Faculty Bibliography

Outcomes 1. Identify key points in medical history and current times where and how discrimination and racism have affected patient care 2. Apply and adapt the screening question on discrimination to their own institution 3. Analyze and process the material presented on incorporating a discrimination screening question in palliative care via Q/A and panel discussion The role of palliative care (PC) providers is to identify and alleviate distress, although distress due to bias and discrimination is not a standard part of PC assessments. Research clearly shows systemwide inequalities, but there is little guidance on how to directly discuss discrimination with patients. Our PC team sought to address this gap by developing a bias and discrimination screening question that is now used for all initial inpatient palliative care consultations: "During previous medical encounters have you ever felt that you were treated differently from other patients for any reason?" Our goal is to elicit patient perceptions of inequalities, create the space for patients to share their experiences, and provide therapeutic presence and listening as they discuss their perspective of discrimination and bias in healthcare. We are building a repository of patient responses that providers can use to affect change on a systemic level. We hope to implement the screening question at other campuses within our institution where there are different patient demographics. We also plan to create learning modules and platforms for continued education on a large scale. Our concurrent session is divided into three parts: background on inequity in healthcare by an expert in the field; a detailed description of how our team developed, refined, and implemented this screening question along with the challenges faced during the process; and, finally, an interactive Q&A. Through this session, we aim to motivate and equip attendees with the knowledge to implement a screening for discrimination and bias among their own PC patients, with the understanding that different institutions will have different needs. We are hopeful for widespread distribution and use of the screening question in PC. Given the sensitivity of the topic, further training and research must be completed before widespread distribution.
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