Registered nurse Kimberly Sateri gets the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif. Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021.
Jae C. Hong / AP Photo
Registered nurse Kimberly Sateri gets the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif. Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021.
Jae C. Hong / AP Photo
Airdate: Thursday, January 27, 2022
Pennsylvania hospitals are missing about 27% of the registered nurses needed to provide direct patient care. That comes at a time when almost half of hospitals are at 90% capacity and 12% are full.
Many are turning to traveling nurses who are contracted to the hospitals. For the nurses, they’re earning higher wages without dealing with some of the stressful issues staff nurses face.
Hospitals don’t view traveling nurses as a long-term solution to staff shortages but it is a temporarily fix.
WITF’s Transforming Health reporter Brett Sholtis has dug into the nursing shortage and traveling nurses. He appears on Thursday’s Smart Talk with details.
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