Learner Feedback
New Perspectives on Understanding
and Preventing Weight Bias
What learners are saying...
Being a person with a larger body, I love that there are doctors that are willing to fight the stigma of being overweight. I think this course was excellent and I do not see any improvement needed. I believe everyone that is in a healthcare field caring for overweight patients should definitely take this course.
- CNA, Female, White, 44, Moderate, MD
I found the course to be informative in terms of how to approach discussions of weight with patients. I did learn some new things, although I already knew a lot of the information...I found the realistic examples to be most helpful. I do think this course will be useful for healthcare staff.
- Behavioral Health Professional, Female, White, 33, Liberal, NC
The most valuable impression to me is to try always to respect someone elses condition and not to make any assumptions. I didnt realize how bad overweight people felt about going to the doctor. I always thought that doctors took it more seriously. The course was great.Yes, the course will be useful for healthcare staff and providers.
- Caregiver, Male, Mixed, 24, Moderate, NM
I think it is a great resource for knowledge and instruction on educating healthcare professionals about bias and stigma related to weight. The websites ease of use and the eCourse were both excellent. I picked up a few new approaches to patient interaction in addition to learning how to avoid bias—even unintentionally. There are not any courses on this subject, in my opinion, that are any better.
- Physician Assistant, Male, White, 27, Very Liberal, WI
The most valuable thing I learned in this course was that I might sometimes still stigmatize patients even though I am unaware that I am doing so. I also think the conversation examples were especially helpful, as this gives me ideas of how to better approach the subject of weight should it ever need to come up in the future. I think having more conversation examples could be even more helpful to improve the course, as this is where my mind truly locked in and went I can use this to better myself and make patients feel more comfortable during these delicate conversations. I think this will be a useful course, as obesity and weight loss are two topics that come up a lot when a patient has other health concerns and this can help healthcare workers more kindly address these types of issues.
- Physician Assistant, Female, White, 33, Moderate, FL
Hearing perspectives I hadnt thought of before made me think about how best to approach and care for my higher weight patients. I found this to be a helpful and useful course for healthcare providers.
- Physician Assistant, Female, Black, 34, Liberal, NY
I loved everything about the course! I think it is so important as I am someone who is aware of weight bias as a provider and also as a patient. I was shocked by some of the statistics that stated providers spend less time on individuals who are large. I was familiar with some of the areas such as how to handle a conversation but thought the points about setting up the waiting room/magazines were areas I never even considered. I would be interested to learn how the boom of GLP1 medications influences these discussions about weight and how medical care is provided (supportive vs judgemental).
- Pharmacist, Female, White, 34, Moderate, NY
I found this very useful. The examples and skits provided are real life situations I have encountered as a provider and also as a patient. I think being able to recognize what a patient is telling you and removing other factors is so important and recognizing non verbal signs of what a patient is explaining as well.
- Medical Technician (lab, medical records, other), Female, White, 34, Very Liberal, WI
I thought that the patient scenarios with Nora and Nate were very valuable. I think it is beneficial to see the incorrect approach to discussing weight loss with patients vs. the more appropriate demonstration. I personally did not realize that weight had as strong of a genetic component as was demonstrated in the course. I think the course as it stands is already very well done. I couldnt imagine adding much more; the information is presented well and it is very easy to understand, and has formats that are beneficial to different learning types. I think this course would absolutely be beneficial to healthcare staff and providers. I am a current student in medical school and I am glad that I got to experience this course as I think it will allow me to be a more compassionate provider.
- PA Student, Male, Black, 26, Moderate, TX
I found the ideas on approach to difficult conversations was detailed and emphasized being gentle and non demanding. I did learn new techniques and ideas on patient management...I do believe this course could be useful to healthcare providers.
- Paramedic, Male, White, 51, Liberal, FL
I enjoyed the high quality stock footage that accompanied the learning. It made it seem more professional. I dont currently provide direct patient care but I am a RN so I have done weight stigma training previously. I did learn new information about how to approach talking to people about their weight. I do believe it would be useful course for healthcare providers.
- Nurse (RN, LPN), Male, White, 31, Very liberal, PA
I thought that the course was well laid out. It was interesting to see the challenges that people with larger bodies face with regards to health care. Even the choice of words used in the training seemed highly respectful and would be conductive to a dialog. I think it would be a very helpful course for all people, with some materials being helpful for patients in rethinking their own relationship with weight.
- Office, Administration, Male, White, 37, Liberal, MA
The most valuable part of this course for me was different examples of how best to treat a patient that I hadnt thought of before, the examples were easy to implement and taking care of a patient better. I learned a few good tools for making a patient feel better. And be more likely to continue care...The most useful information would be the examples and goals used, as well as things your dont think about like the types of magazines I your office.
- Office, Administration, Female, White, 34, Very Conservative, OH
I really, really appreciated this course. I especially appreciated the aspect of implicit bias and reminding me that just because I am not conciously making an assumption about one of my clients it does not mean that I may be doing so subconciously. Body acceptance is a growing movement and I respect that the time is being taken to educate providers how their assumptions can impact their patients. I think this is going to be a very effective course and tool for healthcare providers.
- Behavioral Health Professional, Female, White, 32, Liberal, CA
Most valuable to me, is making sure the patient is comfortable. I did learn better ways to approach sensitive topics around weight...Overall it will be very useful for healthcare staff and providers.
- Medical Technician (lab, medical records, other), Female, White, 33, Conservative, GA
I found it really interesting and it made me think about how I might view overweight patients differently. I really did feel them being overweight was their fault, nothing hereditary. When I see a patient that is quite overweight I have been thinking that they do not care about their health as much, and do not take care of themselves. I do think this course would be good for all healthcare workers. I also really found it interesting about what magazines should not be in offices, I have seen many magazines at my physicians office that are splattered with super models. I never thought about how that may make an overweight person feel. At the office I work in, I have been worried about some patients not fitting in a chair. That was a very good topic to bring up.
Medical Technician (lab, medical records, other), Female, White, 55, Conservative, TX
The takeaway is to be more empathetic and not shame patients. I learned to make patients more comfortable. I felt the course did well and needed no improvements. I think providers will find it very useful.
- Behavioral Health Professional, Male, Asian, 30, Liberal, MI
I really enjoyed this course. It gave me a look into both sides of how doctors treat people of different sizes. I have experienced both sides of this. I dont think anything needs to be improved in the course. It really puts the problem into perspective. I think It would be a very useful course for healthcare staff and providers for training in teacher new employees what not to do. I think it would even be great in a teaching setting.
- Direct Care Professional, Female, White, 36, Moderate, MO
The most valuable information was to never let their weight dominate the conversation and never think that just because they weigh more that doesnt mean that they are lazy and eat badly. I learned a lot of new information and will be much better at my job going forward. I think the course is very well done and dont see anything you should do differently. I believe this training will open many healthcare workers minds up and realize they have been in need of realizing they are treating heavy people in a lesser way than an average patient.
- Physician Assistant, Female, White, 60, Moderate, AZ
Overall I thought that it was a valuable course. I think that the most valuable part was the emphasis on maintaining therapeutic relationships with patients so that they can have good continuity of care with providers that they trust. One improvement I would like to see is a place where I could access the studies referenced in the course. I always like to have the option of reviewing a presenters sources for myself. I think that this course could be a useful jumping-on point for healthcare staff and providers.
- Therapist, Male, White, 41, Liberal, WA