Bystander Empowerment Workshop: How to Respond to Microaggressions in Clinical Environments (TH150)

Objectives 1. By the end of the session, participants will be able to define microaggressions, discuss data on the prevalence and impact of microaggressions, and delineate barriers to responding to microaggressions. 2. By the end of the session, participants will be able to use the Microaggression Response Toolkit to generate at least three potential responses to a case scenario in which they are a target of a microaggression. Building a series of professionally appropriate responses will help contribute to a culture that emphasizes open communication and fosters equity. 3. By the end of the session, participants will be able to use the Microaggression Response Toolkit to generate at least three potential responses to a case scenario in which they witness a microaggression. Responding to the needs of those around us, whether they be patients or colleagues, is an essential component of professionalism. Microaggressions are comments or actions, which may be intentional or unintentional, that convey hostility, insult, or invalidation of a person or group because of their marginalized status in society. Microaggressions are ubiquitous and toxic in healthcare and medical training. They occur between patients, families, and interprofessional healthcare providers of all levels. Given their frequency, subtlety, and contextual nature, they are incredibly difficult to respond to and thus often go unchecked, with resulting insidious damage to patient care, provider well-being, and the culture of equity and inclusion to which we aspire. In this workshop, participants will learn, collaboratively apply, and individually practice strategies for responding to microaggressions in the clinical environment. Following audience activation with online polling, the workshop begins with a brief large-group review of a working definition for microaggressions and data on the prevalence and impact of microaggressions. Using online polling, we next introduce and normalize common barriers to responding to microaggressions. Participants then receive a toolkit document with various microaggression response strategy examples with sample language. They will apply this toolkit in small-group discussions to generate multiple potential responses to one of three microaggression case scenarios, followed by a large group discussion in which small group representatives share reflections with the larger group. Participants then return to their small groups for a series of rapid, brief role-play s