Navigating Microaggressions in the Clinical Environment: Follow-Up of a Case-Based Workshop 1 Year Later

Problem: Microaggressions negatively impact the mental health and wellness of patients and health care workers. Despite efforts in medical education to address this issue, there is limited research on the effect of these strategies in clinical settings over time. We evaluated how a workshop on navigating microaggressions impacts medical students 1 year after the workshop. Approach: A 60-minute workshop on microaggressions was implemented for medical students (n=85) across 3 clerkship sites. The workshop focused on identifying, responding to, and debriefing microaggressions as recipients or bystanders using a toolkit. Post-intervention surveys measured students’ satisfaction and perceived ability to navigate microaggressions. One year later, follow-up surveys from students (n=30) at intervention sites were compared with students (n=31) from non-intervention sites using quantitative and qualitative analyses. Outcomes: Immediately after the workshop, students’ perceived abilities to recognize, respond to, and debrief microaggressions improved on a 5-point Likert scale (P<.001). At the 1-year follow-up, there was no significant difference in confidence in or frequency of responding to microaggressions, the use of the toolkit, or debriefing microaggressions between the intervention and non-intervention groups. Next Steps: A standardized workshop temporarily increased students’ confidence in responding to microaggressions, but the effect diminished after 1 year. This finding highlights the need for longitudinal, hands-on education embedded across all years of clinical training rather than one-off sessions.