Essay On Implicit Bias

When you ask yourself whether you are bias in regards to a certain thing, person, or group in comparison to another you may respond with a “No”. While you believe this to be true, there is actually something called implicit bias that you are unaware of and this could be contradicting to what you believe. An individual’s implicit bias can affect their understanding, their actions, and the decisions they make in an unconscious manner. This means that you are completely unaware of your own implicit bias and you have no intentional control over it. Throughout life we accumulate associations at the subconscious level and these associations cause us to have attitudes towards people or groups based on certain traits like race, gender, age, and ethnicity. Implicit biases are unknown biases and unlike explicit biases, they are unable to be accessed through introspection. So how is it that one can
Implicit bias may cause clinicians to accuse or automatically believe a certain characteristic (smoker, drug user, etc.) about their patient depending on their background. I feel as though some clinicians will still believe what they think about a person is true even if this person responded to the question in a different way. This could result in a mislead history or diagnosis, and it could also cause the patient to be uncomfortable in the situation. In addition, I believe that implicit bias can result in unequal care, clinical testing, and treatment depending on the patient’s race, ethnicity, gender, etc. While these are ways that I think implicit bias could impact one’s practice, as a future provider I do not plan on letting bias dictate how I care for and treat patients. I know that implicit bias is an unconscious bias that I have no control over, but I feel strongly that as a provider I will care and treat patients the same as how I would wish to be cared