The Impact of Years of Nursing Experience on Implicit Bias in Pain Management Decisions Among Registered Nurses: A Secondary Analysis
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Date
2024-05
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
Background:
Implicit bias research has been conducted since the 1930s in many areas, including healthcare. Implicit bias is a belief about a group that is not typically recognized by the individual. Nurses have similar levels of implicit bias to the general population, but theirs may have adverse effects on their patients, such as decreased communication, decreased pain management, and diminished nurse-patient therapeutic relationship.
Purpose:
What has not been as widely researched is the effect that years of nursing experience has on implicit bias. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of differences in years of nursing experience on implicit biases among Registered Nurses (RNs).
Methods:
This is a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional descriptive study that used a series of four vignettes describing a patient’s experience with pain. Participants were randomized to one of two surveys that differed only in the race of the patient in the vignette. An online survey was used to collect demographic data and responses to the vignettes from participants at four academic medical centers. Participants included RNs who work on medical, surgical, emergency, and critical care floors at one of the medical centers. There were no restrictions on years of experience.
Results:
443 nurses were included in this secondary analysis. The majority identified as white and female. The questions were analyzed by vignette. Two of five questions examined showed a correlation between years of experience and implicit bias. The other three questions showed no difference in the biases shown between nurses with less than or more than ten years of experience.
Conclusions:
The results show no convincing correlation between years of experience and implicit racial bias. There were not enough significant differences seen between nurses with less than ten years of experience and nurses with more than ten years of experience to conclude that years of experience affects implicit bias. The two questions showing a correlation were from the same vignette involving a middle-aged female patient and could be caused by other factors such as gender or age bias, rather than racial bias. The study is limited by a small sample size, especially when considering the sample of black RNs.
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Keywords
implicit bias, nursing, race, experience, pain