Kentucky-based nurses have recently been issued a directive by the Kentucky Board of Nursing, instructing them to attend and complete an implicit bias training.
According to an investigation by The Washington Examiner, this directive warns nurses they could face disciplinary action for non-compliance.
The mandatory training demands the acknowledgement of a “history of racism in healthcare,” an aspect that has stirred controversy among the participants.
This order came into effect on July 1 and also included controversial discussions that declared it racist to deny the existence of “institutional racism” or to advocate for personal advancement through hard work.
The training material, presented by Kentucky Nurses Association Board of Directors Treasurer Arica Brandford and CEO Delanor Manson, includes a slide that emphasizes, “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.”
Moreover, the training defined instances of “covert racism” to include “white silence,” denial of institutional racism, declaring “there’s only one human race,” promoting the “bootstrap theory,” endorsing “Eurocentic school curricula,” exploiting “whiteness,” objectifying people of color, asserting “reverse racism,” making excuses or ‘white-splaining’ racism, and refuting the existence of white privilege.
This approach has been met with significant pushback from the nursing community, with many expressing concern that their jobs could be at risk if they chose not to participate.
Rebecca Wall, a seasoned nursing professional with 40 years of experience, expressed her frustration to The Washington Examiner, saying, “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.”
She further stated, “It’s offensive to be told if you don’t do this course, you’re out after 40 years,” adding, “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.”
As per the nursing board, this training is mandated by a committee of the Kentucky General Assembly, and non-compliance may lead to civil sanction or disciplinary action.
Wall stated the people mandating the training are “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 added.
According to Laura Morgan, a program manager at Do No Harm—an organization committed to safeguarding healthcare from radical and divisive ideologies—these so-called woke concepts are being pushed down to the state level from the national American Nurses Association.
She pinpointed former ANA President Ernest Grant as having shifted the organization to the Left in the aftermath of the riots that followed George Floyd’s death.
Referring to a statement from the ANA about a “racial reckoning,” Morgan noted, “He started taking the ANA on a sharp left turn,” adding that it “talks about all the permanent harm nurses have done throughout the years to their patients.”
