(The Center Square) – A requirement for dozens of health-care professions in Illinois to complete bias awareness training as a condition of licensure is being criticized by a medical watchdog group.
As of Jan. 1, 2023, individuals in 38 health care professions in Illinois are now required to take racial bias training. The Illinois Administrative Code states that implicit bias occurs automatically and unintentionally, but affects behaviors, judgements and decisions.
Laura Morgan, program manager with the organization Do No Harm and a 39-year veteran of the health-care field, said she was fired in 2022 for refusing to submit to training that required her to say she was racist. She said the assumption of implicit bias is that physicians make decisions about patients based on gender or skin color, leading to poor health outcomes.
“Things that are related to diversity, equity, and inclusion are based on more divisive ideology than things that really have anything to do with being a good doctor,” Morgan said.
She notes that Providence Health and Services system, which operates facilities in several states, has committed $50 million for DEI training “to address health equity.”
“It operates on false ideology and contributes to the already burned out and stressed health-care workers that we have out there,” Morgan said.
The promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion on college campuses has become a big focus in academia, but a Heritage Foundation study found many of the programs are bloated, and some at significant taxpayer cost. At the University of Illinois alone, there are 71 DEI personnel, which is 4 out of every 100 faculty members.
A 2017 study found that diversity initiatives might actually worsen DEI climates of the organizations that pay heavily for them, and warned that mandatory training may result in a negative backlash or exacerbate pre-existing biases.
