Biases In The Medical Field Essay

Biases in the Medical Field Throughout time, biases have been prevalent in society. Biases are partial preferences that people hold that prevents objectivity. These innate ideas that individuals have can hinder their thinking and lead them to make a wrong decision.1 These biases are seen in several spheres of life. Two that I will discuss are social and individual. Social biases are ones that involve aspects of everyday life. An example is hindsight bias, or when you believe you knew something along even though you did not. An individual bias is a bias that you hold against an individual group. These are typically implicit biases, subconscious opinions that come from cognitive processes. An example of this is an implicit stereotype against …show more content…
This is the sunk cost fallacy. I believe so because I tend to continue working on tasks that I have spent time on even if they are not the best option for me going forward. I also tend to feel I am wasting food if I do not eat all of it or I am wasting money if I do not attend something I paid for. Both of these cases are examples of the sunk cost fallacy. To stop myself from following this bias when I enter the medical field, I plan on being aware that I may be inclined to follow it. When faced with a hard case, and the sunk cost fallacy may be an issue, I plan on either facing the case systematically, or handing it off to a medical board. I would rather someone else make the decision than for a bias to cloud my judgement. The reason I do not believe gender bias will be a problem for me is because I am planning on becoming a physician. I would not ask other female physicians to do tasks I would not want to complete myself, and I would treat female patients the same way I would want a physician to treat me. The problem I will face is the bias others might have towards me. I hope by the time I enter the medical field, education on these biases is more prevalent so that I do not face another's