BUILDING INCLUSIVE AND AFFIRMING INTERACTIONS AT UW MEDICINE

Reducing Weight Stigma in Healthcare – As part of UW Medicine’s ongoing efforts to reduce bias in healthcare, this new course explores bias related to body weight. Framed around patient stories, this course aims to increase empathy related to weight stigma by offering a better understand of the history of society’s relationship with weight, as well as explore contemporary research that challenges stereotypes in society about health and one’s body size. This course also focuses on skills we can use in healthcare to decrease bias and improve interactions with people related to their body. 

Course Objectives

1. Increase empathy through adult patient stories related to weight stigma. 
2. Understand the history of society’s relationship with weight. 
3. Increase knowledge of recent research on weight’s impact on health, weight loss interventions, and the success at maintaining weight loss. 
4. Learn skills to decrease bias and improve interactions with people related to their body. 

About the Instructor

Amanda C. Potter has worked at Harborview Medical Center for almost 3 decades. As a member of the Quality Improvement team, she manages data and dashboards that include disparity filters related to demographics. She is a Certified Peer Trainer and Adjunct Expert at the Office of Healthcare Equity and co-facilitates the training topics of Social Determinants of Health and Gender and Sexual Diversity. Amanda began thinking about health and body size over 15 years ago. When consulted about patient complaints related to weight stigma, Amanda asked to develop this new course to mitigate and minimize weight bias in healthcare. 

Sign up for training on our Training Calendar page. For any questions contact the Training Team at hcesched@uw.edu.