Leadership | 09.10.21
High Pay for Covid-19 Nurses Leads to Shortages at Some Hospitals
by Wall Street Journal
Travel-nurse pay has soared due to intense demand amid the pandemic, paid for by federal emergency funding to hospitals. Average gross weekly wages for travel nurses were $1,600 in December 2019, soared to more than $3,500 a year later, then dipped after a winter peak before rising to $2,597 in early August due to the delta variant’s spread, reports Vivian Health. Some hospitals are now offering substantial signing bonuses for nurses who accept longer assignments, as high as $40,000 at Monument Health's hospital in Rapid City, S.D. The high crisis pay is worsening a nationwide chronic shortage of permanent medical staff, which could result in a permanent reset of wages for all nurses, warned American Association of Nurse Practitioners President April Kapu.
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