The Kentucky Board of Nursing has denied claims its mandatory "structural racism" training was enforced through the threat of license revocation, but Kentucky law shows nurses could be stripped of their licenses for failing to comply with the board's orders.
The Washington Examiner previously reported that Kentucky nurses were mandated to take the courses or face "civil sanction or discipline," as the board suggested, but new information offers insight into the breadth of consequences nurses could face for declining to do so.
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KBN, a government agency, told nurses across the state that they were "required" to complete "mandatory" training on "implicit bias." The training included highly racialized content that Kentucky certified registered nurse anesthetist Rebecca Wall, who has been a nurse for 40 years, told the Washington Examiner was "offensive" and had very little to do with nursing.
Wall said the state threatened the livelihoods of many nurses who had disagreements with the content.
"In states that require continuing education hours to maintain licensure, the nurse who fails to do so will not have his or her license renewed," Laura Morgan, a nurse of 39 years and program manager at the medical advocacy group Do No Harm, told the Washington Examiner. "Kentucky is no exception to this. The words 'mandatory' and 'required' are very well-defined."
While KBN denied the claim that the licenses were at stake, Kentucky law ties licensure directly to the completion of the courses.
According to Charles W. Miller, an employment and injury attorney in Kentucky, a nurse who refuses to complete the training is, in fact, subject to the possibility of losing a license. Kentucky law refers to the training "as a prerequisite for license renewal."
Citing Kentucky law, Miller told the Washington Examiner that the KBN retains the power to revoke or suspend licenses if a nurse has, as stated by statute, "violated any lawful order or directive previously entered by the board" or "violated any administrative regulation promulgated by the board."
In a follow-up from the Washington Examiner, the KBN again denied the claim saying, "No licensee will be denied licensure for failing to meet mandatory CE requirements. Most failures to meet CE requirements result in a non-disciplinary settlement. However, failing to obtain CEs may result in a written reprimand."
When pressed twice more about what a "disciplinary settlement" and "written reprimand" might entail, including the nurse agreeing to take the training, the KBN stopped contact.
Many cases end in settlement, which Miller said involves nurses rectifying their failure to meet the standard by agreeing to take the class.
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The KBN is set up to give nurses slack when failing to meet a requirement, such as additional time to do so, before a formal reprimand, Miller added, but that would still require nurses who have ideological disagreements with the content to take the course.
Miller said that likely the only way to challenge the requirement is to challenge the constitutional authority of the KBN to require that content in training, on the grounds that it does not have a "rational basis" in nursing