Former nurses nationwide are coming out of retirement to help administer COVID-19 vaccines, reports NBC News.
In efforts to ramp up the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, the HHS revised the rules so any physician or registered nurse can administer the vaccine. That includes healthcare providers whose licenses have expired within the past five years, as long as they were in good standing prior to the expiration.
Salisbury, Md.-based TidalHealth Peninsula Regional hospital asked retired nurses for help, and within days "six nurses who had worked a combined 241 years immediately stepped forward … administering vaccinations in five-hour shifts multiple days a week," according to Maryland Matters.
"We're suddenly doing something we weren't doing previously," Aaron Glatt, MD, chair of medicine and chief of infectious diseases at Oceanside, N.Y.-based Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital, told Newsday. "In this era, it's not like you have a ton of staff available to do all the work that needs to be done. We want to make sure we can do all the vaccinating we have to, and at the same time not take away from patient care."
"It's a historic moment," Judy Schneider, RN, who retired in 2019 after 29 years of working as a nurse at Raleigh, N.C.-based UNC REX Healthcare, told NBC News. "It's public service. It's a skill I can share."