Teaching Students to Identify and Adjust Linguistic Bias in Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Writing

Biased and stigmatizing language is pervasive in healthcare records and has negative effects on clients’ care. While some research has studied how medical students may be taught to reduce stigmatizing language in their writing, the impacts of such trainings on clinical writing are rarely directly assessed, and little has been done to address this problem in speech-language pathology (SLP). This study assessed how a training module on biased language in clinical writing impacted SLP masters students’ ability to identify and correct stigmatizing language in a clinical report. Across two years, 120 students took part in this module. During the second year, the training was adjusted to increase focus on emotional connection and personal reflection. In both years, the training was effective at improving student’s ability to identify and correct biased language. However, the increase in emotional connection and personal reflection led to greater improvements in students’ learning. These results imply that the ability to identify and correct biased language can be taught and measured directly, a novel step forward in the literature. This manuscript provides examples of what that education might look like in an SLP curriculum.