Enhancing OT Students’ Awareness of Social Inequities and Implicit Bias With a Poverty Simulation

Abstract

Date Presented 04/12/21 Poverty attributions of health professionals affect how care is provided to this population. Literature indicates a gap in OT student learning to effectively work with individuals living with low income. This study found that a community action poverty simulation was an effective educational tool to address the initial first step of increasing OT students' awareness of their attitudes and their implicit bias of the challenges faced by this population. Primary Author and Speaker: Priya Bakshi Contributing Authors: Abigail Herman, Mairead Gormley, Erica Di Meo, Jessica Leonard

Comparison of Students’ Attitudes Towards Poverty Following an Interdisciplinary Poverty Simulation

“…Consequently, it is important to identify additional methods to challenge and influence students' negative attitudes toward people living in poverty (Bell & Buelow, 2014;Breger Bush & O'Dell, 2018). Bakshi and Jarrard (2021) proposed that the poverty simulation experience was practical as an initial step for addressing implicit biases related to attributes of poverty. Browne and Roll (2016) suggested that educators critically examine how they utilize simulation as an experiential tool to teach about poverty and provide lasting knowledge for participants.…”