Microblog Memes

During the pandemic, a large swath of hospital systems, both psych and medical, contracted with nurses to travel to work for them on 13 wk contracts. There were some significantly high contracts in the midst of the pandemic, mainly through a company called Krucial. However, the Krucial contracts were not normal work weeks but five 12hr shifts every week, with significant overtime. Overtime in travel contracts was typically above the standard 1.5x hourly rate most hourly workers are accustomed to. The weekly rates on these contracts made news. I say this so we can move past it to the standard contracts where we can talk about lack of burnout.

The normal travel contract was typically 36hrs a week, a standard work week for the hourly nurse, with elevated OT. Rates were stronger than precovid, which was a strong lure, but the industry at large had not increased staff nurse pay with cost of living, most of the industry not seeing much in hourly rate increases past the years 2000-2008 which was some significantly bad wage stagnation. California was and is, as always, the exception in this practice. Post COVID, many states now pay nurses in keeping with the normal contract rates they originally left their staff jobs for. OT on staff is 1.5x but extra shifts beyond an FTE will often contain an extra $20-30/hr after OT is factored in, or a flat $200-500 per extra 12h shift. As such, many nurses who left for travel are back on staff and not traveling.

Even so, there were nurses who would not leave travel even though hospitals were offering better deals on the financial side, to be staff. More money, less movement sounds good, right?

Not for some. Burnout due to scheduling and lack of time off remains a problem for nursing staff. Meanwhile, travel contracts work like this: 13wks on, with roughly two weeks off in between. If a nurse opts to sign on for another 13wks at the same location, 1-2 weeks off is typically offered in between the old contract and the new. In addition, they can take Christmas off.

Less pay than staff, now, but a swath of nurses stick with travel regardless because they aren’t burning out. Travel nurses don’t typically burn out. Think about why. What would your own hourly work feel like on a 13wks on, 2wks off rotation?

Many people are going to and have to follow money, but this real life experiment has demonstrated how much less money people will take when they can to just not have to work every single week of their lives. There’s a lesson here that corporate America will likely never heed.