Nursing students are indeed ‘essential’

As a retired public health nurse, I was disturbed by the article that said nursing students are not able to complete their clinical experiences in local hospitals and clinics, as they are not considered “essential workers.” They are not being allowed to complete needed hours of clinical experience and are calling on the governor to allow them to graduate and be eligible to sit the RN exam without these hours.

We are in the midst of a health crisis. Nursing students need to be taught how to staff ventilators and care for respiratory illnesses, while providing such care in local hospitals and clinics. They can also free up experienced RNs from other duties by performing less skilled work in local hospitals and clinics.

ather than appealing to the governor to roll back graduation requirements, they should be appealing to be allowed to use work in the pandemic as their clinical experience.

I volunteered in the shelters after the Camp Fire and nursing students were essential to medical care in those facilities. I got Norovirus from my own shelter work, and these students were also at risk of this infection. They persevered and were valuable in the care of Paradise survivors.

The nursing students are a resource for all of us, and should be allowed to use their time helping in this crisis as their clinical hours. These students are not “non essential workers”.

— Bill Monroe, Chico