How Can Medical Professionals Prevent Weight Bias in Healthcare
Photo of a fat person in a black shirt with green leaves printed on it sitting on a bench, looking up at a person who is wearing scrubs and listening to the seated person’s heart with a stethoscope.
by JBridgeforth
Content warning: weight bias, medical discrimination, mention of BMI categories
Weight bias in the healthcare industry has many repercussions, from inaccurate diagnoses to body discrimination. For instance, BMI alone isn’t an accurate indicator of our health. Multiple studies show that a number of people with a BMI of 25 to 29 (classified as “overweight”) are metabolically healthy. This is because BMI doesn’t account for body fat percentage or its distribution. Conversely, there are those with a BMI of 18 to 25 — classified as the “normal” range — who are unhealthy. Weight bias has also established a hierarchy of oppression, which has negatively affected client self-esteem for years.
But how can medical professionals prevent weight bias in the industry? Here are some tips:
Hire diverse staff
If you truly advocate against weight bias, then you need to lead by example. Hire staff based on their capability to work and not their size. Don’t force them into any wellness programs they don’t want to do, and most certainly don’t place weight requirements for any of your open positions. A diverse team of medical professionals can even help you come up with a more diverse healthcare strategy, allowing you to provide equal quality care for your clients.
It's also worth noting that weight bias intersects with other kinds of biases in society, particularly with racism and ableism. The intersection of these different forms of discrimination means that healthcare institutions must take particular care with ensuring diversity in their teams, as this can allow clients belonging to marginalized groups to see themselves reflected in the medical staff.
Educate the next generation of professionals
A huge problem with weight bias is how many medical professionals aren’t aware that it’s a thing. Though people can be educated at any time, it’ll be much easier to advocate against weight bias if the topic is mandatory for all medical courses.
Fortunately, strides are being taken to include proper weight education into colleges and universities, with many establishments now including it in their online courses. For example, remote medical students are being taught nutrition in a very physiological manner. This means looking less at someone’s weight and more on their glucose regulation, genes, and other objective factors to deem if they’re healthy or not. Similarly, online BSN graduates are taught more than just nursing skills like assessment and informatics, but relevant industry trends too. This includes the rising awareness over weight bias in healthcare. In fact, recent research published in the Journal for Nurse Practitioners affirms that nurses who are exposed to the issue at school-level strongly advocate against weight bias once they’re out in the field.
Practice healthcare differently per client
Have you heard of the Health At Every Size (HAES) approach? It’s a social justice methodology that aims to address weight bias in the industry. A medical professional who practices HAES knows to:
Not idealize specific weight ranges
Adopt healthcare practices that not only improve the client’s physical health, but their mental, social, and emotional health as well
Promote flexible (not less) eating
Advise life-enhancing physical activities instead of regulated exercise plans
For example, a HAES-practicing physician will choose not to weigh their clients unless there’s a medical reason for it and definitely not in front of other people. Instead of making health assumptions based on the client's physical appearance, a HAES-practicing physician will also let the client talk about their symptoms before making a diagnosis. They will even have medical equipment that meets the needs of all clients, like multi-sized pressure cuffs.
There’s potential to commit weight bias in everything that you do in a healthcare facility, so make sure that you’re always mindful of your actions.
Weight bias is an issue that won’t disappear overnight. However, the sooner we take the steps to keep from it being normalized, the sooner it will go away. This will entail changes on every level of healthcare, from education to field practice.
Pic of JBridgforth
JBridgeforth is a writer of many topics, but her favorite ones are usually those that dabble in healthcare, lifestyle, and self-love. She's currently taking an undergraduate program to become a professional therapist.
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