, Seattle Children's, Seattle, WA, United States

Background: BRIM-Peds+ (BP+) is a 3-part virtual workshop series developed through evidence-based strategies to manage implicit social cognitions and facilitate intergroup dialogue. Course objectives taught bias awareness, facilitated practice for skills in antibias, and supported antibias motivation. We implemented BP+ among pediatricians to recognize and mitigate their own biases in a psychologically safe and reflective learning environment.

Objective: To assess acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of BP+ and explore learner effectiveness in knowledge, bias awareness, self-efficacy, and bias management behaviors.

Design/Methods: Division heads requested to offer BP+ to their faculty and peer trainers facilitated the workshop series to 4 clinical divisions. Learners could attend at least 1 live workshop and complete the remainder of the series asynchronously. They completed surveys pre- and post-curriculum to assess knowledge, bias awareness, self-efficacy in managing bias, and participation in antibias behaviors. Post-training learners rated BP+ using the Acceptability, Feasibility, Appropriateness Scale (AFAS; 1 =not at all, 5=extremely). Change was analyzed by linear mixed effects models including division and individual level random effects.

Results: Of 116 eligible learners, 85% (n = 99) attended at least 1 live workshop. Of 55 respondents, learners rated BP+ acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness as moderately high (respective means (SD) 3.8 (0.6); 3.7 (0.8); and 3.8 (0.6)). Participants reported increased self-efficacy, i.e. confidence to effectively respond to situations involving bias (b = 0.65 (95%CI 0.46,0.84); p < 0.001). We did not observe a difference in knowledge scores or bias awareness. Learners endorsed an increase in the bias management behavior to assess office decor, websites, or teaching materials for negative stereotypes or limited representation (increase from pre-training b = 0.732; p < 0.01 ).

Conclusion(s): BP+ was successfully implemented to engage pediatric faculty in division-based antibias training. Learners demonstrated significant improvements in confidence to respond to bias and more frequently acted to reduce sources of bias in their workplace, suggesting meaningful program efficacy. BP+ shows early promise as a scalable training model in bias mitigation skills. Future work will include follow-up analyses to assess the durability of these changes and explore the program’s broader impact on institutional climate.