Legacy of Medicine and Nursing During the Holocaust and Its Contemporary Relevance: Addressing Implicit and Explicit Bias and Health Care Inequities

Background: Health care professionals have a special responsibility to recognize and address bias against marginalized groups. Method: A 2-hour seminar explored the role of medicine and nursing in Nazism and the Holocaust, addressing its relevance to implicit and explicit bias in health care today. Program evaluation focused on nurse participants' assessment of objectives, and a pretest/posttest questionnaire measured perceived knowledge gained. Results: Program evaluation indicated that nurses agreed or strongly agreed that all program objectives were met ( n = 63). All items of the pretest and posttest questionnaire ( n = 38) were statistically significant and showed that the effect of the educational intervention was large. Practice implications of this seminar were encouraging, with nurses noting plans to be more intentional in recognizing and managing implicit biases within patient and colleague interactions. Conclusion: Contemporary relevance of the history of medicine and nursing during Nazism and the Holocaust includes cultivating moral responsibility and effectively addressing implicit and explicit bias, recognizing health care inequities, and preserving human dignity.