Job offers of up to $12,000 a week lure houston nurses to covid-19 hot spots

Two healthcare staffing agencies we spoke with said Texas is a hotspot for travel nurse job openings as hospitals try to fill thousands of open positions statewide.

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  TEXAS, USA — COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are surging in Texas, and hospitals are in need of more nurses. We spoke with the leaders of two different health care staffing companies to get an inside look at what they are seeing right now.

  "Texas is a hotbed. The demand is real,” said John Maaske, the CEO of Triage Staffing. “We've seen more jobs come up in Texas than we have any other state. Texas isn’t necessarily leading the nation as a percentage of increases, but it is in terms of total job volume."

  John Maaske said in the past month, Texas has posted more travel nurse jobs than anywhere else in the country.

  "We saw 3,200 new jobs come up in Texas just related to COVID demand. 3,200 jobs. And that just was last month,” said Maaske. “In August, 1,800 jobs have already come up and we're only six days into the month."

  We also spoke with the CEO of another medical staffing company called BluePipes, who said he has seen the number of job postings for travel nurses in Texas double since January 2021. And Austin has seen an even bigger increase than the statewide average.

  "So we have had about a 150% increase in the number of jobs posted on our platform from January to now in Austin,” shared Kyle Schmidt, the co-founder and CEO of Blue Pipes.

  Other states are also facing nursing shortages, so hospitals are having to pay more to get nurses to work for them. Kyle Schmidt told KVUE that right now in Texas, the highest-paying travel nurse jobs he has seen are around $120 an hour. But he said some places are still just offering the more average pay of $35 to $40 an hour.

  "I would say that a plurality of the jobs are between, say, $55 and $80 per hour, which is quite lucrative for registered nurses,” said Schmidt. “Although, I will say, the job that they're undertaking is quite a difficult task currently."

  "We've seen an increase in pay upwards of 30% to 50% of where it was just three months ago, as COVID demand has increased,” added Maaske.

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  We reached out to Ascension Seton, Baylor Scott & White Health, and St. David's healthcare to see how they are doing with staffing and if they are offering higher pay incentives.

  They sent KVUE the following joint statement:

  "Ascension Seton, Baylor Scott & White Health and St. David’s HealthCare continue to monitor the increase in COVID-19 cases and execute plans to ensure hospitals have the staff and resources they need to care for our community. 

  Given the recent surge in hospitalizations affecting facilities in Central Texas and throughout the state—and the statewide nursing shortage—all three healthcare systems are sourcing staff using multiple resources, increasing shifts, paying critical staffing bonuses and redeploying non-nursing staff to assist with non-clinical tasks. 

  The majority of patients being treated for severe illness from the virus continue to be unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. To take the burden off of our frontline workers, we are encouraging all eligible residents to get vaccinated. Vaccinations help prevent health complications and can reduce hospitalizations."

  John Maaske with Triage Staffing said they're expecting this need for nurses to keep growing nationwide through the end of the year.

  "We just continue to forecast a bigger demand,” he said. “The number of jobs that we have as a company has increased by about 20% just in the last month. And we envision that that could go up another 15% to 20% in the next 30 days.”

  CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A national nursing shortage is causing hospitals to pay more for patient care.

  It's creating a hot market for those willing to travel.

  Healthcare staffing firm Aya says they currently have about 48,000 openings for travel nurses.

  According to the firm, those nurses are making up to $5,000 per week, m5 thousand dollars a week, more than what they made before the pandemic.

  Health leaders say many nurses are either burned out, or opting to travel to make more money.
  

  Copyright 2021 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

  Where are travel nurses needed the most?

  California consistently has the highest demand for travel nurses throughout the year. Due to a powerful statewide union and specific laws regarding safe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, there will always be a large need. The time of year also has an effect on which states need nursing resources.

  Why are nurses quitting?

  Staffing shortages were the top reason nurses cited for planning to leave their jobs, followed by needing better work-life balance, the survey out Tuesday said. Nurses also said they planned to leave their roles because their mental health is at risk and they feel a lack of appreciation.

  How do hospitals afford travel nurses?

  An agency will usually take around 30% of the full bill rate and of that, profits might be around 20-25%. Agencies usually make profits somewhere around the ballpark of $5,000 – $6,000 per 13-week contract depending on the specialty, if we work all our hours, and how big they are.

  Why are travel nurses paid so much?

  So, why do travel nurses get paid more? It's because they fill short-term needs, accept assignments in areas with severe nursing shortages, receive extra compensation for their flexibility and work in hard-to fill specialties.