Medical Student forced to do training in Covid Outbreak Nursing Home

Q

Question2022

New Member
Jurisdiction
California
Hello,

My daughter 18 is going to college for an lvn nurse medical school. Part of school is going to classroom 3 days a week, and 2 days to a nursing home to train.

A quick background, in California my guess is most people have contracted covid. My Daughter and most of my family has not had covid as we wear masks at all times in public, even in our own home when visitors come. My daughter and son have also been only students in past 2 months wearing a mask at school as its not required. But one of our sons has underlying health issues so thats why were very cautious.

Last week there was a covid outbreak at nursing home where she trains. She asked the instructor if she can go to classroom to do classwork or even go home that day because of covid outbreak and redo her nursing home classes after covid outbreak or do Saturday make-up classes. Instructor told them no. I called the director of school and told them same thing if she can make up those days in future in class or on Saturdays, as the program offers Saturday school for missed days. But they said she could not miss, it is mandatory to go in to clinical school at a nursing home even though there is a covid outbreak, and there was no other alternative.

3 days later, today she has a fever, sore throat really bad headache and just tested positive for covid. Since she was exposed at nursing home shes mainly only been at school and drove through a few drive through's, past few days to get food while she had her mask on. So, its very likely she got covid at the nursing home where she was not excused from school even though there is a covid outbreak.

Is this ok to do by school? I am very dissappointed because my daughter and our family have been very cautious and just dissappointed that school threw her in an enviroment where she was highly exposed. The school has other nursing homes in the area that students can go to, or school classrooms are also open with available instructors. Shes not a nurse yet, only two months in college, so basically shes just an assistant or many times just observing cna's take care of patients, but cna's are also not nurses.

Another one of her classes had a covid outbreak a few weeks ago and they did send those students to in person class instead during the outbreak. But when I called they told me that was not an option. Any advice as my son 20 year old son is also in same class and now hes being told he has to go in same covid outbreak enviroment and there are no other options. Just seems like its too risky to throw students in an enviroment where they really aren't needed, their there mostly to observe and train but doesn't seem right that they put them to train in an outbreak enviroment. Thank you for any advice.

Thank you
 
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Question2022 said:
Thank you for any advice.
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Your adult son and daughter should be able to address any issues, irregularities, or concerns attendant to their schooling.

As adult citizens in our society, you no longer have any legal standing as you once did during their public school days.

The school has no legal duty to discuss any aspect of your adult son and daughter as they matriculate through their community college education.

I see nothing abnormal in what the school requires relative to their LVN/LPN program.

Your adult offspring are free to wear the necessary protective gear and take the necessary hygiene precautions to reduce the likelihood of a Covid infection.

I'm both an attorney and an osteopathic physician, so I'm fully up to speed regarding the legalities and the medical side of this issue.

Bear in mind, unless a medical laboratory Covid test is conducted, a simple at home or outpatient nasal swab isn't conclusive of anything other than a person being exposed to the virus, which doesn't mean the person has contracted the virus.

If you wish to better understand the issues at play here, you remain free to schedule an appointment with your primary care physician. The best Covid advice anyone can receive is from his or her attending physician.
 
PayrollHRGuy said:
Well, let's stop you right there.
California population: 39,185,605. dof.ca.gov
California total cases COVID-19: 10,211,889 covid19.ca.gov
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The problem is that those statistics do not include (1) the people who have contracted covid but had no symptoms or had mild symptoms and never tested or (2) those who used a test the results of which are not reported to the government, e.g. home covid tests, etc. As a result, there are a lot of people out there who have had covid at least once but are not included in government statistics. That's not to stay the statistics aren't valuable, but they should be used taking into account that the data used is incomplete.
 
Tax Counsel said:
The problem is that those statistics do not include (1) the people who have contracted covid but had no symptoms or had mild symptoms and never tested or (2) those who used a test the results of which are not reported to the government, e.g. home covid tests, etc. As a result, there are a lot of people out there who have had covid at least once but are not included in government statistics. That's not to stay the statistics aren't valuable, but they should be used taking into account that the data used is incomplete.
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They are useful in countering a statement like, "..., in California my guess is most people have contracted covid."
 
PayrollHRGuy said:
They are useful in countering a statement like, "..., in California my guess is most people have contracted covid."
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They are useful, sure, but not conclusive by itself for the reasons I already mentioned. You'd need information on statistics estimating those who had covid but were not reported to the state to nail down a good estimate on that.
 
Thank you for your responses. Some additional information, my wife is already a certified nurse and she is not exposed to covid as she works at a surgery center. They actually only allow patients who have to get tested for covid and who test negative, as they will not do surgery on patients with covid. There are also many other jobs where nurses are not exposed to covid, like back office, paper work and several other types of medical fields. But I realize most people assume nurses are automatically exposed to covid. That is not the case, usually its only at hospitals and for clinics. But I would say there are dozens of other medical fields where nurses do not need to get exposed to covid, even in hospitals, or clinics, they have admin work or back end office work, etc. where they'll never be exposed.

So just wanted to clarify on those who mentioned that is part of the job, to get exposed. Not necessarily, as it depends where they decide to work.

But for now, my concern was if they're only observing or shadowing some nursing home staff. Why not do it a week or two later when there isn't a covid outbreak. Anyways, I managed to speak to the school this morning and they assured me there is no way around it. In order to pass the class they are required to attend the clinicals at a nursing home and currently this is the only option. So now my son is scheduled to go this week to same nursing home where the outbreak is. Nothing we can do from my conversation with school this morning.

For now, my biggest concern is my daughter is fighting covid, has had a fever for two days, a horrible headache and a very soar throat. So, I'll just keep taking care of her and hope she doesn't get worse or my son doesn't get it this week when he goes to same nursing home. Or hopefully no one else in our family gets it. But I did try to prevent her and my son from being exposed and thats why I posted here also, incase there was something else I can do. But it seems there isn't anything more I can really do.

But thank you for your responses.
 
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Just for discussion sakes, and not that it matters, payrollhrguy, the stats for covid cases in California. I agree with taxcounsel, my daughter has most of the main covid symptoms fever, headache, soar throat, tuiredness, loss of appetite, etc.

She tested positive with a home test. Do she will not be included in the California covid figures, as those are not reported. She might not even go and get the official test done, as why wait in line and expose others. We know she has covid already, so we don't see a need to go get her tested, expose ourselves, staff and the public. A lot of people do not do the official tests that get reported. And many others are assymptomatic, who get it and never know they have it. While others have symptoms but just dont bother to get tested. So, a different subject but just responding payrollhrguy on you disagreeing with my statement. But technically maybe you are right, maybe Im right, we'll never know the correct actual California covid figures. So I agree to just let this one go, since this is a different subject and not what I was asking opinions on. But thank you for responding anyways.
 
Question2022 said:
Thank you for your responses. Some additional information, my wife is already a certified nurse and she is not exposed to covid as she works at a surgery center. They actually only allow patients who have to get tested for covid and who test negative, as they will not do surgery on patients with covid. There are also many other jobs where nurses are not exposed to covid, like back office, paper work and several other types of medical fields. But I realize most people assume nurses are automatically exposed to covid. That is not the case, usually its only at hospitals and for clinics. But I would say there are dozens of other medical fields where nurses do not need to get exposed to covid, even in hospitals, or clinics, they have admin work or back end office work, etc. where they'll never be exposed.

So just wanted to clarify on those who mentioned that is part of the job, to get exposed. Not necessarily, as it depends where they decide to work.

But for now, my concern was if they're only observing or shadowing some nursing home staff. Why not do it a week or two later when there isn't a covid outbreak. Anyways, I managed to speak to the school this morning and they assured me there is no way around it. In order to pass the class they are required to attend the clinicals at a nursing home and currently this is the only option. So now my son is scheduled to go this week to same nursing home where the outbreak is. Nothing we can do from my conversation with school this morning.

For now, my biggest concern is my daughter is fighting covid, has had a fever for two days, a horrible headache and a very soar throat. So, I'll just keep taking care of her and hope she doesn't get worse or my son doesn't get it this week when he goes to same nursing home. Or hopefully no one else in our family gets it. But I did try to prevent her and my son from being exposed and thats why I posted here also, incase there was something else I can do. But it seems there isn't anything more I can really do.

But thank you for your responses.
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When you are in general training, all areas have to be covered, so that there is a core foundation of knowledge and experience, regardless of one's ultimate specialization.

Stop being a helicopter parent.
 

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