Nurses in Australia May Soon Have to Apologize to Minority Patients for Being White Before They Treat Them

From the Australian:

AUSTRALIAN nurses are pushing back against a change that requires them to “acknowledge white privilege” before treating patients. 

Nurses and midwives around the country must now adhere to a new code of conduct with a section specifically dedicated to “culture” and which details white Australians’ inherent privilege “in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders”. 

The new code, which came into effect in March, has been labelled “eye-watering”, “cultural madness” and “unacceptable”. 

A peak body representing nurses in Queensland is even calling for the chairman of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia to be sacked over it. 

“This is eye-watering stuff,” Graeme Haycroft from the Nurses Professional Association of Queensland told Sky News host Peta Credlin. 

“We’re calling for the resignation of the chairman of the board (Associate Professor Lynette Cusack) because she’s put her name to it and it’s unacceptable.” 

Credlin called it “almost too hard to believe”. 

“Before (a midwife) delivers a baby to an indigenous woman she’s supposed to put her hands up and say: ‘I need to talk to you about my white privilege’, not about my infection control, my qualifications or my training as a midwife?” she asked Mr Haycroft.