Did you receive a politically biased education?

[Guest910128]

Hello everyone,

I'm a nursing student currently completing a Bachelor of Nursing in New Zealand, and I'd like to gain a persepctive on what nursing school in other parts of the world (particularly the US) are like. Currently, the education I am receiving is highly politically biased - everything is taught in a "liberal" political perspective. Is this the same deal in the US? I feel the education I'm receiving just shouldn't be this politically biased. I'm not writing this to challenge anyone's political views, but I feel that every student undergoing a degree programme should have academic freedom to express their thoughts. All of the written assignments I have written have had to be written in a pro-liberal perspective. If I were to write an assignment in a "conservative" perspective I'd get heavily penalised, and I have not met "course criteria". Additionally, I have not heard a single pro-conservative argument discussed in any of my classes. I'm politically conservative (minority in NZ), and I'm not claiming liberal ideas are wrong. However they are not my beliefs. To give you an idea, here are some points I've had to "accept" in class and/or in my written assignments, without question.

- Healthcare is a right, and socialied medicine should unquestionably remain;

- Every time a conservative government is elected, healthcare outcomes worsen;

- Government should make more laws and regulations to keep us safer and increase health outcomes (I.e. mandatory vaccinations, mandatory adding of fluoride to our water supply);

- Capitalism, and the resulting social stratification, leads to poverty, which leads to disparities in health. Hence, large corporations and the weathy should be taxed more than the poor, to reduce inequality and lead to more desirable and equal health outcomes for all (effectively anti-capitalist ideas, Marxist ideas were supported in my sociology classes);

- We must have extensive social services (social welfare) as the poor cannot afford health care (culture of dependency ignored entirely);

- Minority cultures have the right to receive more fiancial support from government in order to increase their health outcomes;

- Unhealthy foods should be taxed more than healthy foods (same deal with cigarettes);

- New Zealand cannot support a private healthcare sector due to our population size;

- Most the most part, pro-life and anti-euthanasia opinions are drowned out by the majority view (pro-choice, pro legalised euthanasia).

- Making the individual responsible for their own health care is "victim blaming".

Opinions regarding the benefits of a free market society, benefits of our capitalist system, that social welfare can create a 'culture of dependency', individual responsibility for health outcomes, lowering goods and services tax in general are examples of conservative ideas NEVER discussed.

Thoughts? Any discussion and input would be greatly appreciated.   

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

Politics are not really discussed at my school. We all know there is a conservative catholic health system and a community based health care system. We have discussed from time to time new laws in medicine but our schooling is not taught based on any political view at all. I'm glad they do it that way.

I have my own very strong political views but only my immediate family members really know about them. It's not something you talk about. I was raised to believe that you don't talk about religion or politics with friends or the public. Nor do I discuss money.

I vote every year. That's how my voice is heard.

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

I went to a Catholic school in the southern US. I don't feel like politics made it's way into class.

[Guest910128]

Thank you very much everyone- your responses have been really insightful. It's clear that there's a liberal bias at my school, but I guess that's something to be expected in my part of the world, due to the political atmosphere here in New Zealand. It would be nice to see a more balanced view presented, at least to hear the "right", which hasn't occured yet. One of you have pointed out that I could be that voice - so I'll try to put it out there. It may result in a lower grade, but I will be determined in finding the evidence to support my views. One even pointed out immigrating - interestingly it's something I've considered seriously in the past. It may sound strange to some Americans, but the "conservative" view is a really "out there" view here in NZ. It doesn't even seem to exist in our political system. To me, our "conservative" party is much more closely aligned to your "democrat" party. Hence, I believe this to be the reason why the discussion isn't being had in the classroom, and to a conservative like myself, it appears very biased. However, considering the political climate here in NZ, within NZ, it is "the norm"... which is very frustrating to me, as I just don't accept the majority view...

It would make sense exploring options in the US after my degree.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

My ADN (2 year RN) program was pretty neutral; my RN-to-BSN program at a state university was quite liberal. I lean conservative on some issues, libertarian on others, but def. not liberal. I got through by backing up my positions with facts. My instructors might not have agreed with me, but since I had well thought-out arguments supported by facts, they couldn't dock my grades.

[Vtachy1]

My instructors were extremely liberal. Continuously pushing socialized health care. But I graduated 25 years ago too, so.

[AbstracRN, BSN, CNA, RN]

Yes it is horrible here, I live in a Red state and the local community college is so liberal. The professor will say something , hoping we disagree and look around the room waiting for a debate. It is really annoying, I heard it is even worse at the university level.

[Emergent, RN]

I went to community college in California over 20 years ago. Sociology was my only class that seemed to promote a leftie agenda. All other prerequisites and the nursing program itself seemed neutral.

[Casha19]

Hello there. So I went to school and work in the bible belt of the USA (Oklahoma). I have watched news programs on multiple American news outlets that say that all students here get a conservatively biased education. And as a student who has gone to 3 different schools in the area (A B.S. in Biology, A.D. Religious Students, A.D. History, and then my B.S.N. at a different school) I have to say all my education was liberally biased with the exception of maybe 4 or 5 professors in my entire education. Many professors were great at bringing both sides of an issue but would often state what they as a "education professional" believed, which was liberally slanted, but then in papers if you didn't hold up these same liberally biased view points you would be counted off.

So for nursing school we had a few conservative professors who gave their slant. But for the most part it was so liberal. Some examples include.

--Margret Sanger. I mean really, her racisim about African Americans is just crazy. And this racism being a big part of her pushing planned parenthood in these communities. Yet when one group of our class called her out on this and said basically that this woman is not a hero she is a horrible person, our professor spent at least 10 minutes about the great things planned parenthood does for women. And about how this woman is a hero for pushing these services for women.

--planned parenthood. I am pro-life, 100%. So when we are being pushed that planned parenthood is providing great services to women I am basically just shutting you off. Planned parenthood is some kind of great savior to every women and every critsism of it is just sexist is the viewpoint of most if not all professors.

--abortion. This goes with the planned parenthood in that any stance against abortion is just sexist and holding women's healthcare. Did I mention that if you are male (there were 4 men in our class) dont you dare comment on women's healthcare. Also, in your argument against abortion the life of the unborn child is not to be considered or at least second to the mother.

--ObamaCare. We had a class that met for lecture 5 or 6 times through the entire semester. The rest was online. So when we spent an entire 4 hours of met time with a person who is trying to convence us how great ObamaCare is you get the bias around here. Any argument that was against ObamaCare was shot down with "but look at how many people signed up for ObamaCare" when in actually if you subtract the people who had to get ObamaCare because they lost their original insurance you still didn't give insurance to many people.

--Socialized medicine in general. This is pretty specific to Oklahoma due to our Native American population we have socialized medicine for anyone with an Indian card. You get the free socialized heathcare that people want here for all of the people and that they praise in other countries. There are tons of clinics, hospitals, emergency clinics for Native Americans. There are tons of programs from nursing homes and other things. But the problem is that it runs into the same issues that socialized medicine in general runs into. Poor quality, long waits, and many many times a person will be admitted into a Indian Hospital and have to transfer out due the Indian hospital not being able to handle this problem the patient has, and often they end up worse off. Now the same people who praise ObamaCare and socialized medicine fail to bring up the failures of this program. They leave it out entirely. Even though this is our own backyard.

These are the big ones that I experienced in my Nursing education. I felt like it was so biased that I don't know how schools can maintain accreditation with this. And I'm sure that mine was mild in comparison. With that being said my education was great. a 100% NCLEX pass rate for our class top notch critical thinkers who pushed eachother every day. But just so much bias.

[Guest910128]

Hello there. So I went to school and work in the bible belt of the USA (Oklahoma). I have watched news programs on multiple American news outlets that say that all students here get a conservatively biased education. And as a student who has gone to 3 different schools in the area (A B.S. in Biology, A.D. Religious Students, A.D. History, and then my B.S.N. at a different school) I have to say all my education was liberally biased with the exception of maybe 4 or 5 professors in my entire education. Many professors were great at bringing both sides of an issue but would often state what they as a "education professional" believed, which was liberally slanted, but then in papers if you didn't hold up these same liberally biased view points you would be counted off.

So for nursing school we had a few conservative professors who gave their slant. But for the most part it was so liberal. Some examples include.

--Margret Sanger. I mean really, her racisim about African Americans is just crazy. And this racism being a big part of her pushing planned parenthood in these communities. Yet when one group of our class called her out on this and said basically that this woman is not a hero she is a horrible person, our professor spent at least 10 minutes about the great things planned parenthood does for women. And about how this woman is a hero for pushing these services for women.

--planned parenthood. I am pro-life, 100%. So when we are being pushed that planned parenthood is providing great services to women I am basically just shutting you off. Planned parenthood is some kind of great savior to every women and every critsism of it is just sexist is the viewpoint of most if not all professors.

--abortion. This goes with the planned parenthood in that any stance against abortion is just sexist and holding women's healthcare. Did I mention that if you are male (there were 4 men in our class) dont you dare comment on women's healthcare. Also, in your argument against abortion the life of the unborn child is not to be considered or at least second to the mother.

--ObamaCare. We had a class that met for lecture 5 or 6 times through the entire semester. The rest was online. So when we spent an entire 4 hours of met time with a person who is trying to convence us how great ObamaCare is you get the bias around here. Any argument that was against ObamaCare was shot down with "but look at how many people signed up for ObamaCare" when in actually if you subtract the people who had to get ObamaCare because they lost their original insurance you still didn't give insurance to many people.

--Socialized medicine in general. This is pretty specific to Oklahoma due to our Native American population we have socialized medicine for anyone with an Indian card. You get the free socialized heathcare that people want here for all of the people and that they praise in other countries. There are tons of clinics, hospitals, emergency clinics for Native Americans. There are tons of programs from nursing homes and other things. But the problem is that it runs into the same issues that socialized medicine in general runs into. Poor quality, long waits, and many many times a person will be admitted into a Indian Hospital and have to transfer out due the Indian hospital not being able to handle this problem the patient has, and often they end up worse off. Now the same people who praise ObamaCare and socialized medicine fail to bring up the failures of this program. They leave it out entirely. Even though this is our own backyard.

These are the big ones that I experienced in my Nursing education. I felt like it was so biased that I don't know how schools can maintain accreditation with this. And I'm sure that mine was mild in comparison. With that being said my education was great. a 100% NCLEX pass rate for our class top notch critical thinkers who pushed eachother every day. But just so much bias.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. I realy appreciate it.

As a Christian and self-described conservative, I've shared a similar experience - it's very difficult to defend myself up against a liberal majority.

I'm a male and a minority in that respect... I don't dare share my views in regards to women's healthcare. I think someone would injure me bady.

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

The only outright lies that come up here and there deal with the Affordable Health Care Act increasing access to healthcare. Then when I or others bring up the facts that ANY insurance doesn't have to be accepted by a provider, AND that having insurance doesn't guarantee access to providers of choice, etc, etc, etc. the professors move on to just dealing with what we need to learn. Aside from that, not much on the political side of the fence.

[NurseEmmy]

I have never found any "agenda" present in my education. I'm in a fairly red area and I find that if my opinion differs from that of a prof. or a clinical site, I keep it to myself and push through. I've not encountered anything that makes me uncomfortable. You will find that you disagree with plenty of people during your career. If it is over an issue that is really worth fighting than come prepared with actual facts not crap you find from some blogger or biased news network.

My suggestion is to chose your battles wisely. You're in school to learn and graduate, not take a political stance.

[secretagent412]

I'm not sure about your program, but I know that the majority of legitimate educational institutions here train in evidence based medicine. So while you may hear "conservative ideals bad", they may be saying "studies are showing that health outcomes are less positive under conservative governments". Here in the states current research is showing that conservative policies are having negative impacts on health outcomes - increases in unplanned pregnancy and attempted self-abortion, for example, in states that are shutting down women's clinics.

I fully support people having their own evidence based opinions, so I can only encourage you to seek out research supporting yours and requesting the source papers or checking footnotes for them when you receive or hear something you feel to be biased. One of the awesome things about nursing is that there are studies and research about most of our topics so it's easy to get in there and learn more when we're intrigued or challenged by something we're taught. It's hard when something challenges a deeply held belief but being open to new information is critical to our development as nurses.