Coronavirus: Texas Waives Nursing Rules To Bolster Workforce

AUSTIN, TX — Gov. Greg Abbott this weekend waived several regulations to help meet the state's growing demand for nurses as the state copes with the growing new coronavirus threat.

The governor said the actions taken on Saturday will expand the nursing workforce acrosss Texas by doing the following:

• Allowing temporary permit extensions to practice for graduate nurses and graduate vocational nurses who have yet to take the licensing exam.
• Enabling students in their final year of nursing school to meet their clinical objectives by exceeding the 50% limit on simulated experiences.
• Allowing nurses with inactive licenses or retired nurses to reactivate their licenses.

"In the coming weeks and months, Texas will continue to see a growing need for medical professionals to help us respond to these unique and challenging times,"Abbott said in a prepared statment. "With these actions, Texas is taking an important step to meet that need. Nurses are essential to our ability to test for this virus, provide care for COVID-19 patients, and to continue providing other essential health care services."

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It's hoped the regulation waivers will yield a more robust nursing workforce, the governor said: "Suspending these regulations will allow us to bring additional skilled nurses into the workforce to assist with our efforts and enhance our COVID-19 response."

The nursing waiver follows a similar, earlier move by Abbott that suspends rules related to pharmacists as the state copes with the spread of respiratory ailment. On Friday, Abbott temporarily waived regulations to allow pharmacists to provide telephone consultations and remove reguatory barriers enabling pharmacists to operate at full strength.

Once known simply as new coronavirus, COVID-19 is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that’s a close cousin to the SARS and MERS viruses that have triggered outbreaks in the past. To date, there have been 304 positive cases of the respiratory ailment detected across the state, including 5 fatalities, according to continually updated figures from the Texas Department of State Health Services.