Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1130164
6 Working Nurse l WorkingNurse.com June 10–July 15, 2019 ON THE QUICK Nursing & Healthcare News Maternal Mortality and Race S.B. 464 takes aim at implicit bias T ackling what she calls a "profound injustice," State Senator Holly J. Mitchell (D-30) has introduced S.B. 464, the California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act, which is intended to address persistent racial and ethnic disparities in pregnancy-associat- ed mortality. Birth Outcome Disparities Thirteen years ago, California took steps to address an alarming rise in maternal mortality rates. Although our state's pregnancy-associated mortality rates have fallen dramatically and are now much better than the national average, maternal mortality and morbidity rates for Black women in California remain disproportionately high. Although only 5.6 percent of the women who gave birth in California between 2013 and 2015 were Black, Black women accounted for 21 percent of maternal mortality cases during the same period! The racial disparities are so great that even healthy, middle-class Black women who don't smoke and have good prena- tal care have statistically worse birthing outcomes than do poor white women. Implicit Bias and Mandatory Training S.B. 464 puts a name to one of the likely causes of this disparity: implicit bias, which the bill defines as "bias in judgment or behavior that results from subtle cog- nitive processes, including implicit preju- dice and implicit stereotypes that often operate at a level below conscious aware- ness and without intentional control." This bill would require hospitals to implement evidence-based training pro- grams designed to identify and disman- tle implicit bias in perinatal care, with an emphasis on the ways provider bias and stereotypes can affect outcomes for mothers and infants. Nurses and other clinicians who pro- vide perinatal care would be required to complete such training, with refreshers every two years. "California has a responsibility to ensure that all its residents can have safe and dignified pregnancy and childbirth," Mitchell says. Nurse-Midwife Support S.B. 464 is being co-sponsored by the California Nurse-Midwives Association. You can learn more about the bill at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. WN ANA Hill Day 2019 Three sets of bills to watch A NA Hill Day at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., is Thursday, June 20. Although it's too late to register for this year's event, we have a quick rundown of the three sets of leg- islation the ANA is focusing on this year. There are two versions of each bill, one in the House and one in the Senate. Here's the gist: • HOME HEALTH Presently, Medicare will only pay for home health services if they're ordered by a physician. H.R.2125 and S.296 would also allow APRNs to authorize Medicare-funded home health care. • NURSE PROGRAM FUNDING H.R.728 and S.1399 would reauthorize funding for Title VIII — which includes an assortment of important federal education and workplace development programs for nurses — through the 2024 fiscal year. The bills would also extend Title VIII to include funding for CNS education (Title VIII already covers other APRN roles), nurse-managed health clinics and nursing "career ladder" programs such as residencies and internships. • WORKPLACE VIOLENCE H.R.1309 and S.851 would order the Department of Labor to finally develop federal standards for workplace violence preven- tion for most healthcare facilities, including community care, sub- stance abuse and freestanding emergency centers, as well as hospitals and nursing homes. The bills suggest that the standards be modeled on Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers, an advisory document OSHA published in 2015. (Download it at www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3148.pdf.) Employers would then have six months to develop their own workplace violence-reduction plans to meet the new standards. More Information The ANA encourages nurses to contact their senators and repre- sentatives to weigh in on all those bills. To learn more about them and follow their progress, visit www.congress.org. For more highlights from the ANA Hill Day event, watch the Capitol Beat blog at anacapitolbeat.org. WN For direct links to the websites cited, find these articles at WorkingNurse.com