I was diagnosed with a very aggressive lymphoma 11/18/14, then I received my admission two days later to start nursing school in the Spring. I originally planned to accept and go to school, even through chemotherapy, because I'm an extremely determined person, and my oncologist told me stories of older patients who still go on with their normal lives through chemo treatment. However, I notified my school of these plans, and they called me to offer to postpone my admission to Fall, after treatment would be completed. I ended up getting an autologous (meaning not donor, my own cells) stem cell/bone marrow transplant in March to prevent the cancer from coming back.
Stem cell transplants essentially include wiping out the entire immune system to then rebuild it from the ground up. So I'm essentially like a new baby even now, and I am on a schedule to get all of my childhood vaccinations all over again. I'm not permitted to get the MMR vaccine until 2 years post-transplant since it is a live vaccine. This is where nursing school becomes an issue, since vaccinations and/or titers are required for clinicals. Today I had my nursing school orientation, and I spoke with the Dean of Nursing. I provided her with a letter from my bone marrow transplant doctor, wherein he explained the situation and gave his approval for me to be in nursing school/clinicals.
The Dean said it is out of their hands and they have to contact the various clinical sites to see if anyone will even take me. What does everyone think about this? I understand why the rules are in place, but at the same time, I have wanted to be a nurse practitioner so badly, for such a long time. Thinking toward nursing school was one of the things that got me through all of this. I have already racked up $25K in student loans being wishy washy in the past, so I can't exactly afford a new change of career plans, and I don't want to wait 2 years to start nursing school either because I have little ones to support so I want to get started on my career. Couldn't the hospitals/clinical sites just make accommodations for me since I am considered to be disabled? Couldn't I be put on a floor/department that doesn't have much communicable disease, such as Labor/Delivery, psych, or something similar? Or do you all think I'm pretty much just out of luck?
Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
If you are looking at ADA/504 accommodations. Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy is a good place to start. Mostly related to mandated education (K-12) but also has collegiate information and a lot of resources.
Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
Yes, I have an AA so I'm good there, I have everything my school requires.
Thank you so much for your helpful answer! You've helped me understand the laws a lot better now with your examples in the beginning.
I AM on an antiviral, not sure if that would help at all but it seems like the outcome is pretty much clear anyway.
Antiviral is ineffective against norovirus, enterovirus and many other bad guys. Non polio enterovirus can cause pleurisy, viral pneumonia, aseptic meningitis and requires droplet precautions. The antiviral drugs won't protect you from airborne varicella, measles sometimes not known until days later as most viral cultures aren't rapid tests like strep. It took 3 days for a nasal swab screen to reveal rhinovirus/enterovirus (also tested for 7 influenza strains and a host of virulent viral illnesses).
It's tough. You are so close you have your acceptance in your hands. You're now well enough to notice "free time". You kicked cancer's ass and have built a flaming moat around you to protect yourself yet it might not be enough. If the school is on your side (as in not saying "you don't want a post bmt student nurse at clinically do you?") and your physician is on staff risk management may listen to an appeal but it would be a long shot.
It's tough. You are so close you have your acceptance in your hands. You're now well enough to notice "free time". You kicked cancer's ass and have built a flaming moat around you to protect yourself yet it might not be enough. If the school is on your side (as in not saying "you don't want a post bmt student nurse at clinically do you?") and your physician is on staff risk management may listen to an appeal but it would be a long shot.
Yes! My feelings exactly, you summed them up perfectly. They posted the clinical assignments today, and I got my first choice, which is a huge tease. It all is.
The Dean seemed to be optimistic, and she said she worked at the cancer center I went to so it seemed like she was on my side. The pediatrician I worked for as a receptionist said he would write a letter for me, but I don't think it would help. We will see. In the meantime I'm not going to let myself even think about it because worrying about it isn't going to do a thing for me.
You can use the next 2 years to prepare and have a life that nursing school won't allow. Once it starts, you won't have time for family and friends, at least not as much as you would like. And nursing school can be expensive. Use this time to pay off your previous loans and save up for tuition. Get some office job in a medical office, and get exposure to Healthcare. It will help prepare you. Learn and review meds. Bulk up on anatomy and physiology. Pathophysiology would help too. Your young and thankfully on your way to being healthy. Take this time to enjoy that and prepare for nursing
It has nothing to do with the school and EVERYTHING! To do with the required clinical sites.
You see, clinical sites take a big risk and inconvenience, when they accept nursing students. They are somewhat doing the school a big favor by allowing clinicals in the facility. If the students create an infection control issue, by contracting and/or passing a communicable disease, they face liability, in addition to the risks they take allowing students in the facility.
The facilities owe you nothing and you are not an employee there but guest. Thus, they are under no obligation to allow you to do clinicals at all, much less, unvaccinated. If someone raises a stink, they can very easily just stop accepting students at all as they are not obligated to. Many nursing schools are desperate for sites and really can't afford to lose one d/t arguing against safety.
If you go to clinicals and get sick, contract some bug, and pass it along to other vulnerable patients, there will be a problem. The hospital is right in not allowing this and would open up huge liability from the patient's standpoint if they did. Its not just about you its about the patients you contact.
Fellow Lymphoma survivor here - some things you need to take into consideration. Even though you feel great now, you will feel beat up after clinical. Your body is different now, and though you may feel different, a lot of things have changed that you may not realize until you're 2-3 years post treatment. My immune system is crap now, and every time something is going around I get it. Before cancer, I was never sick. After cancer, I've had both Strep (no tonsils!) and the Flu. I also always somehow end up with MRSA in my wounds.
I was 22 when I was diagnosed, and 23 when I was cleared. I didn't return to school until I turned 25. I finished when I was 27, and I'm now 29. I don't feel behind. I worked as an MA during school and that helped me get a job after nursing school. To get your foot in the door, why don't you do something like that? My MA job just made me sign a waiver saying I didn't want titers or vaccines.
However it turns out, just remember that you are a BA that beat cancer. Seriously, you can do anything now.
I was diagnosed with a very aggressive lymphoma 11/18/14, then I received my admission two days later to start nursing school in the Spring. I originally planned to accept and go to school, even through chemotherapy, because I'm an extremely determined person, and my oncologist told me stories of older patients who still go on with their normal lives through chemo treatment. However, I notified my school of these plans, and they called me to offer to postpone my admission to Fall, after treatment would be completed. I ended up getting an autologous (meaning not donor, my own cells) stem cell/bone marrow transplant in March to prevent the cancer from coming back.
Stem cell transplants essentially include wiping out the entire immune system to then rebuild it from the ground up. So I'm essentially like a new baby even now, and I am on a schedule to get all of my childhood vaccinations all over again. I'm not permitted to get the MMR vaccine until 2 years post-transplant since it is a live vaccine. This is where nursing school becomes an issue, since vaccinations and/or titers are required for clinicals. Today I had my nursing school orientation, and I spoke with the Dean of Nursing. I provided her with a letter from my bone marrow transplant doctor, wherein he explained the situation and gave his approval for me to be in nursing school/clinicals.
The Dean said it is out of their hands and they have to contact the various clinical sites to see if anyone will even take me. What does everyone think about this? I understand why the rules are in place, but at the same time, I have wanted to be a nurse practitioner so badly, for such a long time. Thinking toward nursing school was one of the things that got me through all of this. I have already racked up $25K in student loans being wishy washy in the past, so I can't exactly afford a new change of career plans, and I don't want to wait 2 years to start nursing school either because I have little ones to support so I want to get started on my career. Couldn't the hospitals/clinical sites just make accommodations for me since I am considered to be disabled? Couldn't I be put on a floor/department that doesn't have much communicable disease, such as Labor/Delivery, psych, or something similar? Or do you all think I'm pretty much just out of luck?
While you can't just be placed anywhere in the hospital and they don't owe you any accommodations for being "disabled". Your Dean is going to call the clinical sites and (hopefully) find one that will accommodate your situation, insomuch as they may require you to wear a mask or other PPE to prevent liability. They may or may not.
Another thing I thought of and others can correct me if I am wrong, but she would be at risk with people who received the flu vaccine intranasally because it is a live vaccine vs. the injection which is not. I had always had my son get the nasal version because he of course, hates shots like every other kid. They always asked if we were in direct contact with those currently getting treatment for cancer. When he was five, I had a friend who was getting chemo and she was often around us. So he sucked it up and we went with the shot. I thought that was the reasoning given to me at the time. The flu can be deadly to those with compromised immune systems.
Being on disability has nothing to do with the ADA. I had it temporarily for my epilepsy. It covers accommodations in school. Meaning if you needed anything special for testing and in the classroom. This is the clinical sites policies. Probably written by a roomful of lawyers. The lawyers are looking at the hospital's liabilities. I'm sure your doctor's would write you great recommendation letters but that's not their area of expertise. Lawyers who specialize in medical law are experts in this area.
I get your impatience, really I do. Take this time to enjoy your kids and everything life has to offer. Because school will always be there, no matter what, the jobs won't go away. While in some places it is hard to find a job, the nursing role itself is not going to disappear. But your life may not be. And I am sure you already know that anything could happen at any time, and waiting until you are clear is the safest way to ensure that you can be there in two years to go through the program. Those darn, pesky, bacteria are very rampant in LTC facilities and hospitals. Your kids need you to be there for them 5, 10, and 20 years from now. I still need my mom at 39!!!
You have accomplished a great deal in life already. Be proud in that and know that in say 5 years from now, you may very well be an RN!!! Five years is not a long time. The older you get, the faster time flies!!!
"Lets to say that my mom didn't believe in vaccinations (which is not the case) and I wasn't vaccinated as a child. No school anywhere would be able to admit me because of my risk of contracting an illness."
That would be a choice. It's not my choice that I am not up-to-date. I WAS up-to-date until I got my transplant. You can't compare someone choosing not to be vaccinated to my unwanted result of my unwanted disease. What accommodations am I looking for? Simply to be offered the opportunity to complete my clinicals, like everybody else. It IS about my bone marrow transplant because that's the only reason I don't have vaccinations. There's also no vaccination for TB but nurses come into contact with patients with TB just the same, putting themselves at risk. Nurses put themselves at risk everyday.
And thank you for the ADA benefit education. I have no knowledge whatsoever concerning ADA benefits and/or laws, that's why I was asking. Thanks for your help, though some tact would have been appreciated.
Also, FYI, no it's not really a huge risk to me being out in public. My transplant doctor told me it wasn't necessary to limit my activities any longer starting back in May, including being in crowds, doctor's offices, etc. I trust my doctor's advice, who also told me that I was fine to go to nursing school, including clinicals.
Just because you don't like my reply does not mean it was tactless. I could have been a whole lot less tactful in my reply but instead went for respectful. But if tactless is how YOU read it, then I guess thats that. I am a direct person and gave you a direct answer after you didnt like the first few replies you were given. Read my first comment where I attempted to be much "nicer" and you didn't get it. Youre frustrated about your situation and thats ok. But you don't need to take it out on others because the world owes you nothing.
FYI it is a risk to be out in public. Measles spread from going to Disneyland. Nurses contracting TB from patients. Are you going to contract everything and die from walking out your front door? Probably not. Are you physically able to do clinicals. Probably. But that doesnt negate the fact you have almost no immune system. Thats really crappy and I can't imagine that feeling.
Think about when your children were newborns. When you protect your baby from germs while out. When a sneeze and a fever send you to the Ped to make sure they are ok. When the pediatrician advises you to keep them out of the public during flu season and away from sick people. When you are scared about them getting measles because they could go deaf, go blind, or god forbid die. That is you right now. You have the immune system of a newborn. You need to take care of yourself in order to take care of others. Most newborns go by unscathed. And that will probably be the case for you. But you do have to mind your surroundings and protect yourself from sick people. Even just the flu could be much worse for you then the general public.
Last, you completely missed my point in the vaccination example. First, if my mother chose not to vaccinate me, that would not have been MY CHOICE. Just as not having an immune system is not YOUR CHOICE. However that is neither here nor there. The entire point of that was to point out that health requirements are health requirements no matter the situation. If a hospital is willing to bend the rules or accommodate your being unable to get the MMR vaccine, then thats great. I still think its not the smartest idea to go to school with the risks surrounding your health, but that is ultimately your choice to make. I am going into block 4 and have seen the kind of things patients have and what you will be exposed to. I would personally never risk my health like that knowing I have 2 young children to care for and be alive for. But again, that is your choice to make if accommodations can be made. Just don't expect them to be just because you were dealt a crappy hand.
Like I stated before, your situations sucks. You are so close you can taste it, but may be held back because of some vaccines. I get that that is pretty cruddy news. But you are very young, (I am also young at almost 28), those 2 years is not that long in the grand scheme of things. As another poster said, the older you get the faster time flies. This is so true. In a few more years, whether you have completed nursing school or are just starting, you will realize this as well.
Just a thought. When my titers were checked before nursing school, rubella was nonexistent. Three MMR boosters later, and nothing's changed. I'm considered a "nonresponder", but the only precaution that I've ever been made aware of by my employers is to avoid patient assignments with known or suspected rubella.
Your situation is definitely more drastic than mine, and I agree with previous posters that you should take time for you to become well. But there's always hope :) Good luck and get well soon!!!
JustBeachyNurse, LPN
13,957 Posts
If you are looking at ADA/504 accommodations. Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy is a good place to start. Mostly related to mandated education (K-12) but also has collegiate information and a lot of resources.
I know more about the laws relating to K-12