NCSBN and eight other leading nursing organizations* have issued a policy brief to provide guidance to boards of nursing and nursing education programs that are receiving requests from students for alternate clinical experiences when a program’s clinical sites require the COVID-19 vaccine.

NCSBN Chief Officer, Nursing Regulation, Maryann Alexander, PhD, RN, FAAN, comments, “As nurse leaders we wanted to provide direction to nursing programs that are dealing with a small number of unvaccinated students. Clinical experiences are crucial to nursing education and simulation, while extremely valuable, cannot completely replace direct care experience.” 

The policy brief highlights recommendations for nursing programs that include reaching out to vaccine-hesitant students and counseling them about the benefits of the vaccine and dispelling myths and misinformation students may have. If mandated by the academic institution, students can refuse the vaccine. If they are not entitled to a reasonable accommodation under the disability laws or for a sincerely held religious belief, then the student may be disenrolled from the institution/nursing program or may not be able to fulfill the clinical requirements of the program, resulting in them not graduating.

“We know that vaccination protects both the person vaccinated and those for whom they care. Our hope is that unvaccinated nursing students follow the science and get the COVID-19 vaccine,” Alexander remarks. 

The full Policy Brief: Clinical Experiences for Unvaccinated Nursing Students can be accessed on the NCSBN site. 

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