2025-2027 EEH Enduring: Unconscious Bias

Course Instructions

Registration is required for all live Accredited CME Events. Please be sure to register to receive credit for this activity. 

Wednesday, January 1, 2025, 8:00 AM - Friday, December 31, 2027, 9:00 AM, Online Enduring

Unconscious bias is a universal aspect of human cognition. Neuroscientific research suggests that a significant portion of the decisions we make are influenced by unconscious processes, shaped by our prior experiences, upbringing, and the brain’s tendency to operate on autopilot. This automatic processing allows the brain to efficiently filter and manage the vast amount of information it receives, relying on mental shortcuts, or heuristics, to make quick decisions. While these shortcuts help us navigate complex situations, they can also lead to unintended consequences, such as irrational thinking and flawed decision-making. In human interactions, such biases can manifest as stereotyping, prejudice, and a lack of diversity, which can create challenges in both personal and professional environments. This course aims to help participants examine their own unconscious biases and provides practical strategies for cultivating conscious awareness in decision-making. By engaging in this process, individuals will gain tools to make more objective, informed choices. Ultimately, this course fosters a path toward greater diversity and inclusion, emphasizing the critical role each of us plays in creating equitable environments, particularly in healthcare. Understanding the influence of unconscious bias—and its potential impact on others—will enable participants to think more critically, act more intentionally, and implement meaningful change in their work and communities.

1. Discuss the importance of how unconscious bias works and the dangers it can cause others.
2. Analyze hidden preferences, assumptions and biases within one's own cognitive process.
3. Critique one's own cognition when making decisions and consciously make a shift if needed.

AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ (1.00 hours), Non-Physician Attendance (1.00 hours)

Endeavor Health: Edward-Elmhurst Hospitals is accredited by the Illinois State Medical Society (ISMS) to provide Continuing Medical Education to physicians. Endeavor Health: Edward-Elmhurst Hospitals designates this Enduring activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Mitigation of Relevant Financial Relationships

Endeavor Health: Edward-Elmhurst Hospitals Accredited CME Program adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of an accredited CME activity, including faculty, planners, reviewers or others are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (commercial interests). All relevant conflicts of interest have been mitigated prior to the commencement of the activity.