House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco on Monday said the move to allow medical and nursing students to volunteer as vaccinators under the government’s National Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment and Vaccination Program provides a major boost to the government’s critical public health mission of inoculating 90 percent of the population.

Velasco said Covid-19 vaccination is one of the most important tools to beat the virus and move forward to a normal life.

“By tapping medical and nursing students in the vaccination program, the government will rapidly expand access to Covid-19 vaccines, which is crucial to reaching the herd immunity threshold we need to return to normal life,” Velasco said in a statement.

Velasco has been urging the government to tap nursing graduates who have yet to take the board examinations as complementary manpower amid the shortage of health workers in the country.

He said these “underboard” nurses can work under the supervision of a registered nurse or physician through a special arrangement with the Professional Regulation Commission.

Last Saturday, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) announced that post-graduate/undergraduate interns, clinical clerks, and fourth-year medicine and nursing students can now become vaccinators and participate in the government’s Covid-19 vaccination program.

This is after the CHED and the Department of Health (DOH) released Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2021-003 entitled, “Interim Guidelines on the Voluntary Participation of Postgraduate/Undergraduate Interns, Clinical Clerks, and Fourth Year Nursing Students in the Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment and Vaccination Program.”

These students can volunteer as health screeners, vaccinators, and pre/post-vaccination monitors under the supervision of licensed physicians and nurses. (PNA)