NJ doctors, nurses will now need to take training to address maternal health disparities

Doctors and nurses who provide care to expectant mothers and those who have just given birth will be required to take classes in bias training in an effort to help lower the higher rate of poor maternal health outcomes among women of color in New Jersey, under new rules published this week.

The training, which also applies to midwives and physician assistants, will focus on "implicit and explicit" biases "to root out prejudices and stereotypes that may affect the quality of care that they provide," according to Attorney General Matt Platkin, who announced the new rules Monday. The requirement will likely begin next year.

"The knowledge obtained through these trainings will help ensure members of an expecting mother’s care team how to approach their essential work without prejudice or bias," said first lady Tammy Murphy, who has made maternal health a focus of her husband Gov. Phil Murphy's administration.

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Black residents are more likely to be stricken with and die from a host of diseases than whites, Hispanics and Asians, according to state Health Department data . The rate of Black women dying while pregnant, during delivery or one year after giving birth doubled over the course of two decades and outpaced all other races in New Jersey, according to a national report published last year.

Black women are also more likely to suffer from obstetric hemorrhage and hypertension during childbirth.

While a team of researchers including those from Rutgers University said in a report this year that the sharp rise in the U.S. maternal death rate has been overstated through faulty data gathering, they maintained that there was still a wide racial gap.

The training will be part of ongoing education that almost every licensed medical professional undergoes in New Jersey every other year.

The topics covered by the training include:

• The effects of historical and contemporary exclusion and oppression of minority communities
• Communicating more effectively across racial, ethnic, religious and gender identities
• Reproductive justice and power dynamics
• Corrective measures to decrease explicit and implicit bias at the interpersonal and institutional levels

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ doctors, nurses will now need to take training to address maternal health disparities