The Challenge With Obtaining Immunization Exemptions for Healthcare Degrees
Disclaimer
The author of this article is not an attorney and not authorized to practice law in any state. Nothing presented in this document is to be taken as legal advice. Everything presented here is personal opinion derived from research and is for informational purposes only. Please reach out centerforpublictransparency@gmail.com for clarification or recommended revisions or additions. Please consider donating if you found this information useful and want to further the mission.
Introduction
The status of immunization exemptions displayed on the Immunization Exemptions for College (yet to be published) map do not include healthcare majors.
In most cases, those exemptions do apply to healthcare majors for the purpose of attending classes on campus. The challenge that healthcare majors face, if they want to obtain their degrees without being immunized, is that often there are clinical experience requirements that take place at 3rd party facilities. Even if there is a state law that requires universities to provide guaranteed or even scrutinized non medical exemptions, those laws do not compel any 3rd party sites, which are usually local hospitals, often private, to accept the exemptions issued by universities. Each site has its own policy regarding exemptions and may refuse to grant them. In most places checked, 3rd party sites generally will approve requests for the flu and covid vaccinations, but they are much more strict regarding others.
Because 3rd party clinical sites do not honor university issued exemptions, many universities require healthcare students to adhere to stricter exemption requirements or simply just do not permit healthcare majors to apply for the general university exemptions. If that is the case, the situation seems hopeless for any student wishing to obtain a degree from that program without being immunized.
Steps to Follow When Checking with a University
The following steps are suggested in order to determine the likelihood of obtaining immunization exemptions for health care degrees:
Determine the degree of certainty for obtaining a general exemption. Even when the school presents the exemption as highly scrutinized, that is not always the case. If the university is not listed on the Immunization Exemptions for College (yet to be published) map, feel free to place a request for The Center to investigate. Even if the university has a scrutinized exemption, see the discussion about writing statements for scrutinized exemptions at Immunization Exemption Degrees of Certainty (yet to be published).
Determine whether or not the exemption offered for non healthcare degrees will apply to any healthcare students for on campus classes. If they don’t, it may not be worth going any further with this program.
Seek out the clinical coordinator. If there have been other students in the past who have exercised exemptions for immunizations, the clinical coordinator will be the one who had to place them at 3rd party clinical sites and will be the most knowledgeable about the policies at the 3rd party sites and will be able to articulate a level of confidence for getting you enough clinical experience to complete your graduation requirements.
More Work to be Done
The Center already has some idea of some locations where 3rd party sites appear to be open to working with unimmunized students. But as you can tell from the list above, the amount of time and effort involved in confirming this information is extremely time consuming. Resources are needed in order to continue with this effort and get the results posted. It is the hope of The Center that in the future a more definitive guide can be provided specific to students seeking healthcare related degrees.