Identifying and Addressing Bias in Nursing Teaching: A Creative Controversy Essay

Abstract

Nursing faculty all have some form of unconscious or implicit bias. This type of bias is not intentional, but negative enough that it can influence students and ultimately help to create healthcare disparities for students' future patients. These disparities are likely evident, for instance, in the anomalously high death rate of Black women with breast cancer, and in the hesitancy that transgender, lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals often have to obtain medical help at crucial times. To help address a paradigm shift, is therefore, required in how faculty educate future nursing providers. This review paper has been written to encourage reflection about implicit bias and bias in teaching nursing students required to engender such a change. It also describes tools such as a bias checklist that can be used by faculty to help reflect on ways to minimize implicit bias in teaching materials.