Weight bias and weight stigma have significant physical and psychological consequences. People in larger bodies are often misdiagnosed, and their complaints dismissed, as a consequence of weight status. Anti-fat attitudes drive recommendations to reduce body weight in the name of improving health and can lead to poorer health outcomes and healthcare avoidance.
 
Weight bias and weight stigma are highly prevalent among healthcare providers and healthcare trainees. Numerous students have examined the prevalence of weight bias among healthcare students and found it to be highly prevalent; therefore, the educational setting is a crucial target for intervention to mitigate this source of stigma for future patients. The gross anatomy lab is often the first class that healthcare trainees take, and depending on the chosen profession, the only interaction they have with adipose tissue. A recent study of medical students found that a dissection course worsened weight and fat-related attitudes about patients and about their own bodies. Therefore, an anatomy course and the gross anatomy lab can be a critical time point in clinicians developing weight bias, or potentially prevent it among future clinicians.
 
The purpose of this webinar is to define weight bias and weight stigma, discuss its prevalence in healthcare and explain the consequences of weight bias, and discuss how and where weight bias presents itself in anatomy education. The commonly held assumptions about weight and heath that drive weight bias in healthcare education will also be examined. Anyone that teaches anatomy or physiology is invited to attend.

This webinar is for members only.

Speaker

Krista Rompolski, Associate Professor, Moravian University

Dr. Krista Rompolski is Associate Professor at Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and a Certified Exercise Physiologist through the American College of Sports Medicine. She began her academic career in 2012, teaching anatomy and physiology to undergraduate health science and nursing students. For the past 3 years, she has been teaching gross anatomy, neuroscience, pathophysiology and exercise physiology to Doctor of Physical Therapy students. She is a member of the American Association of Anatomy’s Ambassador Committee and a member of the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society. Krista's research is focused on anatomy education and weight bias in healthcare and healthcare training.

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