How Travel Nursing has changed Healthcare
Travel nursing has changed the nursing world of hospital and facilities over the last two years. Healthcare facilities now suffer to staff appropriately due to the increasing number of nurses choosing to leave fulltime positions to travel. This has caused an effect to care provided to patients as well as the effect on staff that are fulltime. A travel nurse is hired to assist with a void in a healthcare establishment such as hospitals, skilled facilities, clinics just about anywhere nurses are needed. Some may call it an agency or contract work as well but typically "travelers" are the nurses that may migrate more than fifty miles from their residence It was originally created to help with the influx of care needed in the 1970's during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Around that time, it was said that there would be an increased numbers of medical accidents to occur, so to prepare healthcare administrators would hire nurses to come and fill the void at that time of the year.
The recent decline of staff nursing in facilities and other healthcare environments has cause travel nursing to become more convenient for those who have become unhappy with their pay and workload while working as staff nurses. This research paper aims to show how travel/ Contract nursing has changed healthcare. Although healthcare establishments may suffer from not having full time staff to ensure continuity of care, the travelers assist to fulfill the needs of their establishments, we may not see facilities having stable staff anytime soon due to demand for pay has increased (Advisory).
In 2019 the world suffered from what some say was the worst pandemic since the early 1900's. Covid 19 effected millions of people. Not only did this pandemic kill off millions but this was the time that Nursing professional gain the title Hero for their service. Not knowing what they were facing with this virus spreading rapidly, Nurses began to grow tired and overworked. Nurses witnessed the unthinkable with death and working longer than usual hours it seem to take a toll on most. Resulting with some quitting and those who chose to stay in the profession wanting to help being over worked. I searched nursing after the pandemic an found this article "Does the COVID- 19 Pandemic Further Impact Nursing Shortages?" gave details of why the shortages are prominent. This article goes on to say that the impact of Covid- 19 nursing staff was forced to work in stressful environments. Which made them work longer hours, take on heavier workloads ultimately leading them to become more stressed. Not to mention the anti-vaccinators they may encounter along with the other care professionals. The nursing profession seemed to become emotional exhausted leading some to anxiety and depression. This environment seemed to lead nurses to stray away from the profession (Violeta Lopez).
The increasing numbers of nursing shortages has caused health administrators to call for help. Not only was the nursing suffering the patients were suffering as well. So, to fix what was thought to be a temporary staffing crisis administrators began to bring in travel /contract nursing staff (Advisory). In an online article called "Advisory Board", interviewed nurses wanting to increase their pay and form a flexible schedule spoke about having more control over their life by resulting to travel nurses. The author wrote about hospitals having a decline of 3.2% with hiring staff nurses (Board). Nurses was quoted saying, "If I'm going to do all this work, I might as well go become a traveler and get paid a heck of a lot more" (Board). The University of New Mexico Sandoval Regional Medical Center reportedly lost a third of their 200 nurses due to travel positions. Forcing them to increase staffing levels. The hospital's payout to staff is costing them about 1.5 million to pay the travelers currently (Board)
All the article I researched most of the interviews from these travel/ contract nurses all mentioned the amount of money they were being in. In the article written by Abby Vesoulis and Abigail Abrams they talk about how the nursing agencies have pretty much exploited covid 19 for gain in their company. Hospital administrators, (Abrams) continues to face shortages in staff nurses, In the result with no choice but to hire Travel nurses. This all becomes a cycle that hurts the hospital staff because it effects the ability to increase their staff pay so that's why so many nurses have quit to take contract or travel positions (Abrams).
The money they take home has double or even tripled since leaving the role as staff nurse. The typical salary for a Registered Nurses ranges from $77,000 to 90,000 (U.S. News and World Report ). Those who have chosen to travel are now making six figures. In article written by Sydney Lake the average for travel nurse pay in August 2022 was $3,045 per week this amount placed Registered nurses made make 30% more than nurse practitioners. Below is data from Fortune Education (Lake)
on taken from Vivian Health
Further researching I conducted I found out that a particular hospital created a way to cut out the middleman meaning the agency they used to bring in staff. In the article written by (Kullmann), she interviewed nurses at Mercy Hospital in Springfield Missouri, the nurses spoke about having the same freedom for scheduling and covid- 19 pay forming an influence on travel. The hospital launched a program to allow nurses to schedule themselves for shifts as a gig worker. Making it easier for nurses who chose not to work full-time but want to make extra money from time to time. The solution created is a win - win for both the hospital and the nurses. The article goes on to talk about how nurses are burnt out due to the pandemic and some wishing to leave the profession due to the risks involved in caring for covid patients. With the form of this program, it could save the nurses from burnout and help the hospital with shortage of staff (Kullmann). Allowing nurses, the opportunity to work in the nursing field without having to adhere to company scheduling requirements seemed to make participating nurses more involved in-patient care.
Contrary to this finding I wanted to find out more information regrading the funds of allowing travelers/contract workers into these facilities. I was under to impression that the company's would loss more money if they continue to just work with these nurses, but that wasn't true. In blog I found on AMN Healthcare titled "Traveling Nurses Cost Less than Staff Nurses" I learned that just that. The article Breaks down the labor cost for staff nurses compared to travelers and as it turns out these companies are really saving money. The hourly cost for staff nurses was six dollars more than travelers. Healthcare facilities must pay for insurances offered along with continuing education cost and other costly things that may be offered. With travelers they are aware of what they are going to payout. Without having to pay for the extra benefits to obtain their services (Healthcare)
This topic is important to me due to the fact this is the field I intent on working and too many people that are registered nurses that I have spoken to have stated that since covid 19 has taken place nursing isn't the as you would envision. On the other hand, they all state that is a lacerative career if you get pass all the things that take place within the workplace. In this research paper I sought out reasons travel nursing have changed healthcare post covid and in doing so questioned if healthcare facilities would return to its original state before covid ever existed. I investigated using multiple sources to come up with reasons why people choose to travel and find the logic behind why facilities suffer from staffing issues. Obtaining all the information I've come to find out that everything has one point in common which was money. These nurses may the choice to travel after the knowledge of the pay these staffing agencies were willing to pay. I feel like to fix the healthcare industry they pay should be slightly adjusted for staff nurses along with bonuses along with increasing staffing to provide adequate care so that they are not feeling over worked. Far as the nursing agencies I think that if a cap placed on what is allowed that would force more nurses to return to fulltime positions. Or even if more healthcare places offered the option of freedom scheduling like Mercy hospital that would give some the option of not being tied to a work schedule.
Works Cited
Abrams, Abby Vesoulis and Abigail. Contract Nurse Agencies Are Making Big Money in the Age of COVID-19. Are They 'Exploiting' the Pandemic? 23 Februray 2022
Advisory, Board. Board Advisory . 18 March 2022
Board, Advisory. 18 March 2022
Healthcare, AMN. AMN Healthcare. 18 May 2018
Kullmann, Sonya. Mercy Innovates Flexible Scheduling for Nurse Work/Life Balance. 9 May 2022
Lake, Sydney. Travel nurses can cash in at more than $3,000 per week. September 2022
Luinenburg, Miranda Dixon -. How the era of travel nursing has changed health care. 2 March 2022
U.S. News and World Report . n.d.
Violeta Lopez, RN, PhD, FACN, Judith Anderson, RN, PhD, FACN, Sancia West, PhD and Michelle Cleary, RN, PhD. Taylor & Francis Online. 29 September 2021
