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Comment by BeetleB | Hacker News Reader

> Rather than hiring permanent people or upping salary, Hospitals have instead elected to just use travel nurses and an extreme premium so as to avoid any salary increases.

In case people want an idea of what travel nurses made during COVID...

https://khn.org/news/highly-paid-traveling-nurses-fill-staff...

> In April, she packed her bags for a two-month contract in then-COVID hot spot New Jersey, as part of what she called a “mass exodus” of nurses leaving the suburban Denver hospital to become traveling nurses. Her new pay? About $5,200 a week, and with a contract that required adequate protective gear.

> Months later, the offerings — and the stakes — are even higher for nurses willing to move. In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, nurses can make more than $6,200 a week. A recent posting for a job in Fargo, North Dakota, offered more than $8,000 a week. Some can get as much as $10,000.

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Travel nursing is definitely a great way to turn the tables if you can do it. The money you can make is clearly quite high! I fully support those nurses using travel nursing to get greater pay.

But it also isn't an option for everyone. Many don't have the flexibility to switch to travel nursing. For example, you may not be able to get a nearby contract and may not be able to travel (e.g. because you have children). Plus, traveling isn't an option for new nurses without experience, who now have to work in hospitals that are hemorrhaging experienced nurses to traveling AND have worse staffing ratios than ever.

These contracts are likely emergency contracts, which pay outrageously but often require a full week of 12-hour shifts or something similar with the expectation the nurse will only do one week then recover. I've seen this for COVID peaks and when a hospital's entire nursing staff is planning to strike. The $5200/wk rate is more likely 3 or 4 12-hour shifts.

I'm not sure I follow:

> The $5200/wk rate is more likely 3 or 4 12-hour shifts

3 or 4 12 hour shifts a week is normal for salaried nurses. $5200/wk isn't. It's over double.

> which pay outrageously but often require a full week of 12-hour shifts or something similar with the expectation the nurse will only do one week then recover.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Yes, it may be a full week of 12 hour shifts, but it's still a much higher pay. And if you get the next week off, it's a fantastic deal.

For context, pre-pandemic, I knew a nurse who often would do this schedule for her salaried job - she requested it as she liked having a full week off.

What I mentioned elsewhere: Travel nurses have a lot more control over the contracts they take. They can work fewer hours per year and still make significantly more. They may have stretches of long hours in a given contract, but annually they work less.

> 3 or 4 12 hour shifts a week is normal for salaried nurses. $5200/wk isn't. It's over double.

It's a normal shift schedule, and they pay travel nurses much more than staff nurses to work the same shift schedule. These are typically 3 month contracts, but not always.

> I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Yes, it may be a full week of 12 hour shifts, but it's still a much higher pay. And if you get the next week off, it's a fantastic deal.

I don't disagree, but a lot of people do not want to work (or feel like they can't provide good care for) 12 hours every day for a week.

Ah I see - we're in agreement!

How many working hours are in those weeks?

I haven't found concrete figures, but from what I've read, they do often work more hours during the contract. However, travel nurses in general have far more control over their schedule than regular salaried nurses. A salaried nurse cannot refuse to work, but travel nurses routinely say "No" to contracts if they don't like the pay or the hours.

What happens is they'll accept a few weeks (or 2 months) of long hours, and then take a month off and relax. As you can imagine, if they're getting paid $6000/week, they can easily take a lot of time off and still get paid more annually than their salaried counterparts (while overall working fewer hours per year).

I replied to the parent, but the highest quotes are probably emergency contracts for 5 or 7 shifts of 12 hours but only for a week. Longer contracts are often 3 months at 3 or 4 shifts per week.

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