The nurses that staff D.C.’s schools say they’re facing possible layoffs if they do not agree to join the effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic. But some nurses, particularly those who are older and have underlying health conditions, worry whether protective equipment will be available to them.

The union representing more than 100 nurses who work in public and charter schools says it received a request this week from the D.C. Department of Health asking that the nurses “help serve the community’s urgent health needs resulting from the coronavirus pandemic during this period when the schools at which the nurses would typically be working are closed.” D.C. schools are closed through at least April 27.

But the notice also warned that the nurses who opted not to join the fight against the coronavirus pandemic “will be placed on layoff effective April 2, 2020 and subject to recall when D.C. schools reopen. Further, they will need to continue health insurance at their expense through COBRA,” the program that allows workers who lose their jobs to keep receiving health benefits — but those benefits would be for a limited time period and come at a higher cost.

D.C. officials say the nurses — who are contracted through Children’s National Medical Center to work in schools — are needed as the city ramps up its efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, especially in order to test more people.

“We did reach out to the nurses to ask them if they would be available for coronavirus testing being that schools are closed. We’re asking them to re-deploy as part of the response,” said John Falcicchio, D.C.’s Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development on Friday. “The health care system is stressed. That’s not just a D.C. issue, it’s a regional and national issue. And so we’re looking at all the medical professionals that are available and putting the call out for more assistance.”

D.C. also has called for volunteers to join its Medical Reserve Corps, while other jurisdictions have taken similar steps — including graduating medical students early — to beef up their responses to the pandemic.

According to the D.C. Department of Health, the nurses also could be asked to help with other duties, including contact tracing (tracking how certain people became infected and who they may have then infected); performing case management of people under strict quarantine; and working at call centers.

“Never before has the need for a whole community approach been more evident as we all work collectively, across the District, to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Department of Health and Children’s National said in a joint statement.

But Robin Burns, president of school nurses with the D.C. Nurses Association, says many school nurses are older and face more health problems, and would thus be at higher risk from exposure to the coronavirus. Burns says some of the nurses would volunteer to assist in the city’s efforts, but that they want details on what they would be doing — and a commitment that they will have access to personal protective equipment.

“We want safe working conditions for our nurses,” she said. “Nurses in hospitals and nurses in ERs, they have protective personal protective equipment. We’re not guaranteed that. Nurses at Children’s National Medical Center have been presented a waiver that they can sign off if they’re over 60 or they have pre-existing conditions that the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] says that you should not be around a person who has COVID-19. We have none of those options presented to us.”

Laurie Combe, president of the National Association of School Nurses, says the nurses have a valuable role to play in addressing the coronavirus pandemic — but do need to be offered the same protective equipment that anyone else would get. And she says that nurses were already faced a shortage of protective equipment when schools were still open before the coronavirus had become a full-blown pandemic.

“There are school nurses being called to action in other states. I think the involvement in testing and contact tracing is a really good fit for school nurses,” she said. “But I don’t know what precautions they have in D.C., what is the availability of [personal protective equipment]. And if I were older and had a pre-existing condition, I might express the same concern.”

The Department of Health says that not only will it offer protective gear to those nurses working at testing sites, it will also take into consideration pre-existing health conditions the nurses may face.

“We will comply with applicable laws and guidelines and provide accommodations, as appropriate, to ensure the safety of these workers. If an employee believes some of their work would jeopardize their health, there is a process for them to seek an accommodation,” the agency saod.

Burns, who has been a school nurse for 10 years, says the nurses also want the threat of layoffs taken off the table. Despite schools being closed, she says many nurses are still working with parents and students.

“We can check on parents to see how their children are, the children with chronic medical conditions that we see every day in our offices. Nurses are doing that this week. So it seems that that is not a priority anymore,” she said.

D.C. officials have said they plan to open a drive-thru testing site on the campus of the United Medical Center in Southeast next week. It’s expected to be able to test up to 300 people a day.