The Kentucky Board of Nursing is requiring nurses to take an “implicit bias” course about “structural racism” and why “white-splaining” is bad.
Nurses must “recognize the history of racism in healthcare” and could face “discipline” if they do not comply.
According to a report from the Washington Examiner, “The ultimatum to complete the ‘mandatory continuing education’ training, which the Kentucky Nurses Association developed, forced nurses to complete the training by July 1.”
“They pretty much said we’re all guilty of being racist, and we need to examine the way that we take care of patients and change our behaviors because we are giving substandard care,” Rebecca Wall, a Kentucky certified registered nurse anesthetist with 40 years experience, told the Washington Examiner.
The training was given by KNA Board of Directors Treasurer Arica Brandford and KNA CEO Delanor Manson, who told the nurses that the “best intentions will not solve implicit bias in healthcare.”
“In order to lead to meaningful change, any exploration of implicit bias must be situated as part of a much larger conversation on racism and bias,” said an opening slide of the presentation, according to the Examiner report.
Another hyperbolic slide featured an image of the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross.
“I had to make a decision at that point as to whether or not I was going to bite the bullet and agree with the assumption that they had that we were all racist,” Wall said. “It was a struggle professionally to decide whether or not to finish it.”
Ultimately, Wall decided not to finish the course.
“It’s offensive to be told if you don’t do this course, you’re out after 40 years,” she continued. “A whole career spent in the field because you don’t agree to the one dogma: you’re done, you’re valueless, you’re not worth it anymore.”
It is unclear what the punishment will be for not completing the course, but some have worried that it will mean people will not be able to renew their licenses.
Wall told the outlet that these courses are being pushed by “academics entrenched in woke ideology.”
“So we hear from academic nurses who haven’t been on the floors or in the hospitals for decades, telling us how to do the job,” she continued.
