Racial Microaggressions in Patient-Provider Interactions

Kacey Eichelberger, MD
University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville

Jonathan Kanter, PhD
University of Washington

ABSTRACT:
For several years, our team has been working closely with leaders at the University of Washington Medical Center to develop, scientifically evaluate, and implement interventions to address racial bias in medical care and improve provider’s capacity for more flexible, empathic, and connected antiracist responses to their patients. We have focused in particular on inter-racial provider-patient interactions and highly charged moments in medical exams when providers are likely to microaggress against patients. We have identified four key psychological processes that fuel microaggressions and other acts of bias in these moments and target these processes with contextual-behavioral science interventions that emphasize mindfulness and acceptance, rather than avoidance or suppression, to create behavior change. Embracing an antiracism agenda, we are particularly interested in addressing the processes that often frustrate diversity trainers, such as defensiveness, anxiety, passivity, and entrenchment in unhelpful behavior that are often observed even during anti-bias trainings. Overall, our research provides important scientific foundations that racial microaggressions are real and harmful; they must be understood as important determinants of the health and well-being of our patients and it is crucial to identify effective strategies to address them and improve inter-racial provider-patient interactions and relationships.

To request Dr. Kanter’s powerpoint slides, please email psmg@northwestern.edu