MSU medical and nursing students can obtain licenses early to fight coronavirus
EAST LANSING — A new directive clears the way for some Michigan State University medical students to serve as doctors and nurses in Michigan's COVID-19 fight.
The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs issued a directive Friday allowing medical students who complete their academic programs early to secure an educational license, which will allow them to work in Michigan healthcare facilities seeing an influx of coronavirus patients.
Most medical students finish their final year between March and April. More than 300 students between MSU’s College of Human Medicine, College of Osteopathic Medicine and College of Nursing can finish and obtain their educational licenses early to get to work helping the growing number of sick patients, said Norman Beauchamp Jr., MSU executive vice president for health sciences.
“I’m very proud of MSU,” he said. “I have to give credit to the governor’s office and the leadership at MSU as really identifying this opportunity early and to have this directive established. I think it’s another example of MSU really taking a leadership role in helping the state respond to this impending and growing need.”
The numbers include 87 trained nurses, 61 medical doctors and 213 osteopathic physicians, according to MSU.
Students in the colleges of Human Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine usually don’t start their residencies until July 1. The new licensing option lets those students who have finished their requirements start before the end of April.
An executive order additionally allows for nursing students at MSU to begin practicing as registered nurses before receiving their licenses but under appropriate supervision. Nursing students normally must first take and pass the National Council Licensure Examination, but the order allows them to work while awaiting the results with a temporary license through LARA, said Kristofer Karol, director of marketing and communications for the College of Nursing.
Elizabeth Luea, an MSU nursing student from Dimondale who graduates in May, learned about the chance to help patients early during class Tuesday morning. She has a job lined up at Sparrow Hospital but said she welcomes the opportunity to get to work helping patients earlier.
She wishes she could be on the front lines to help patients suffering from COVID-19, but an asthma diagnosis likely will prevent that. Luea still wants to be on the floor supporting the nurses helping those patients, while helping others coming in with different medical issues.
"Everything in me is going 'I want to do this. I want to help,'" she said. "This is part of why I chose nursing, to help people when they can’t help themselves."
MSU started looking into early licensing possibilities after students approached them to see if they could start working soon, rather than waiting until graduation. With the chance to get those licenses ahead of time, College of Medicine Interim Dean Aron Sousa said, they can play an important role in fighting the coronavirus.
“They’re a key part of the workforce,” he said. “They’re really important to how hospitals handle patients every day and they’re even more important when you think about a surge that is taking up beds, ventilators and (Intensive Care Units).”
There were 6,498 coronavirus cases in Michigan and 184 deaths as of Tuesday morning, according to state data. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 140,904 cases and 2,405 deaths nationwide.
And while the numbers rise and work to find vaccines and treatments continues, supplies are dwindling and the need for nurses and doctors has become more acute, which makes getting students to work quickly more important.
“It’s what we do. This is what they’re trained to do,” said Andrea Amalfitano, dean of the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine. “Many times we’re faced with situations, unfortunately, that science hasn’t addressed yet, but, for physicians, that’s part of practicing medicine.”
Michigan is one of four states with more than 5,000 cases, with New York tallying the most at nearly 60,000, according to CDC data. Sousa expects medical students to play a key role as hospitals fill up.
More doctors and nurses "will make a difference in some hospitals, in particular, those that are over their bed capacity,” he said. “But that doesn’t diminish the fact that our doctors, our nurses and caregivers are in hospitals helping patients with COVID-19 and those without COVID-19.”
He used the outbreak in Italy as an example. Sousa said hospitals there struggled to help people with COVID-19 while also treating people who suffered illnesses such as heart attacks or injuries from car crashes.
“This is about increasing the capacity of health systems and taking care of all of the patients that come to them,” he said.
Contact Mark Johnson at 517-377-1026 or at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.