Hospitals are overwhelmed with the increasing number of cases in the country. However, the main concern is different from the problem of space and beds. It is the dearth of the workforce. The hospitals across the country are unable to manage the demand for specialists like respiratory therapists, nurses, and doctors, as the number of cases rises. Either these doctors are becoming sick or infected, or their number is falling short to handle the increasing cases.
For managing the problem of staffing, hospitals are hiring clinicians who are basically from other towns. But this solution isn’t the right way of management. During the early phases of the pandemic, this technique had helped. At that time, the first surge of cases was concentrated in big cities like New Orleans, Detroit, New York, and Seattle.
In the spring, it was easier to recruit such temporary reinforcements. This was because the patients in the towns outside the big cities were laying off their staff. After all, the number of infected people in those places was less than the normal numbers. At that time, the nurses from these cities were having the knowledge required for helping and they were excited to work on the frontline in other cities.
Mostly, many hospitals in the city required such nurses. They competed against each other for attracting the most number of nurses. Due to this, the rates of payment for nurses across the country increased. Places like Vanderbilt University Medical Center had to increase the payment of their in-house staff in April because the nurses for temporary requirements were getting more payment than the others.
