Title 54.1. Professions and Occupations
Chapter 29. Medicine and Other Healing Arts
§ 54.1-2928.4. Continuing education activities; bias reduction training.
A. As used in this section:
"Bias reduction training" means continuing education activities on topics that mitigate implicit and explicit bias in health care.
"Explicit bias" means attitudes and beliefs about a person or group on a conscious level.
"Implicit bias" means a bias in judgment or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes, including implicit prejudice and implicit stereotypes, that often operate at a level below conscious awareness and without intentional control.
B. Any licensee of the Board or the Board of Nursing shall complete bias reduction training. The Board and the Board of Nursing, pursuant to its authority under § 54.1-3011, shall promulgate regulations requiring that the continuing education requirements for renewal of licensure shall include completion of such bias reduction training. The Board and the Board of Nursing shall designate organizations that identify and facilitate evidence-based curricula to comply with this section. Such bias reduction training shall be required for every biennial renewal of licensure.
C. The first topic for the bias reduction training required pursuant to subsection B shall be comprehensive and include how implicit and explicit racial bias affect care during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and the postpartum period. Subsequent bias reduction training shall provide relevant practice-related content as determined by the Board and the Board of Nursing and shall include training on diseases and conditions, including sickle cell disease. Such training shall address how the substitution of race-based assumptions for individualized clinical assessment, combined with implicit bias, leads to delayed diagnosis, inadequate treatment, and disparate health outcomes. The Board and the Board of Nursing shall update the list of available bias reduction trainings as they identify additional training needs.
D. The Board and the Board of Nursing shall report the number and type of licensees who have successfully completed the bias reduction training required pursuant to subsection B to the Department of Health and the Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative to be included in their annual reports. The Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative shall, for licensees who provide fertility care, prenatal care, birth care, and postpartum care, evaluate the impact of such training, develop a method for assessment of its effectiveness, and make recommendations for improvements to such training.
