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On March 16, clinical placements around the country were cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing students in their fourth year were sidelined, despite being a handful of shifts away from completing consolidation – the final placement needed before graduation.

The College of Nurses of Ontario recently called on retired nurses to return to practice in order to address the inevitable nursing shortage in the coming months. If retired nurses are good enough to be on the front lines, why aren’t nursing students? We have the most current training.

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The situation is similar around North America. Students in California are petitioning to return to clinicals and face the front lines, while their schools are advocating to theBoard of Nurses to permit the students to graduate with only 50 per cent of their clinical placement hours completed.

In the United Kingdom, it’s a different story: A joint statement by the Nursing and Midwifery Council included a proposition to allow nursing students to volunteer for the opportunity to spend the last six months of their program in clinical placement as part of an emergency response by the Council.