(The Center Square) – Illinois health-care workers will now be required to undergo one hour of cultural training each year to continue working in their profession. Some say such training is not needed.
House Bill 2450 was sponsored by state Rep. Dagmara Avelar and requires health care workers in the state to receive one hour of racial competency training as part of their continuing education.
State Rep. Bill Hauter, R-Morton, a former medical doctor, told The Center Square that racial competency is something those in the health-care profession take seriously and have for some time.
“We get cultural competency. We understand it. We take it in medical school. We do it in residency. We take classes on it in our continued medical education for our specialty boards,” Hauter said. “So it is not something that we do not understand, and we don’t think it’s important. It is just we do so much of it.”
State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, also pushed back on the requirement and questioned who would be providing the training to the workers.
“The first question I have is, what is the content of the continuing education material? Who will develop it? Will it be written by the AMA or another reputable science-based organization? Why didn’t we see the content of the training before voting on it,” Halbrook said. “History tells us every time we vote on these mandates before we see the curriculum, all we get in return is a woke ideological indoctrination for our teachers, children, and now our medical professionals. It never ends well.
The requirements will go into effect starting in January 2025.
