Houston hospitals under strain amid a COVID-19 surge are getting some help from nursing students, according to CBS-affiliated TV station KHOU.
The Woodlands, Texas-based Lone Star College said its first- and second-year nursing students are being recruited to assist Harris Health System's Ben Taub and Lyndon B. Johnson hospitals, as well as United Memorial Medical Center.
"Since the beginning of the pandemic, Lone Star College has been actively involved in helping our community," LSC Chancellor Stephen Head, PhD, said in an Aug. 18 news release. "From loaning ventilators, providing COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites, and conducting face mask and food drives, we will do whatever we can to help those in need."
Lone Star College said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, organized a partnership program to have the student nurses help hospital staff. The students will not work in COVID-19 areas.
As of Aug. 18, about 40 nursing students from the college were undergoing their application process at United Memorial Medical Center to possibly become permanent nurses there, according to KHOU.
"We are all struggling, because we have a lot of patients, and unfortunately, no hospital has enough personnel," Joseph Varon, MD, chief of critical care at United Memorial told the TV station.
At Harris Health, there have long been nurse tech positions available for nursing students while they are in school, but students are pursuing the opportunity more than before, said system spokesperson Bryan McLeod.
"They function much like a patient care assistant and come through our registry office and pick up shifts as they are able. Really helps students acclimate to the hospital setting and certainly helps us with unlicensed support," he told Becker's.
Huntsville, Texas-based Sam Houston State University is also considering similar partnerships with hospitals in the area, according to KHOU.
Read the full KHOU report here.