The nature and validity of implicit bias training for health care providers and trainees: A systematic review

Abstract

The number of health care educational institutions/organizations adopting implicit bias training is growing. Our systematic review of 77 studies (published 1 January 2003 through 21 September 2022) investigated how implicit bias training in health care is designed/delivered and whether gaps in knowledge translation compromised the reliability and validity of the training. The primary training target was race/ethnicity (49.3%); trainings commonly lack specificity on addressing implicit prejudice or stereotyping (67.5%). They involved a combination of hands-on and didactic approaches, lasting an average of 343.15 min, often delivered in a single day (53.2%). Trainings also exhibit translational gaps, diverging from current literature (10 to 67.5%), and lack internal (99.9%), face (93.5%), and external (100%) validity. Implicit bias trainings in health care are characterized by bias in methodological quality and translational gaps, potentially compromising their impacts.