With COVID-19 hospitalizations however exceptionally elevated owing to the unfold of the remarkably contagious omicron variant, the have to have for nurses has in no way been higher.

By now experiencing a significant nursing shortage brought about by superior degrees of pressure and burnout from the pandemic, hospitals have significantly turned to 3rd-party agencies to find touring nurses to fill their staffing requires.

But in accordance to a letter to the White Home COVID-19 response team coordinator, which was signed by dozens of federal lawmakers, those third-celebration businesses are “taking benefit” to financial gain from the pandemic.

Hospitals have turned to staffing companies to agreement traveling nurses for years. But as the workforce thins and desire for health and fitness care staff surges with each and every new wave of COVID-19, networks have grow to be increasingly reliant on touring nurses to team their hospitals.

The vacation product is far more beneficial for well being treatment personnel. The Dallas Morning News reports that traveling nurses in Texas make about $40,000 extra for every yr — not which include additional time — than nurses who operate entire time for a one medical center.

According to The Morning News, staffing organizations are in a position to pay out journey nurses a larger wage since they demand a top quality to hospitals, which have couple choices to fill staff all through shortages amid COVID-19 surges. Just about every time a new wave spreads in a neighborhood, hospitals pay back much more to staffing organizations to employ the service of health and fitness care pros.

That is why Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vermont, and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Virginia, led a bipartisan team of dozens of lawmakers in urging White Household officers to crack down on the use of touring nurses.

“We have acquired reports that the nurse staffing agencies are vastly inflating cost, by two, 3 or much more situations pre-pandemic premiums, and then taking 40% or additional of the quantity remaining charged to the hospitals for them selves in profits,” the letter, dated Jan. 24, reads.

Even so, the letter has prompted criticism from vacation nurses accustomed to increased shell out. They say flying across the region to a new city to function with ill COVID-19 patients justifies extra revenue.

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