What is the effect of travel nursing on permanent nurses’ positions during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The pandemic flipped the world of nursing upside down. Hospitals around the country were becoming short staffed and overworked. This left hospitals scrambling to find help, found in travel nurses.
A travel nurse is a Registered Nurse or Licensed Practical Nurse who takes on short-term contracts to hospitals who are short staffed. These contracts could range from 8-13 weeks. Once your contract is up, the hospital may extend your contract or you move on to another facility. The travel nurse is employed by an agency and not one specific hospital or healthcare facility.
Travel nursing may be appealing for the money and flexibility. Nurses can see the world while working and earning more than a regular staff nurse. Specialized nurses make even more. Nurses who work in the operating room, emergency department, and critical care could make more money due to their specific area.
The door for travel nursing flung wide open with huge payouts during the pandemic. According to the Washington Post, there was a 40% growth of travel nurses and could continue to rise. But why? Why did the pandemic cause travel nursing to skyrocket?
The answer may be as simple as the amount of money one nurse could make. Some nurses were tripling their salaries during a 13 week assignment. Travel nursing was popular before the pandemic, but the amount of money that can be made has changed the game!
The Covid-19 pandemic left a lot of hospitals short staffed and in desperate need of nurses. A lot of these desperate areas were in the ED, critical areas, and other specialized units that were directly impacted during the pandemic.
The desperate need for nurses allowed for travel agencies to offer high paying contracts. The travel nurses earning the most money were working in areas that were extremely short staffed and suffering.
Many permanent staff nurses saw this as a great opportunity to make a lot of money. They had the option to stay at their current job where they may have been working short staffed and make the same amount of money or travel and possibly triple their salary. A hospital in Houston was offering up to $12,000 per week for nurses to work the covid floors. Many nurses probably never considered traveling until these types of numbers got thrown into the ring!
A recent article by Health Affairs stated that 66% of nurses considered leaving their permanent position to travel. Hospitals were short staffed prior to the pandemic, but now hospitals have lost a lot of their permanent staff nurses. It is becoming harder and harder for hospitals to retain staff. The working conditions and staffing shortages have some nurses considering leaving the professional all together.
It is a vicious cycle. Hospitals are short staffed so they need travel nurses. The cost and payouts for travel nurses skyrockets. This causes permanent staff to leave and therefore more of a nursing shortage.
Will this spike last? The amount of money travel nurses are making may fizzle out. If the significant amount of money isn’t there, the nurses may not be either. The lust for travel nursing may fade and nurses will be looking for their permanent spots back.
Travel nursing isn’t for everyone. Some staff may leave to travel and hate it. Some travel nurses may be ready to settle down and find a permanent spot. This may be the time for nurses to find their perfect permanent position. Permanent staff nurses who have been looking to specialize or switch shifts may have a better opportunity to do so. With so many staff leaving to travel, permanent positions have opened up.