UW Health has new measures designed to safeguard the well-being of students and observers and to conserve the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). These measures will affect educational and observational activities that occur in UW Health clinical locations.
Effective immediately, UW Health will exclude all students from seeing any patient with respiratory symptoms, even if they are low risk for coronavirus. This will likely go into effect today, but for sure by early next week. Obviously, in the middle of cold and flu season, this is going to affect the volume of patients that you will may see, particularly those with clinical experiences in Urgent Care and the ED, as they are being earmarked as respiratory testing centers. In addition, students will not be allowed to enter rooms where PPE is required, such as rooms housing patients in isolation.
We at the SoN are monitoring the situation and are making plans to ensure that you will have the clinical experiences needed to prepare for your careers as professional nurses. The health and safety of our students, faculty and staff, and those with whom we interact through work and learning is our priority. I will continue to provide additional information over the next week.
This post was authored by Dean Scott on 03/06/2020.