Nursing students who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19 may be unable to fulfill the clinical requirements they need to graduate. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing and eight other professional nursing organizations, including AONL, recently released a policy brief, which says “students should be vaccinated when clinical facilities require it” to complete their clinical training. If they refuse vaccination and do not qualify for a religious or medical exemption, nursing programs may disenroll them. A recent surveyby the National Student Nurses’ Association reported 86% of surveyed nursing students and 85% of surveyed new nursing graduates said they had been or planned to be vaccinated against COVID-19. (KHN article, 10/4/21)
