TOWSON, Md. — With coronavirus numbers spiking across the DMV, Maryland is taking steps to help prevent overwhelming its healthcare system.
Governor Larry Hogan announced several action steps on Monday which include urging colleges and universities to allow eligible healthcare students to get an “early exit.”
“I’m really ready to join the workforce,” Jahzre Francis said. “So, when I heard about the opportunity – I jumped on it.”
Francis is a nursing student at Towson University who exited school early this week to answer the call to help.
“Definitely providing compassionate care. That’s like my number one big factor,” she said.
Francis and 50 of her fellow classmates at TU chose to leave school early to enter the workforce and help on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan sent letters to medical school deans and nursing programs asking them to allow students who have satisfied graduation requirements to finish early.
Gov. Hogan also requested for those students to quickly get required testing and licensing before hospitals get overwhelmed.
“Nervous,” Francis described how she was feeling jumping from the classroom to the hospital. “I hope that my training over the years – these two years has paid off and I’m ready.”
“I’m incredibly proud of them. Really – they want to help,” Hayley Mark, who is the nursing department chair at TU, said.
Mark told WUSA9 that despite the pandemic the eligible students were still getting hands on training.
“We had students in hospitals with appropriate PPE,” she said. “We also brought students into labs with appropriate PPE and social distancing in order to do skills.”
Towson and several other Maryland universities gave a handful of students early exits in the spring to aid in the COVID-19 crisis.
The University of Maryland is also preparing to release students early this semester on December 17, with more than 180 students who qualify.