Yesterday, September 2, SDSU announced that all in-person classes would be suspended for the next four weeks due to an upward spike in COVID-19 cases at the university. The interest of public safety and why this is necessary in an environment full of many individuals is understandable, but the unique nature of the SDSU nursing program leaves it difficult to adapt and shift into online learning. Offsite clinical courses for the SDSU nursing program are still being held in-person as they have been "deemed essential," but sophomore-level labs that are held on-campus have been included in the suspension. 

Although currently, only a 4-week suspension has been announced, we fear that this will be extended into the entirety of the semester due to no major developments for a COVID-19 vaccine. Thus, for the following reasons, we demand that an exception be made for the sophomore-level nursing labs (N202 and N206):

- SDSU's nursing program is one of the most competitive and prestigious in the state due to its direct-entry nature, which guarantees that students can complete their BSN within 4 years, directly after high school. With a lack of clinical hours, this may be delayed. One of the central reasons that many SDSU nursing students have chosen to attend SDSU is at risk of being eliminated.

-Nursing skills that are taught in these fundamental classes- including bedside manner, providing IV medications, assessing and diagnosing patients based on physical examinations, and many more- simply cannot be taught through the confines of a screen. Nursing school is a critical environment in which students are taught to practice techniques that can determine whether a patient lives or dies in the hospital setting, without the risk of lives being lost. Many of the sophomores feel that they will be incompetent once they do enter the offsite clinical setting, due to the lack of preparation that inevitably arises when being taught important skills such as listening to breath sounds via a Zoom call.

-The N202 and N206 courses are low-risk environments for the transmission of COVID-19. Thorough precautions were followed for the few times that labs were held in-person: temperature checks were conducted at the door (and anyone with a temperature above 100° was sent to Student Health Services), hand-washing upon entry and at any point of possible contamination, the changing of surgical masks at the door, disinfecting all areas used by the students at both the beginning and end of lab, students sitting at least six feet apart, etc.

The upward spike of COVID-19 cases at SDSU is not the result of 8 SDSU nursing students at a time, sitting in labs, following multiple levels of precautions. It is the result of the thousands of freshman who were given the option to opt-in and live on-campus, who have been attending many documented parties in large groups, without masks (https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2020-08-27/sdsu-president-students-masks). Nursing students should not receive a jeopardized quality of education as a result.

Many majors are adaptable for online learning, although it may not be ideal. Nursing is not one of them. Within two years, the majority of current sophomore-level nursing students will be in the hospital setting, many with the responsibility of keeping individuals alive. The quality of education in these fundamental courses- N202 and N206- or lack thereof, will be crucial.