California Gov. Gavin Newsom has cleared the way for thousands of nursing students to join the fight against the coronavirus. However, many students say the move still leaves too many questions unanswered.

Newsom’s order is welcome news in the central San Joaquin Valley, a region with a shortage of health professionals and a population particularly vulnerable to severe complications from COVID-19.

But students who spoke to The Bee say Newsom’s move doesn’t make clear whether they will receive course credit to graduate while they beef up staffing levels at hospitals and clinics.

Newsom has urged students and recently-retired healthcare workers to step into the fight against the coronavirus in California.

He unveiled a new website, healthcorps.ca.gov, as part of an initiative that could help nursing students close to graduating finish their clinical rotations in hospitals and healthcare settings. Since his announcement on Monday, over 25,000 people had already signed up.

During Newsom’s announcement, Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the state’s Health and Human Services Agency, said the jobs would be temporary. The Board of Registered Nursing will determine whether students “have completed enough of their training to get fully licensed on an ongoing basis, or whether they need to return back to the classroom and their clinical rotations to finish up and get their license down the road.”

He said the California Health Corps is mostly looking for people who are near the end of their training and will be graduating. The California Department of Consumer Affairs released guidelines that could help place students in the correct job position depending on how much they’ve learned so far.

“Who better than those folks who are really close to being done to bring into the workforce now, (and) essentially continue their clinical training with the support of experienced nurses or other health professionals that are in the same line of work that they will be in?” he said.

Newsom also passed an executive order that would let the California Board of Registered Nursing relax clinical and licensing standards, which would allow more nurses into the workforce.

Changes coming

The California Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the Board of Registered Nursing, said it is working quickly to make changes.

“We will list those waivers on the Department of Consumer Affairs website once we begin issuing them,” said spokesperson Veronica Harms.

She did not say when those waivers may come or what they will look like.

“DCA and BRN are aware of and sympathetic to, the predicament some nursing students are in as well as the need for health care workers during the pandemic,” Harms said.

Will it work?

Many nursing students and administrators worry the move by Newsom doesn’t make the standards clear enough. As of now, students still have to complete 75% of their clinical training in-person.

Alicia Lozano, director of the nursing program at Fresno City College, said the governor “opened the door for us, and we have started to pursue possible avenues with our hospital partners.”

She is still awaiting the Board of Nursing to make an announcement.

Others feel Newsom needed to do more, such as including specific language in his order that would relax the standards.

The executive order does not lower the required portion of in-person training to 50%, which was the standard many wanted to see. It instead only gives the nursing board the ability to make those kinds of decisions.

West Coast University nursing student Ryane Panasewicz said although she’s glad nursing students have gotten Newsom’s attention, she feels discouraged after the announcement.

Panasewicz is the nursing senior behind the Change.org petition that garnered over 136,000 signatures aimed at lowering the in-person clinical standards during the pandemic.

She said Newsom’s order still doesn’t make it clear how students will get their hours.

“It kind of defers to another agency, with the BRN, to make that determination. And up till now, the BRN hasn’t really given us an answer. It’s been a month that they’ve kind of dragged their feet. So I’m a little discouraged, and I don’t have a lot of faith in the process right now.”

She isn’t only worried about senior students, but also those who are starting will be behind for the rest of their schooling.

“People that are in the middle of their program, they’re going to be held back,” she said.

Although the Health Corps might be a solution, Panasewicz isn’t signing up just yet.

“I’ve been getting a lot of text messages already today, like, should I sign up? I would like the BRN to say how it’s going to continue my clinical education because I don’t feel that piece is clear. So if that piece was clear, I would be more inclined to sign up. But I just don’t feel like there’s just enough information at this point.”

Even with Newsom’s announcement, it’s still a waiting game, Panasewicz said.

“The governor has been stressing that time is of the essence time, so I’m really hoping that the BRN catches that and does take the authority they’ve been granted by the governor and the executive order to waive those regulations and, you know, make a solution for us.”

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab on our website.

This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 9:47 AM.