In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, UMSON has approved an early-exit option for students who want to begin working as nursing graduates in an effort to bolster the nursing workforce.
The early-exit option is available to select students in the entry-into-practice Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program and Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) master’s option who are scheduled to graduate on May 14, 2020, from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Gov. Larry Hogan’s public health surge plan has called for the addition of up to 6,000 hospital beds across the state, including the reopening of Laurel Hospital as well as a field hospital and alternate care site at the Baltimore Convention Center. The School of Nursing has collaborated with the chief nursing officers of major hospital systems and ascertained their need for and interest in hiring nursing graduates and designed a protocol for linking UMSON’s early-exit students to these institutions, which in addition to the University of Maryland Medical System and Johns Hopkins Medicine includes MedStar Health, Holy Cross Health, and Shady Grove Adventist. UMSON has 98 BSN and 53 CNL students who are qualified to request an early exit.