travel nurses

Hospitals have depended on travel nurses, especially during COVID surges. Now some larger systems, reeling from high contract labor costs, have created staffing units, aiming to lure nurses who want more work flexibility and better pay than staff RNs.

As covid hospitalization rates stabilize, at least for now, and federal and state covid relief funding dries up, travel nurse contracts that were plentiful and lucrative are vanishing.

In areas overwhelmed by COVID cases, hospitals must rely on traveling nurses to operate ICUs. Hospitals pay a premium for that temporary help, while also struggling to keep their staff nurses happy.