Clinical trial NCT06630507: Measuring Change in Overcoming Implicit Biases in Behavior by Emergency Care Center Providers
Official title: Measuring Change in Overcoming Implicit Biases in Behavior by Emergency Care Center Providers
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Conditions: Implicit Bias
Keywords: healthcare providers
implicit bias
emergency care center
Lead sponsor: Sarasota Memorial Health Care System
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2024-10-08
Enrollment: 110
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: ECOLOGIC_OR_COMMUNITY
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Healthcare providers (including emergency medicine physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and residents, as well as nurses, multi-skilled technicians, and paramedics) from Sarasota Memorial Health Care System's two emergency care centers, Sarasota and Venice campuses.

Brief summary: Implicit bias is a form of bias in which a person's automatic and unintentional thoughts of another person or group influence either positively or negatively their behavior or the decisions they make. Studies show that healthcare providers have the same amount of bias as any other person and that it can affect patient care. However, in the emergency room, which is fast-paced and there is a high number of patients, implicit bias may be higher. Therefore, this study will look at emergency care center (ECC) providers' willingness to change their implicit bias behaviors. After, it will provide implicit bias education designed for the ECC to the healthcare providers at SMHCS Sarasota campus and assess whether it improved their willingness to change implicit bias behaviors when compared to the providers in the SMHCS Venice campus who did not receive the education.

Detailed description: Studies have shown that implicit bias is present in healthcare providers, including those in the emergency room, it is necessary to understand whether emergency providers are willing to change their implicit bias behaviors and provide them with the education and resources tailored to it so that they can be aware of it and make a positive change towards improving it even when they are pressured by time and never-ending tasks.

The observational study will use a two-group pretest-posttest design to assess willingness to change implicit bias behaviors among healthcare staff in the ECC. Healthcare providers will be recruited from two SMHCS clinical sites: Sarasota Memorial Hospital's (SMH) -Sarasota Campus ECC and SMH's-Venice Campus ECC.

Participants are expected to fill out the initial surveys, complete the implicit bias education, and do the posttest (re-administer the Measuring Change in Overcoming Implicit Biases in Behavior by Emergency Medicine Personnel questionnaire), which is expected to take approximately 6-18 months.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Individuals will be eligible for the study if they are 18 years or older and are active emergency medicine staff in the SMH-Sarasota or the SMH-Venice campus ECC. Participants must also be able to understand the requirements of the study, be willing and able to provide informed consent, and participate in all required study activities.

Exclusion Criteria:

* N/A

Primary outcomes:
measure: Examine emergency care center (ECC) staff's willingness to overcome pre-existing implicit bias.
timeFrame: 6-18 months
measure: Assess whether an educational module on implicit bias designed explicitly for the ECC increases willingness to overcome implicit bias behavior among ECC staff.
timeFrame: 6-18 months
measure: Compare willingness to overcome implicit bias in ECC staff who received education versus staff who were not provided with any education.
timeFrame: 6-18 months
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Sarasota
country: United States
facility: Sarasota Memorial Health Care System
state: Florida
Study officials:
affiliation: Sarasota Memorial Health Care System
name: Katie West, MSN, RN, CEN
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Brockett-Walker C, Lall M, Evans DD, Heron S. Racial Bias Among Emergency Providers: Strategies to Mitigate Its Adverse Effects. Adv Emerg Nurs J. 2021 Apr-Jun 01;43(2):89-101. doi: 10.1097/TME.0000000000000352.
citation: FitzGerald C, Hurst S. Implicit bias in healthcare professionals: a systematic review. BMC Med Ethics. 2017 Mar 1;18(1):19. doi: 10.1186/s12910-017-0179-8.
citation: Narayan MC. CE: Addressing Implicit Bias in Nursing: A Review. Am J Nurs. 2019 Jul;119(7):36-43. doi: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000569340.27659.5a.
citation: Shah HS, Bohlen J. Implicit Bias. 2023 Mar 4. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK589697/
citation: Thirsk LM, Panchuk JT, Stahlke S, Hagtvedt R. Cognitive and implicit biases in nurses' judgment and decision-making: A scoping review. Int J Nurs Stud. 2022 Sep;133:104284. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2022.104284. Epub 2022 May 24.