Governor Newsom recently signed into law AB 241 which will require, by January 1, 2022, that continued education for physicians, surgeons, nurses and physician assistants include courses on implicit bias. The bill will require the Board of Registered Nursing and the Physician Assistant Board to adopt regulations requiring implicit bias training by January 1, 2022.
“The assumption is, if you put on a [judge’s] robe, if you put on a [doctor’s] coat, you are impartial,” said Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), author of two of the bills. “That is not so because the people in those robes and in those coats are humans, and we all have prejudices, and we all have biases.”
Many continuing education offerings for medical and legal professionals already include some implicit bias training, but the new laws would set stricter requirements.