UMSON has to honor the requirements of our clinical sites which, first and foremost, reflect the clinical sites' responsibility to protect vulnerable patient populations. Clinical site COVID-19 vaccination requirements fall into three categories:
- The clinical site accepts the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB)-granted COVID-19 vaccine exemption and may or may not have requirements for regular COVID-19 testing throughout the clinical rotation.
- The clinical site requires that the student go through their exemption process and if an exemption is granted, the student may be required to undergo regular COVID-19 testing throughout the clinical rotation. Vaccine exemption criteria at clinical sites can be different from and more stringent than the criteria used by UMB to grant exemptions.
- The clinical site is not allowing any unvaccinated students, regardless of UMB exemption status, to engage in clinical learning.
UMSON makes every effort to place a student with an approved UMB exemption, but we cannot guarantee it in all cases. To meet the Maryland Board of Nursing's requirement to educate nursing students in a variety of care settings, the School places students in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and health departments. You may be able to be placed in one setting one semester with a UMB exemption but unable to be placed in other settings in subsequent semesters and, therefore, unable to complete the program.
There are other immunizations required by clinical sites, with very narrow medical exemptions. The other required immunizations include MMR, Varicella, DPT, Hepatitis B and annual immunization for flu. Again, clinical sites take science-based measures to protect vulnerable patient populations.
Given the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, UMB, UMSON, and our clinical sites reserve the right to change policies and procedures to reduce the risks associated with COVID-19 transmission.