HT Enewsletter: Demand increasing for travel nurses (856 hits)
May 2, 2011
The unemployment rate has declined slightly, but gas prices are through the roof. Congress finally passed a budget and now the fight over whether or not to raise the debt ceiling looms. The stock market is holding its own, but housing prices in many parts of the country have yet to rebound. However, members of the healthcare traveling industry can take comfort in projections that the industry will remain stable, no matter if the economy continues to fluctuate. Gene Scott, president and chief executive officer of Travel Nurse Across America (www.nurse.tv), explains how the industry is faring.
HT: What’s your take on the economy today, specifically related to healthcare traveling? Scott: The economy started improving around the middle of 2010. In the fourth quarter we really started seeing it pick up. People were getting jobs and we had a strong holiday season. With more people spending money and having health benefits through their employers, they started taking care of health issues they’d been putting off. There was pent up demand. This caused the census to go up in hospitals, and the demand for travel nurses went up along with it.
HT: That’s good news—in terms of patient care and for hospitals hoping to fill vacancies—isn’t it?
Scott: It is. And even facilities that haven’t seen census increases are requesting more travelers. Hospitals had been stretching their staff to the point of burnout, and some were reaching dangerous levels in terms of nurse-patient ratios. They recognized that they had to start loosening the purse strings. At our firm, orders for travelers quadrupled from July 2010 to today.
HT: What challenges does that present for your company?
Scott: We don’t have enough nurses to meet the demand. During the last two or three years, when jobs for travelers were not as plentiful, people didn’t just sit around waiting for things to improve. They took permanent jobs. Many of those nurses, even ones who would prefer to be traveling, are nervous about giving up the security of fulltime work. There is a hesitancy on their part to jump back into traveling until they see where the economy is going.
HT: How should nurses wanting to travel plan for the next several years?
Scott: What everyone needs to understand is that the nursing shortage isn’t going away. Baby boomers are getting older and needing more care, the economy is getting better and more people have health benefits, and if health insurance reform continues to be implemented we’ll soon have another 32 million people with coverage. For the travel nurse, the prospects are very bright. If they’re sitting on the sidelines wondering what to do, now is a really good time to get into traveling or return to traveling.
HT: In which locations can jobs be found now?
Scott: We’re getting orders from all over the country, for all specialties. We’ve got a lot of opportunities right now in Oregon, Washington, California, Florida, New York, and New Jersey. Travelers need to be thinking about where they want to work and getting licenses in those states, even if they don’t have a job in hand. We can help nurses with applying for state licenses, which they like because the process can be pretty cumbersome.
