California, arguably one of the most progressive and pro-choice states in the union, usually sets a great example with high standards for, well, everything – except registered nurses‘ continuing education. At least three anti-choice groups are actively exploiting a huge loophole in the state’s continuing education laws for nurses – and the groups are actively misleading and misinforming unsuspecting nurses by teaching them mythical medical procedures.
The nurses then pass on this “knowledge” to their patients at their home clinics.
Continuing Education Providers
That any group like Heartbeat International, Care Net, and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates can teach these medical myths based is bad – especially since HI is known for its deceptive practices against women seeking abortion – but that the Board of Registered Nurses‘ gave them their stamp of approval is worse, and exposes a dangerous flaw in the process that has led to the current failure.
Registered nurses attend continuing education courses to renew their licenses each year, as required by many states. Some nurses choose the courses and providers based on the provider’s accreditation – California-accredited providers are quite prestigious because of the state’s high standards. This includes HI, CN, and NIFLA, among others.
The approval process to become a continuing education provider is lacking, and the re-certification and auditing processes aren’t much better, while the sheer volume of applications processed keeps the State Board extremely busy, according to RH Reality Check,
“The California Board of Registered Nursing … each year, according to a state audit, process more than 350,000 applications for professional licensure and an estimated 1.2 million license renewals.”
To be approved as a provider, all it takes is a six-page application, a $200 fee, a description of the course content and objectives, and the instructor’s qualifications. Re-certification takes $300 every two years, and assurance from the provider that nothing’s changed from the initial application.
The Board never, ever denies a provider if an application is lacking, but gives them two years to fix anything that needs it, says Christina Sprigg, the State Board’s chief of licensing and administrative services. Sprigg added that the Board is supposed to audit providers periodically, but there’s not enough money or registered nurses to do them.
Loophole Hurts Nurses
The loophole lies in the coursework – even though a registered nurse vets the providers, the coursework offered is not approved or regulated by the Board. Sprigg added that the Board relies on providers to “self-police” to ensure their courses meet California’s rigid standards and the law. According to the Board, providers’ coursework,
“Must be related to the scientific knowledge and/or technical skills required for the practice of nursing, or be related to direct and/or indirect patient/client care.”
California’s Board note what is “acceptable” and “unacceptable” for nurses to learn, and prohibits anything not related to nursing, but the wording of the requirements leave another huge loophole. The State Board does not explicitly prohibit courses based on “junk science,” “medical myths,” or “unproven procedures.”
This allows anti-choice groups arguing room to say abortion pill reversal or fetal pain concepts are “related to skills” required for nursing.
For example, the abortion pill reversal is a mythical medical procedure based junk science, as is the “fetal pain at 20 weeks” concept. One “study” of six women with no control group, no oversight, and no consistency in dosages of progesterone – the drug that supposedly reversed the abortions in four women – concluded that the procedure works 80 percent of the time. Except the results of doing nothing are no different, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
In fact, the ACOG rejects the abortion pill reversal “procedure” out of hand as dangerous and unproven, as does the entire medical establishment.
So how did these anti-choice groups slip these courses into the workshops? Evidence uncovered by RH Reality Check shows that the HI course submitted with its initial application is different from the one it now teaches. HI probably switched up the course it provides after the initial approval because they knew it was likely they’d never be audited.
And they haven’t been. None of the three anti-choice groups, Heartbeat International, Care Net, and National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, have been audited since their initial approval – during Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reign as governor, according to RH Reality Check.
It’s likely that thousands of nurses have taken Heartbeat International, Care Net, and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates courses – all of which are different from the initial courses submitted. Will these anti-choice groups see any discipline as a result?
A more pressing question… We all know the dissemination of medical myths is dangerous for patients and medical science. How many women have been injured as a result of misinformed nurses recommending mythical procedures? How many malpractice lawsuits are out there already – or waiting to happen?
More importantly – how long will California continue allowing these groups to teach mythical medical procedures?
Featured Image By Debrah Sweet via Flickr/CC by 2.0
