Implicit Bias Training
October, 2022
- Legend:
| CCN | | Critical Care Nurse |
| HCP | | Health Care Professional(s) |
| IBT | | Implicit Bias Training |
- Laura Morgan, a white CCN with 39 years experience, was fired from Baylor Scott
& White Health in Texas in February, 2022. Her offense? Refusing IBT which required
her to acknowledge her implicit racial bias against non-whites.
- This is lunacy -- pushing out an experienced nurse for refusing to accept
the premise she is implicitly biased against her non-white patients. This is
the thanks she gets for dedicating four decades of her life in the care of others
in their darkest hours. What a slap in the face.
- Apparently, black HCP don't suffer from racial bias.
- On Oct. 1, 2022, Maryland, one of six states now mandating IBT, requries all
healthcare practitioners (doctors, nurses, dentists, etc.) to take the training
to keep their licenses. God help us.
- With 39 years experience, Nurse Morgan was approaching retirement. So,
she decided to draw a line in the sand. Younger HCP, who won't have this option,
will most likely take the training, and resentfully check the box indicating their
"implicit bias" in order to keep their jobs. It seems to me IBT creates a hostile work
environment for white HCP and I wonder how many of them will simply decide
to take down their shingles and move on to where IBT is not required.
- Check out this
three-minute interview
with Ms. Morgan on YouTube.
- Laura Morgan is now the Program Manager for
Do No Harm,
an organization whose mission includes "protect[ing] healthcare from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology." Laura tells
her story here
which includes that in Michigan, "the training must be taken at every license renewal,
which sends the message that racism is essentially permanent and incurable."
- What we now have is the Woke War on HCP and my concern is for the chilling
effect this will have on the relationship between HCP and patients.
- Why would non-white patients attempt to get health care from white HCP
if whites are assumed to be racially biased against them?
- Why would white HCP want to treat non-white patients?
Any negative outcomes could be perceived as the fault of racial bias. HCP already
have huge malpractice targets on their backs. This presumption of bias only
exacerbates that perception. Do we really want a health care system where patients
and HCP are eyeing each other with suspicion and fear based on our skin colors?
- As for me, I would not want to treat those who might perceive me as
racially biased against them, but would prefer to pass my non-white patients off
to non-white HCP to avoid any accusation of wrongful treatment based on "implicit bias."
Are we to assume this white nurse is implicitly and racially
biased against this black patient? You decide.
