Course Purpose
The purpose of this course is to assist the healthcare professional in understanding how implicit bias can affect the quality of care provided to patients within the healthcare system, and to provide a brief overview of strategies to reduce implicit bias once it is recognized.
Continuing Education Credit Designation
This online independent study activity is credited for 2 contact hours.
Overview
Implicit bias refers to attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious way, making them difficult to control. It may present as biases against groups of people who have a different gender, sexual orientation, racial group, or ethnicity, and can occur anywhere, including the criminal justice system, healthcare system, schools, and workplace settings. This course provides an overview of implicit bias, test commonly used to identify it, and strategies to help reduce it once it is identified.
Objectives
Upon completion of the independent study, the learner will be able to:
- Define implicit bias
- Differentiate between implicit bias and explicit bias
- Understand how stereotypes influence implicit bias and how it affects patient care
- Review tests commonly used to help identify implicit bias
- Implement strategies to help reduce implicit bias within an organization
Policy Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the policies of FastCEForLess.com. If you want to review our policy, click here.
Disclosures
Fast CE For Less, Inc. and its authors have no disclosures. There is no commercial support.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this course connected to state-mandated implicit bias training requirements for healthcare workers?
Several states (including California, Michigan, and others) have adopted implicit bias training mandates for healthcare licensees. This 2-contact-hour nursing CEU is built to align with those requirements, but nurses should verify their specific state board’s implicit bias mandate details, since language and hour requirements differ by state.
What is the Implicit Association Test (IAT) mentioned in bias research, and does this course explain how it works?
The IAT is a widely used psychological tool that measures automatic associations between concepts (like race or gender) and evaluations (like “good” or “bad”) based on reaction time. This course reviews how such tools are used to help healthcare organizations identify bias patterns — not to label individuals, but to guide systemic training.
Can implicit bias training actually change clinical behavior, or is it just awareness-building?
This course goes beyond awareness by teaching structured interruption techniques — such as slowing down decision-making in time-pressured situations and using standardized clinical protocols — that have been shown to reduce the influence of unconscious bias on real clinical decisions.
How is implicit bias different from microaggressions, and does this course cover both?
Implicit bias is the underlying unconscious attitude; a microaggression is often the observable behavior or comment that results from it. This course focuses primarily on the root cognitive mechanism of implicit bias so nurses can address the cause, not just react to individual incidents.
Does this course address bias in clinical decision-making tools, like pain scales or risk calculators?
Yes — the course discusses how systemic and algorithmic bias (for example, historically higher pain-tolerance assumptions applied to certain patient groups) can quietly influence assessment tools, giving nurses a framework to question tools that may embed bias rather than eliminate it.
How long does it take to complete this nursing CEU, and is there a test?
This is a 2-contact-hour, no-test nursing CEU — complete the reading and a short evaluation for your instant certificate, making it one of the faster online nursing CEUs to complete during a lunch break or between shifts.
Will completing this course help with workplace culture, not just individual patient care?
This course includes organizational-level bias-reduction strategies (like structured hiring and promotion criteria, blind chart review processes, and bias-interruption huddles) that nurses in charge or leadership roles can bring back to their unit beyond bedside care.
Does implicit bias only relate to race, or does this course cover other categories too?
This course addresses implicit bias across multiple dimensions — including gender, sexual orientation, age, weight, disability status, and socioeconomic background — since bias in healthcare settings is rarely limited to a single category.
