POPLARVILLE, Miss. (AP) - Some students studying for careers in health care at Mississippi community colleges are having a difficult time completing the spring semester because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Jana Causey, vice president for Forrest County Operations at Pearl River Community College said the students were able to complete their coursework online, but scheduling clinical work has become a challenge.
“Right now a lot of our clinical sites have basically said it’s because of the situation with the virus that they’re not taking students,” she said.
Some, not all, facilities have had to cancel having students work with medical professionals in a clinical setting to focus on the immediate needs of the ongoing health care crisis.
“We totally respect the decisions that they are having to make in the crisis we are in,” Causey said. “We believe they are doing all they can to help our communities. We’ll be following their lead when they allow us to put our students back on the sites, and do whatever is we need to do to be helpful.”
Even though some sites are able to provide clinicals to students, the program is on hold until all students can be accommodated.
“We can’t put all our students at one clinical site,” Causey said. “We can’t take some and not the others, so we just stopped sending them to clinicals in those areas for the moment.”
PRCC has around 540 students in its nine for-credit medical programs. About 120 of them were supposed to graduate in May and another 120 are expected to graduate in July.
The college also has around 15 CNAs that graduate every few weeks on top of the for-credit programs.
PRCC is not the only college in Mississippi that is faced with the dilemma.
“Hinds Community College is also experiencing the inability to provide students with hands-on clinical experiences currently due to COVID-19 as the vast majority of clinical affiliates have suspended students and faculty from coming into their facilities,” said Katharine Elliott, Nursing and Allied Health dean at Hinds County Community College.
Hinds CC has around 800 credit and non-credit students enrolled in nursing and allied health programs this semester across the district, Elliott said.
There are around 15 community colleges in Mississippi, most of which offer similar programs to those of the Hinds and Pearl River colleges.
PRCC’s students, who were on track to completing their programs this year, are now waiting to see what the future holds.
“Not being able to put those students in clinicals is very challenging in trying to get them to finish on time,” Causey said. “We are working with the hospitals and clinical sites to see if we can get those students back in. Hopefully we’ll be able to extend this current semester that we’re in and get them in clinical sites to finish up at least by summer.”
At Hinds, Elliott said some of the students were able to do at least part of their clinical studies through simulation.
“While all the health care programs offered at Hinds require the majority of clinical experiences to be done in an appropriate clinical setting, many of the programs are allowed to utilize a percentage of simulated clinical experiences in lieu of direct patient care,” she said. “The programs that are approved to do simulated clinical experiences are providing those opportunities for students.”
Trained health care professionals are in high demand and the need continues to grow, Causey said. She said the students who graduated in December have been able to get into the workforce, just ahead of the coronavirus outbreak.
“I guess the other side of that equation is that it created a situation where we are going to need these students in the workplace really quickly because of the growing need for health care, especially our respiratory therapists,” she said.
Elliott said she is confident the students will be able to find work regardless of whether they are able to complete their clinicials.
“I don’t believe this will affect most of our spring graduates’ ability to find work right away,” she said. ” Most health care students have to pass a national and/or state licensing examination or certification test in order to be able to go to work upon graduation.
“Faculty are focusing on continuing to prepare the students to not only meet the objectives of their courses, but also to be able to pass these tests, regardless of not being able to go into a clinical environment at this time.”
Elliott said that even though the clinical training was disrupted during the spring semester, Hinds’ nursing and allied health students who are in their final semester already had numerous clinical hours previously.
“With the majority of program accreditors granting permission to allow for alternate learning activities to take the place of traditional clinical activities, we do feel that the students that graduate this semester will be ready and able to contribute positively to the workforce as soon as possible,” she said.
Elliott said the Mississippi Board of Nursing is allowing nursing graduates to be able to apply for a temporary license before taking the National Council Licensure Exam to get the graduates to work as soon as possible.
“This is a great opportunity for nursing graduates to get in the workforce quickly and to use real work experiences to help prepare them for the NCLEX exam,” she said.
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