Words Matter: A Workshop to Minimize Bias in Narrative Assessment (2024)

The overarching goal of this workshop is to equip participants with the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to write high-quality narrative assessment of peers, superiors, and learners that are free from unintentional biases. First, it aims to provide participants with background knowledge regarding the disparities that persist in academic medicine including individuals who identify as female and who are from historically excluded or marginalized groups with a particular focus in academic medicine. Secondly, the workshop aims to educate participants on the literature demonstrating variability in the ways that people from different backgrounds are assessed with special attention to differences in narrative language and potential downstream implications of those differences. The overarching goal of this workshop is to equip participants with the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to write high-quality narrative assessment of peers, superiors, and learners that are free from unintentional biases. First, it aims to provide participants with background knowledge regarding the disparities that persist in academic medicine including individuals who identify as female and who are from historically excluded or marginalized groups with a particular focus in academic medicine. Secondly, the workshop aims to educate participants on the literature demonstrating variability in the ways that people from different backgrounds are assessed with special attention to differences in narrative language and potential downstream implications of those differences. The workshop provides a five-step framework for approaching assessments in a way that mitigates and minimizes bias with an emphasis on competency-focused language. Finally, the workshop has a hands-on skills practice where participants practice learned skills by rewriting a narrative assessment. All participants will be provided with a "one pager" summarizing the data discussed and the five-step approach with examples of unbiased and competency-focused language to be used in practice.