Student Supported: USU Nursing Program Keeps On-Campus COVID Testing Site Running

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it initially created challenges for nursing students looking for clinical experience.

Utah State University's Department of Nursing, however, enlisted its students' aid to create one of the largest, most efficient COVID-19 testing sites in the area.

"We're a very small team in nursing, a very small department," said Clinical & Simulation Coordinator LoraLynn Allen. "And the fact that we're able to pull this off and do it with such success is definitely something we're proud of."

The testing site was a major reason USU was able to resume many in-person classes and activities in the fall of 2020.

Due to a scarcity of testing kits, the free USU testing site is limited to students and employees. Even then, it often processes hundreds of tests a day.

"Last year, we were running 450 tests a day on a lot of days," Allen said, "which was our capacity, which is more than a lot of other local testing sites could do."

Despite that high traffic, Allen said the testing site has been able to maintain its goal of delivering results within 24 hours.

In a typical year, nursing students would shadow nurses in hospitals and other care facilities. After COVID-19 restrictions came to those facilities in 2020, many of those opportunities were off the table, according to USU Nursing Clinical Instructor Chelsie Goble.

"Because of COVID, a lot of the clinical locations we normally send the students to shut down or stopped taking students or only took from select schools," Goble said. "So we started having students be at the COVID site as part of their nursing clinicals so they could have one-on-one with patients."

Through the testing lab, students gain clinical experience that's often more independent. The department emphasizes hands-on education, but because nurses are accountable for all the care provided during clinical experiences, Allen said, some prefer students take more of a back seat.

"Sometimes it's shadowing for an entire shift, and it's up to twelve hours at some times where some of the nurses let them be hands-on, some don't," Allen said.

At USU's testing site, however, students are guaranteed an active role.

"They're guiding the experience," Allen said. "They're guiding that chance to practice patient interaction, patient education, bedside manner, all of those things."

"It's all nursing students doing the sampling, for the most part," Goble added, "and then there's a nurse supervisor that's there on-site, making sure everything runs smooth."

Allen, who also works in a local hospital, has experienced the way pandemic burnout has exacerbated a preexisting shortage of nurses.

"Preparing those students in the way that we have gives me more confidence to have them come and be my coworker rather than just my student," Allen said. "And it makes me really excited when I get to see one of them come and work with me or hear that they've been working with my coworkers and done such an excellent job."

The Department of Nursing is relatively new, but it's quickly building momentum. Formed as Nursing and Health Professions in 2014, the department's Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree started in 2017 and gained accreditation in 2019. In addition to the bachelor's degree, the department offers an associate's degree for registered nurse pre-licensure at USU's Blanding, Moab, Price, Tooele and Uintah Basin campuses. A Practical Nursing Certificate program is also available in Blanding, Moab and Price.

Increasing opportunities for nurses around the nation, in 2020 the department launched an online program in which a licensed RN can build on their associate's degree to earn a bachelor's.

For more information about USU's COVID-19 testing efforts, visit usu.edu/covid-19/testing.