“Flip Your Nursing Ardour into Revenue. Contact Us Right now!”
The recruitment plea from an employment company known as HSG Strike Staffing was considered one of many who attracted hundreds of alternative nurses to fill positions left empty this week by the primary nursing strike at Stanford Hospital in twenty years. Crossing the picket traces comes with the promise of as much as $13,000 every week in wage plus free meals, housing and transportation. And the staffing companies that rent them, more and more owned by non-public fairness corporations, are reporting document income.
The touring nurses trade, fueled by labor unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic, has turned hospital staffing right into a nationwide bidding warfare, with well being care services paying outdoors companies exorbitant charges to safe assist.
This pattern is making a expensive vicious cycle, say specialists, as nurses go away their longtime employees jobs for the short-term however extra profitable “journey nurse” positions — worsening hospitals’ labor scarcity, escalating wages and creating fast turnover, which worsens nursing morale.
The scarcity implies that all hospitals are competing for a similar nurses, mentioned well being economist Joanne Spet, professor at UC San Francisco’s Institute for Well being Coverage Research.
“Stanford can’t say, ‘Oh, nicely, I’m simply going to borrow some nurses from, say, Valley Medical Heart, as a result of they in all probability have further,’ ” she mentioned.
Hospitals corresponding to Stanford have lengthy relied on touring nurses to fill gaps in staffing. However the pandemic triggered a 20% improve within the quantity of sufferers coming for care, so extra nurses have been wanted. Now, confronted by this week’s strike, Stanford signed 2,700 short-term replacements for five-day contracts to assist fill 5,000 empty positions.
They need to bankroll not solely the a lot larger salaries supplied to the alternative nurses — but in addition a steep fee to the companies that rent and home them.
On Tuesday, the placing nurses remained on the picket line as leaders started the primary day of negotiations within the early morning. Union leaders and hospital officers have been tight-lipped concerning the closed-door bargaining, however nurses say they're ready to strike indefinitely till an inexpensive contract is agreed upon.
Till then, Stanford will depend on alternative nurses and administration to fill the hole. Earlier than a strike, companies fly alternative nurses to their vacation spot and shuttle them to work every morning, the place they cross picket traces.
The estimated common hourly charge for strike nurses is $216.67, about 2.5 instances the common hourly charge of comparable scientific nurses. They don't obtain advantages, corresponding to medical health insurance. By comparability, the common hourly charge of a scientific nurse at Stanford ranges from $87 to 89.50. Journey nurses are additionally paid greater than employees nurses, though lower than strike nurses.
The demand for journey nursing has exploded throughout the pandemic, in accordance with a report within the journal Well being Affairs by George Washington College Faculty of Nursing professors Tony Yang and Diana Mason.
Between January 2020 and January 2022, the marketed pay charge for journey nurses jumped 67%, reported Prolucent Well being, which offers healthcare workforce software program and providers. The companies say they have to pay these charges to draw expertise, however hospitals corresponding to Stanford additionally should pay hefty charges to the companies as nicely.
Well being care and elected officers argue that the nursing companies are exploiting circumstances to pad their very own pockets. Final November, a bunch from Congress wrote a letter to the White Home COVID-19 Response Group Coordinator, urging him to analyze whether or not nurse staffing companies have been value gouging. The American Hospital Affiliation asserts that the companies are “exploiting our organizations’ determined want for well being care personnel.”
About 75% of hospitals’ price is for the nurse; the businesses preserve 25% for revenue, in accordance with George Washington College well being economist Yang, who research the trade.
One of many nation’s prime companies, AMN Healthcare Companies, reported a 109% improve in gross income within the fourth quarter of 2021, in comparison with 2020, Yang mentioned. Cross Nation Healthcare, one other well being care staffing company, noticed its income leap 93% between the third quarters of 2020 and 2021.
In the meantime, private-equity corporations are cashing in on the travel-nursing enterprise. Because the starting of 2021, a minimum of eight private-equity corporations have purchased a minimum of seven staffing companies.
State legal guidelines have been ineffective in combatting the rise of travel-contract nursing, in accordance with the report by Yang and Mason. Maybe it is because value gouging legal guidelines have traditionally utilized to product gross sales and retailers, not the hiring of short-term staff and staffing companies, they mentioned.
“Demand exceeds provide,” mentioned Yang. “They'll do that as a result of they'll get away with it.”
Whereas costly, Stanford’s alternative nurses are very skilled, mentioned Stanford chief nursing workplace Dale Beatty.
The companies present proof of licensure, expertise, qualifications, drug testing and regulatory necessities, in addition to COVID-19 vaccination. Stanford opinions all of those paperwork, he mentioned.
“We have now to proceed to offer and assist our sufferers with the identical top quality care and guarantee that they’re protected,” Beatty mentioned.
“Definitely, the charges do fear us,” he mentioned. “However our prime precedence must be high quality and affected person security. Once you’re in a strike scenario, we've to have the sources to take care of our sufferers.”
On the Strike Nurse Fb web page, alternative nurses praised Stanford. “Greatest place to work,” wrote one nurse. “Nice sources and provides. Employees very welcoming to vacationers there.”
The nurses flew into San Francisco Worldwide Airport late final week. Earlier than beginning, they have been required to finish a 16-hour on-line curriculum of Stanford’s requirements and a 12-hour coaching session, Beatty mentioned.
Upon arrival, every nurse was reviewed one-on-one by Stanford employees to verify they have been match for his or her place, he mentioned.
“Generally we will have people that may are available to offer vital care, however they might not have a selected talent for inside that inhabitants,” he mentioned. “So we assess to see if they'll make that adjustment. … We are able to definitely reassign them to a different location.”
Even when the Stanford strike ends rapidly and the strike nurses go dwelling, they’re already paid.
“For those who get on the aircraft,” one nurse wrote on the Fb web page, “they gonna pay you.”
Employees Author Aldo Toledo contributed to this report.