[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 1079

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

219th LEGISLATURE

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2020 SESSION

 


 

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman  SHANIQUE SPEIGHT

District 29 (Essex)

Assemblywoman  ELIANA PINTOR MARIN

District 29 (Essex)

Assemblywoman  VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON

District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)

 

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman Murphy, Assemblyman Holley, Assemblywoman Timberlake, Assemblymen Danielsen, Armato, Assemblywomen McKnight, Jasey, Tucker, Vainieri Huttle, Mosquera and Swain

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires certain health care professionals to undergo implicit bias training.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As reported by the Assembly Health Committee on March 5, 2020, with amendments.

  


An Act concerning implicit bias training and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

      1.   a.  Every hospital that provides inpatient maternity services and every birthing center licensed in the State pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.) shall implement an evidence-based implicit bias training program for all health professionals who 1regularly1 provide perinatal treatment and care to pregnant women at the hospital or birthing center.  1A hospital that implements an implicit bias training program pursuant to this section shall ensure that the program is structured in a manner that permits physicians to be eligible to receive continuing education credits for participation in the program.1

      b.   The training program shall include, but not be limited to:

      (1)  identifying previous and current unconscious biases and misinformation when providing perinatal treatment and care to pregnant women;

      (2)  identifying personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural barriers to inclusion;

      (3)  information on the effects of historical and contemporary exclusion and oppression of minority communities;

      (4)  information about cultural identity across racial and ethnic groups;

      (5)  information about communicating more effectively across racial, ethnic, religious, and gender identities;

      (6)  information about reproductive justice;

      (7)  a discussion on power dynamics and organizational decision-making and their effects on implicit bias;

      (8)  a discussion on health inequities and racial and ethnic disparities within the field of perinatal care, and how implicit bias may contribute to pregnancy-related deaths and maternal and infant health outcomes; and

      (9)  corrective measures to decrease implicit bias at the interpersonal and institutional levels.

      c.   A health care professional who 1regularly1 provides perinatal treatment and care to pregnant women at a hospital that provides inpatient maternity services or a birthing center licensed in the State pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.) shall:

      (1)  complete the training program on implicit bias at such times and intervals as the hospital or birthing center shall require;

      (2)  complete a refresher course under the training program, designed to provide the health care professional with updated

information about racial, ethnic, and cultural identity, and best practices in decreasing interpersonal and institutional implicit bias, every two years or on a more frequent basis, if deemed necessary by the hospital or birthing center; and

      (3)  receive a certification from the hospital or birthing center upon successful completion of the training program.

      d.   As used in this section:

      “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.

      “Implicit stereotypes” means the unconscious attributions of particular qualities to a member of a certain social group, influenced by experience, and based on learned associations between various qualities and social categories, including race and gender.

 

     2.    The Department of Health shall adopt rules and regulations, pursuant to the provisions of the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), to effectuate the purposes of this act.

 

     3.    This act shall take effect on the first day of the sixth month next following the date of enactment.