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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – US hospitals criticized by COVID-19 patients try to lure retired nurses and doctors, recruiting students and new graduates who have not yet graduated and offering staggering salaries in a desperate attempt to alleviate staff shortages.
With the virus surging from coast to coast, the number of hospital patients with the virus more than doubled over the past month to a record high of nearly 100,000, pushing medical centers and workers across the health at breaking point.
“Nurses are under tremendous pressure right now,” said Kendra McMillan, senior policy advisor for the American Nurses Association. “We have heard nurses on the front line say they have never experienced the level of burnout that we are seeing today.”
Governors in hard-hit states like Wisconsin and Nebraska are making it easier for nurses to retire, including removing licensing requirements and fees, though this can be a tough sell for older nurses, who are said to be in higher demand. danger that many of their colleagues if they have contracted the virus.
Some take jobs that don’t involve working directly with patients to free up frontline nurses, McMillan said.
Iowa allows temporary and emergency licenses for new nurses who have met state education requirements but have not yet passed the state licensing exam. Some Minnesota hospitals are offering winter internships for nursing students to strengthen their staff. Internships are generally offered in the summer but have been canceled this year due to COVID-19.
The Methodist Hospital in Minneapolis will place 25 interns for one to two months to work with COVID-19 patients, although some tasks will remain prohibited, such as inserting IVs or urinary catheters, said Tina Kvalheim, a nurse who runs the internship program.
“They will be fully supported in their roles so that our patients receive the best possible care and safely,” said Kvalheim.
Landon Brown, 21, of Des Moines, Iowa, a nursing student at Minnesota State University, Mankato, recently accepted an internship at the Mayo Clinic in Mankato. He was assigned to the medico-surgical area of the pediatric unit, but said he may encounter patients with the coronavirus.
Brown’s willingness to help patients as a nurse was reaffirmed after his 90-year-old grandfather contracted the virus and died over the weekend.
“The staff that he had were wonderful, and they really took my parents and family away,” he said. “I think if I can be that for another family that would be great.
The College of Nursing at the University of Iowa is also trying to get graduates into the workforce quickly. It helped speed up transcripts for students at the Iowa Nursing Council so they could get a license sooner after graduation, said Anita Nicholson, associate dean for undergraduate programs.
Nicholson said the college has also scheduled internships for seniors earlier than normal and created a program for students to gain experience working in University of Iowa hospitals and clinics in Iowa City under the supervision of a nurse. These students aren’t caring for coronavirus patients, but their work frees up other nurses to treat those who are infected, Nicholson said.
“The sooner we can get our graduates out and into the workforce, the better,” she said.
Aspirus Health Care, based in Wausau, Wisconsin, offers signing bonuses of up to $ 15,000 for nurses with one year of experience.
Hospitals are also turning to contract nurses who often travel from other states. But it’s expensive, as hospitals across the country compete for the same pool of nurses, resulting in salaries of up to $ 6,200 a week, depending on the posts for travel nurses jobs.
April Hansen, executive vice president of San Diego-based Aya Healthcare, said there were now 31,000 openings for traveling nurses, more than double the number wanted when the pandemic exploded in the spring.
“It’s crazy,” Hansen said. “It doesn’t matter if you are in a rural or an urban setting, if you are an Indian health facility or an academic medical center or anything in between. … All facilities are currently experiencing increased demand.
Nurses who work in intensive care and in the medical-surgical floors are the most in demand. Employers are also willing to pay extra for nurses who can show up on short notice and work 48 or 60 hours per week, instead of the standard 36.
Doctors are also in demand.
“I don’t even practice anymore and have received numerous emails asking me to travel across the country to work in emergencies,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, CEO of the American Public Health Association. “I know this happens to a lot of nurses too.
The epidemic in the United States is responsible for more than 270,000 deaths and 13.8 million confirmed infections. New cases average more than 160,000 a day, and deaths reach more than 1,500 a day, a level seen in May during the crisis in the New York area.
States are seeing a record increase in the number of deaths, including Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky in the middle of the country. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the virus “is spreading like wildfire.”
A COVID-19 vaccine should be available in a few weeks, and health workers will likely have priority for the first vaccines. It could help hospitals recruit help.
To make room for the sickest and most affected facilities, they are sending home patients with COVID-19 who would otherwise have been kept in hospital. They are also canceling elective surgeries or sending non-COVID-19 adult patients to pediatric hospitals.
Idaho hospital system sends COVID-19 patients home with iPads, supplemental oxygen, blood pressure cuffs, and oxygen monitors so they can finish recovering on their own bed.
Tablet computers allow nurses to check in with them, and oxygen monitors automatically return information for staff members to monitor to make sure patients are doing well. A hospital system in St. Louis is doing something similar.
Hospitals across the United States are converting cafeterias, waiting rooms, and even a parking garage into patient treatment areas. Some states are opening field hospitals.
But that does nothing to alleviate the staff shortage, especially in rural areas where officials say many people are not taking basic precautions against the virus.
Dr Eli Perencevich, professor of epidemiology and internal medicine at the University of Iowa, said healthcare workers are paying the price for others’ refusal to wear masks.
“It sends everyone to war, really,” he says. “We decided as a society that we were going to take every member of our healthcare system and crush them because we have such a crazy idea of what freedom really is.
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Forliti reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press editors Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland; John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois; and Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis contributed to this story.
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Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte
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