Patients of Size Education

Patients of size experience measurably worse care — shorter appointments, fewer preventive screenings, and care avoided altogether in anticipation of judgment. Our Patients of Size Education is a three-part interactive learning series that provides clinicians, staff, and trainees with a shared language for weight bias and practical skills for reducing stigma in clinical environments. Developed by the UR Interdisciplinary Patients of Size Workgroup (‘The Workgroup’) in partnership with the Center for Experiential Learning (CEL) and the Office of University Engagement and Enrichment (OEE), the series covers foundational terminology, clinical applications, and hands-on practice with standardized patients. The program is available to teams, departments, and groups across the University and URochester Medicine upon request.

Request the Program or Attend a Session

Bring this workshop to your team or department. Sessions can be scheduled to fit your team's availability, see the delivery options below.

What is Weight Stigma, and Why Does It Matter?

Weight stigma is the social rejection and devaluation directed at people of size, leading to negative attitudes, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination (Fulton et al., 2025; Tomiyama et al., 2018).

Weight stigma affects both patients' care experiences and their health outcomes:

• Patients of size receive reduced quality of care, including shorter appointment times and fewer preventive screenings (Alberga et al., 2019; Kanagasingam, 2022; Tomiyama et al., 2018).
• Anticipated judgment and negative interactions lead patients to delay or avoid care, worsening health outcomes over time (Alberga et al., 2019; Ryan et al., 2023).

Bias affects clinical judgment, communication, and the environments patients move through — often without anyone intending harm.

Program Structure

The series consists of three one-hour sessions. Departments can schedule the full series as a single three-hour workshop, as three sessions spaced across a schedule, or request an individual session.

Delivery Options

• Full series, single sitting — All three sessions delivered in one three-hour block, including standardized patient practice. Best suited to teams that can release staff for a half day.
• Full series, separate sessions — The three sessions delivered individually across a schedule your team sets. Best suited to clinical teams that cannot step away together for an extended period.
• Individual session — A single session delivered on its own. Best suited to teams with limited time or a specific area of focus.

Session Content

Session 1: Foundations — Understanding Weight Bias and Stigma

Participants define weight bias and weight stigma, examine the language used to describe patients of size, and surface the automatic thoughts they may hold. The session introduces a framework of principles for size-inclusive care and connects reduced stigma to specific health and psychosocial outcomes.

Session 2: Applications — Weight Stigma in Our Environments

Participants examine how blame and motivation-based messaging appears in clinical spaces, explore approaches that encourage curiosity about the relationship between weight and health, and identify concrete changes that promote safety and dignity in their own work environments.

Session 3: Practice — Working with Standardized Patients

Participants observe a facilitated clinical encounter, debrief it as a group, and then practice the encounter themselves with a standardized patient in small groups, receiving direct feedback from the patient's perspective.

Standardized Patient Practice

Session 3 is built around encounters with trained standardized patients — a method the CEL uses across its simulation programs.

Standardized patient encounters give learners a safe, controlled setting to practice difficult conversations without risk to real patients. Research shows this approach improves communication skills, empathy, and learner confidence, particularly in bias-prone clinical scenarios, and the consistent portrayal allows every participant to receive immediate, patient-centered feedback.

Sessions are facilitated as skill-building, not assessment. Growth, not perfection, is the goal.