Any program graduations delayed or cancelled due to COVID19?

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Specializes in ICU.

Wondering if there are any programs out there who have had their Spring 2020 graduation delayed or cancelled due to COVID 19?

My school of nursing has recommended to instructors to move all lecture to online. No mandates yet; however, other schools of nursing in the area have already required classes to be moved online. No clinicals have been cancelled; however, the school of nursing is working with the BRN to figure out if clinical is cancelled, how the hours will be made up.

While it isn't official word, I was told by the SoN that more than likely our ceremony will be cancelled, even if we are able to graduate on time in May.

Wondering if anyone else is going through similar issues of potentially delayed or cancelled graduation dates due to inability to finish classes or clinical hours between now and graduation?

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Specializes in Medsurg/tele, IMC/PCU.

Hi EDboundSN,

I'm currently enrolled in an ADN program in Southern Maine. Currently, there have been no reported cases of COVID 19 within the state, but that hasn't prevented our entire state university system (as well as many other private institutions) from closing their dorms and suspending all on campus classes. While my school has not yet announced any plans to follow suit, it seems increasingly likely that it will happen within the next couple of weeks. That being said, I do have acquaintances who are scheduled to graduate from these schools within the next 9 weeks, and they are under the impression that their lectures will likely be pre-recorded and provided online and clinicals will continue as scheduled. They expect to complete their programs on time; however, it has not yet been determined whether or not graduation ceremonies will be cancelled or simply postponed.

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My school has announced all classes will be moved to online format. Clinicals are very much in the air as while the school says to keep getting hours if possible, many facilities are limiting the amount of non-essential personnel allowed on site (including students). It is yet to be determined what this means for those graduating this year that have not yet met the required amount of clinical hours.

No official announcements on the postponement/cancellation of commencement...yet.

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Our school is in the process of closing down their campus right now. They have not mentioned anything about the upcoming clinicals orientation (I start clinicals for my BSN this fall), graduation or for those in clinicals now if they will still go. They did stress that this was not a temporary closure, it was an "indefinite" closure and for staff to not expect to meet with students face to face again this semester.

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Specializes in Medsurg/tele, IMC/PCU.

UPDATE:

My state officially announced the first verified case of COVID 19 this morning, and my school has since announced they are extending our Spring break by a week in order to allow our instructors to record their lectures for remote viewing. Right now, there have been no updates regarding modifications to clinical schedules.

I was expecting to begin my pediatrics rotation this week, and because it's a specialty it consists of only 36 hours. Now I'm concerned that I'm going to miss a third of this entire rotation (at minimum), and that it's ultimately going to delay my graduation date. For reference, if we miss one 12 hour clinical or two 6 hour clinicals, we are required to make up six hours; any additional absences result in a failing grade for the semester. Therefore, any students in my cohort who have already missed a clinical might now fail out, and if any clinicals are cancelled in the future, we all might end up having to postpone graduation by an entire semester.

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Specializes in ICU.

Two days ago my campus, a California state university, cancelled in person classes and moved everything including nursing tk online.

Yesterday they told us we would still attend clinicals.

Today clinicals were cancelled.

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Specializes in Medsurg/tele, IMC/PCU.
9 minutes ago, EDboundSN said:

Two days ago my campus, a California state university, cancelled in person classes and moved everything including nursing tk online.

Yesterday they told us we would still attend clinicals.

Today clinicals were cancelled.

Today we were told all clinicals would continue as scheduled unless otherwise specified. That being said, there are quite a few LTC facilities who are prohibiting any non-essential personnel, including students. So while my clinical is expected to continue, the same can't be said for those in their first semester.

I will say that we were told that any absences that result from this pandemic will not result in clinical failure and the department is working toward a solution to allow everyone to fulfill their required clinical hours.

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Specializes in ICU.

Yeah I mean they’re not going to fail us but I foresee them putting our program on hold until further notice, thus delaying my graduation in 8 week.

best of luck with getting it all done.

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Specializes in Medsurg/tele, IMC/PCU.
1 minute ago, EDboundSN said:

Yeah I mean they’re not going to fail us but I foresee them putting our program on hold until further notice, thus delaying my graduation in 8 week.

Ugh, that sucks! Is your school still planning on having a ceremony? I know of several schools who've either cancelled theirs or postponed them indefinitely.

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Specializes in ICU.
9 minutes ago, YouCanCallMeFrank said:

Ugh, that sucks! Is your school still planning on having a ceremony? I know of several schools who've either cancelled theirs or postponed them indefinitely.

At this point I don’t even think I’m graduating let alone having a ceremony.

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Our ADN program in CA moved up our preceptorship in hopes we can get our 96 hours before things get worse. We are in our last semester so it would really suck not to finish clinicals. All our lectures got moved online and as of now our Ceremony is probably canceled. I think they are relying a lot on the hospitals discretion and as of right now two of the big hospital groups in the area are still welcoming us but some of the earlier semesters at other local schools have called off clinicals. There are extra precautions and we can’t take any droplet or airborne isolation patients.

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Specializes in ICU.
4 hours ago, kmc89 said:

Our ADN program in CA moved up our preceptorship in hopes we can get our 96 hours before things get worse. We are in our last semester so it would really suck not to finish clinicals. All our lectures got moved online and as of now our Ceremony is probably canceled. I think they are relying a lot on the hospitals discretion and as of right now two of the big hospital groups in the area are still welcoming us but some of the earlier semesters at other local schools have called off clinicals. There are extra precautions and we can’t take any droplet or airborne isolation patients.

Yeah my program was doing the same, but all of the major hospitals we go to are saying no more students. Either because of the risk of COVID19 transmission, or them trying to limit all non-essential personnel due to supply and equipment shortages.

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