MSU offers nursing students credit for 'racial constructs and racism in healthcare' program

Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing has announced that it will host a virtual event on Jan. 30 for its nursing students to discuss “implicit bias” and other forms of apparent racism in the medical field.

The event, Unpacking Health Inequities: The Impact of Racial Constructs and Racism in Healthcare, will allow students to receive a nursing contact hour for participating, and can also count toward one “State of Michigan Implicit Bias Continuing Education Credit.” The programming is sponsored by the MSU College of Nursing and College of Law. 

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“Participants will walk away with an enhanced understanding of race as a social construct and its implications in healthcare, enabling them to critically examine both personal and organizational practices that may perpetuate health inequities,” according to the event description. 

A registration page for the event asks participants to answer whether or not they agree with the statement that, “I am knowledgeable of race as a social construct and its implications in healthcare and can critically examine both personal and organizational practices that may perpetuate health inequities.”

The event will feature Edwin Lindo, an assistant dean and associate teaching professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. According to his faculty profile, he is currently “on the journey to ask and explore the hard questions of Race & Racism within the institutions of Medicine and Law.” 

Lindo’s current areas of research include “the history of racialized medicine, race & racism within medicine, social justice and social movements, and decolonized pedagogies for critical education.” He currently teaches a course at Washington that focuses on Critical Race Theory (CRT) in medicine.

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Lindo’s invitation to speak at MSU comes in the wake of broader initiatives to institutionalize Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at the university. 

The College of Nursing currently houses the LGBTQ+ Allies Student Nurses Association (LASNA). According to the college’s DEI page, the group’s primary mission is to “create a safe and inclusive environment within the nursing community, where all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, feel supported, respected, and empowered.”

LASNA also emphasizes that, “Through education, advocacy, and compassionate care, we strive to promote health equity and eliminate discrimination against LGBTQ+ patients, colleagues, and communities.”

Campus Reform has reached out to MSU for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.