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There have been some big developments in the COVID world in the past few weeks. While the battle against the virus continues to rage on in India, case numbers in the U.S. are looking promising. Former hot spot areas such as New York and New Jersey are lifting restrictions and multiple other states are following suit, doing away with capacity limits and masking.
Here are the latest updates that travel nurses need to know about COVID-19, from vaccines to how the virus is affecting current hospitalization rates.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
The most recent data available from the CDC shows a current COVID-19 case count of 32,228,003 which you can compare to our last case count check two weeks ago of 31,883,289. The death count too, has remained stable, with 574,220 deaths, in comparison to our April 28th update of 569,272 deaths.
The New York Times COVID case map shows stabilizing infection rates across the country. In fact, the NYT notes that the country’s COVID numbers are beginning to drop for the first time in recent weeks, after a period of plateauing. Even hotspots like Michigan — which was #1 in the country for new infections only weeks ago — are seeing a drop in numbers.
While the new numbers are encouraging, especially on the brink of summer, the combination of variants and vaccine hesitations are leading many experts to predict that herd immunity for COVID-19 will never truly be reached. “It’s theoretically possible but we as a society have rejected that,” Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group told USA Today when discussing herd immunity for the virus. “There is no eradication at this point, it’s off the table. The only thing we can talk about is control.”
This mean that moving forward, COVID-19 will be more like a flu: a virus we will never fully eradicate, but that can hopeful be managed and controlled through a combination of infection control measures, such as vaccinations, masking during outbreaks, social distancing, and potentially new guidelines for going into work sick.
According to the CDC, new COVID-19 infections have dropped by 16.2% this week as compared to last week, which is good news indeed. As a comparison of where numbers are currently at, current case counts are almost 79% lower than they were during January 2021 peaks. The CDC also notes that the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7. (the “UK variant”) is the culprit behind 59.2% of COVID-19 cases in the United States, with four other main variants of concern trailing behind it.
Hospitalizations have also decreased, 9.8% from the previous week tracked. (April 14-20). This is huge news, because this is the first week hospitalizations have decreased–every other week in April marked an increase in hospital admissions.
Obviously, less new infections and fewer hospitalizations are great news, but we do have more information about the impact of COVID as well. Many people argued in the beginning of the pandemic (and some still are) that the death rate of the disease caused by the virus is so low, that it’s truly not a big deal. And it’s true that the death rate is low–only about 1-2% of people infected with COVID-19 die. However, death is not the only negative effect of the disease. According to CDC data, about 20% of unvaccinated people who become infected with COVID-19 will end up with severe disease and 5% will end up in intensive care.
Currently, the demands for COVID travel nursing assignments are nowhere near where they were this time last year, but there are some states that are seeing new demand. Here are some of the available travel nursing rates available on job boards right now:
There are also many types of non-COVID travel nursing positions open, including opportunities for vaccine nurses and infusion nurses.
Speak with a recruiter about available assignments in COVID-impacted areas today.
According to the CDC’s count, 247 million doses of the vaccine have currently been administered. 31.8% of the country has been fully vaccinated, while 44% of the population has received at least one dose, numbers that haven’t significantly increased since our last update.
As of April 19, every adult in every state was eligible to receive the vaccine, although overall, interest in the vaccine seems to have waned. It’s also been reported that millions of adults are skipping the second dose of the vaccine. Some have cited scheduling difficulties after initial vaccine delays with weather or manufacturing changed their appointment times, while others have expressed new hesitancy for the vaccine in light of news about the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
And speaking of the J&J vaccine, after review for reported links to a serious blood clotting disorder called TTS, the FDA did recommend reinstating the emergency authorization of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“The FDA has determined that the available data show that the vaccine’s known and potential benefits outweigh its known and potential risks in individuals 18 years of age and older,” they said in a press release. “At this time, the available data suggest that the chance of TTS occurring is very low, but the FDA and CDC will remain vigilant in continuing to investigate this risk.”
In other news:
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
As the world’s eyes turn towards the devastating wave of cases in India, exacerbated by a lack of vital resources and the so-called double mutant variant, the situation in the U.S. seems to have calmed for now.
Here are the latest updates that travel nurses need to know about COVID-19, from vaccines to how the virus is affecting current hospitalization rates.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
The most recent data available from the CDC shows a current COVID-19 case count of 31,883,289, which you can compare to our last case count check two weeks ago of 31,015,033. The death count too, has remained stable, with 569,272 deaths from our April 14 update of 559,172 deaths.
The New York Times COVID case map shows a stabilization of infections across the country as well as areas of the Midwest and Northeast, including Michigan, New Jersey, and New York, which had experienced a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. As recently as a week ago, Michigan was leading the nation in case counts, but does seem to be showing some signs of improvement. For example, although hospitalizations are still high in the state, they do seem to have plateaued for the time being, and new infections have dropped since last week.
Experts guess that variants are behind the surges, which demonstrate how even small areas with COVID surges can cause “outbreak pockets” leading to new variants. For instance, even if a state has a high vaccination rate overall, there are county-to-county differences where people may eschew vaccinations, allowing the virus to continue to spread and increasing the risk of mutation. Eventually, those variants could become vaccine-resistant. The COVID case map shows where these county pockets can exist — counties in states where infections are not notably higher than national averages still have counties with high rates. For instance, Pecos, TX has seen a 591% increase in cases and Ferry, Washington has had a 4,400% increase.
The situation in India is a bit of a warning to the U.S. too, as experts have pointed out their situation is foreshadowing what could happen in any country. India initially did well through coronavirus. Assuming herd immunity had been reached, the country celebrated success over the virus. But a devastating mutation wreaked havoc during a second wave, showing how all it takes is one mutation to reinfect even those with COVID-19 antibodies. Some say the U.S. should look to India to remember that even as vaccinations rise here, it’s important not to let our guard down because we don’t know what the virus will do next.
According to the CDC, new COVID-19 infections have decreased by 10% since last week, which is good news indeed. As a comparison of where numbers are currently at, current case counts are almost 75% lower than they were during January 2021 peaks.
Despite new cases decreasing, hospitalizations are still high. They are much lower than they were in Jan., but the CDC reports a slight 1.6% increase in hospitalizations from the previous week. (CDC reporting is about a week behind, so those numbers reflect April 7-13.) In encouraging news, deaths have decreased about 3.7%.
Currently, the demands for COVID travel nursing assignments are nowhere near where they were this time last year, but there are some states that are seeing new demand. Here are some of the available travel nursing jobs right now:
There are also many types of non-COVID travel nursing positions open, including opportunities for vaccine nurses and infusion nurses.
Speak with a recruiter about available assignments in COVID-impacted areas today.
The big news of the day is the U.S. now leads the world in administered vaccinations. According to the CDC’s count, 213 million doses of the vaccine have currently been administered. 28.9% of the country has been fully vaccinated, while 37% of the population has received at least one dose, numbers that haven’t significantly increased since our last update.
As of April 19, every adult in every state was eligible to receive the vaccine, although overall, interest in the vaccine seems to have waned. It’s also been reported that millions of adults are skipping the second dose of the vaccine. Some have cited scheduling difficulties after initial vaccine delays with weather or manufacturing changed their appointment times, while others have expressed new hesitancy for the vaccine in light of news about the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
Speaking of the J&J vaccine, after review for reported links to a serious blood clotting disorder called TTS, the FDA did recommend reinstating the emergency authorization of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“The FDA has determined that the available data show that the vaccine’s known and potential benefits outweigh its known and potential risks in individuals 18 years of age and older,” they said in a press release. “At this time, the available data suggest that the chance of TTS occurring is very low, but the FDA and CDC will remain vigilant in continuing to investigate this risk.”
In other news:
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
The COVID pandemic required a lot of changes, especially for nurses. Now, over a year into the pandemic, many staff nurses are turning to travel nursing as a way to recover from the stress of the past year and to earn a higher pay rate for their hard work.
Discover your dream travel assignment here.
The coronavirus pandemic led to an increase in what was already a nursing shortage. Nursing shortages were already predicted to reach 175,900 openings for RNs each year through 2029. Now, factors like nurse burnout and mental health strain, along with many nurses leaving the workforce to care for their families, are expected to increase that shortage.
Rachel Ellsworth, recently profiled by CNN, is one example. Ellsworth had been a staff ICU nurse for 10 years in Florida. She went from considering her nursing career a “calling” to quitting after working all through the pandemic.
“It broke me,” she told CNN. “It was just too much.”
Ellsworth is not alone. As she pointed out, there are many more nurses who will be facing mental health repercussions in the coming months as they shift from “survival” mode to reflecting on what they’ve been through – and what the future holds for them as nurses.
Speak with a recruiter about available travel nursing assignments.
So far, the data we have is not painting a promising picture for resolving the nursing shortage. In fact, it seems the country will be needing a lot of nurses – and fast. Along with the pandemic, nursing shortages will be compounded by current RNs retiring, educational gaps for new nurses, and high turnover rates. Healthcare facilities will need to work with nurses to create working environments that are inviting to nurses who may be reluctant to return to work after the pandemic.
Fortunately, hospitals are aware of the nurse shortages that lie ahead. A survey of over 100 hospital executives and senior leaders across the U.S. by Avant Healthcare Professionals found increasing numbers of open RN jobs. From 2019 to 2021, there was a major increase in hospitals expecting openings in staff nurse positions. For instance, 17% of respondents reported having more than 25 staff RN positions open in 2019, but 36% reported that amount in 2021. According to their survey, there will be nearly 80,000 nursing positions vacant by 2023.
Travel nursing can be a great way to make a change in your nursing career — and to recover from some of the burn out you may have experienced due to COVID as a staff nurse.
You can earn a higher paycheck than many staff RNs, get full benefits including health insurance and retirement, travel to new places (you can also find local travel nursing jobs!) or try different units or shifts you may have never tried before. The best part? If you don’t like it, the assignment is temporary! Once your 12-14 week assignment is up, you have no obligation to continue.
If you’re an RN with some kind of hospital experience, travel nursing is an option that is always available to you and it can provide the ultimate career flexibility because it can be a career that you create. Want to work full-time? You can do that. Only interested in talking on a few assignments a year? Yup, that works too. Want to be sure you only work the units you feel comfortable on? You got it.
When it comes to travel nursing, you get to choose your next assignment. That can be a great benefit, especially coming off the type of traumatic experiences that many staff nurses experienced during the pandemic. So if you’re considering leaving your staff nursing position in the near future, consider talking to a recruiter so you can explore what travel nursing has to offer.
Discover your dream travel assignment here.
As a travel nurse, you have a unique opportunity to negotiate your pay and compensation in a different way from traditional staff nursing positions. Your agency may be able to help you get additional compensation since they’re responsible for helping the hospital find the best nurses.
Discover your dream travel assignment here.
After all, an agency wants to make sure it’s bringing qualified, compensated nurses to the table so that both hospitals and nurses are satisfied. In short, it benefits everyone involved when you know your worth as a travel nurse and are compensated accordingly.
Here are some tips to help you negotiate when taking on a travel nurse position.
First, it’s to your benefit to take the time to establish your worth as a travel nurse. That may require taking on a few contracts so you can get a feel for how different agencies and recruiters work, how pay contracts are structured and the type of compensation that matters most to you. For instance, do you prefer a higher base wage and less benefits? Or do you prefer more extensive benefits and a lower base wage?
Get to know the “lay of the land,” so to speak. Most importantly, show your recruiter and agency you’re serious about a career in travel nursing so you can feel confident when negotiating future assignments.
Every travel nurse will have different values that will make certain assignments and packages more desirable. Dollar-for-hour comparison isn’t everything and it’s perfectly fine if other compensation aspects are more important to you. For instance, if gaining certain experience in exchange for a slightly lower wage makes sense for you, go for it!
You might choose to prioritize staying local or prefer assignments in far away destinations you’re eager to visit. Know what’s important to you so you can ask for the benefits that will make the assignment worthwhile for you.
Travel nursing is a competitive space for recruiters, so do some research into what contracts are offered by other agencies to help guide you in accepting or negotiating a position. If an agency is offering significantly more or less, you can use that as a bargaining tool to try to get the wages and compensation to make a contract more attractive.
Speak with other travel nurses and do research into online positions or travel nurse groups to compare different wage and benefits packages that may be similar to your offered contract. Most travel nurses are more than willing to discuss a breakdown of pay, and give advice on which agencies are helpful to work with.
If you’re negotiating a travel nurse contract, it can be helpful to know what communication style you feel the most confident in — and what your nurse recruiter prefers. If your recruiter insists on speaking via video chat every time you interact, but the thought of talking on video makes you want to run away, perhaps another vehicle of communication is more appropriate for you.
You can utilize online resources to uncover your communication style and if you’re aware of your preferred mode of communication, don’t be afraid to stick to it. If you want to talk to your recruiter via email or prefer written communication, present that in your negotiating. Send an email outlining your requests and your communication preferences.
For example, you can say: “Thank you for your time and consideration. For further discussions or decisions, I ask that you please email me as I will be unavailable via phone or phone chat for the time being.”
It’s also worth noting that it may be helpful to consider some version of compromise when it comes to negotiating. If your recruiter’s communication style differs significantly from yours, they may need to see you or talk to you to establish a working relationship of trust, so it may take some give-and-take and learning what works best for you. Consider scheduling an initial video call, followed by outlining your requests and any follow-up communication via email.
Speak with a recruiter about available travel nursing assignments.
If you have any speciality experience or certifications, use them! Additional certification in speciality areas, whether it’s critical care or neonatal resuscitation, can and should be compensated accordingly. Healthcare facilities utilizing travel nurses need additional help and finding qualified specialists is usually more challenging than finding general healthcare workers, so speciality travelers may be able to negotiate a higher rate.
Specialty experience outside of specific certification can also help you earn higher wages. For instance, if you have extensive COVID unit experience, that should definitely give you more negotiating power when taking on an assignment for a facility in need of COVID nurses.
If you don’t have a speciality certification yet, consider adding one in your field or one that you’re passionate about pursuing in the future. Certifications can boost your resume and help you expand your skills — and it only take a little while to earn them. You can even talk to your recruiter to see if there are any compensation opportunities to help get the cost of certification covered.
Nurse recruiters are people, just like you, and sometimes you might find a recruiter who doesn’t “mesh” with you. That’s OK! That doesn’t mean anything negative about either you or the recruiter. It just means you may need to try working with a few different recruiters before you find one who works well with you.
The good news is, once you do find a recruiter that you work well with, you can build a relationship of trust and your recruiter can help advocate for you and your worth.
If you are a traveling nurse with a consistent track record, a positive work ethic and a willingness to take on new assignments, a recruiter will want to continue working with you. A positive working relationship is a good thing for both of you. So once you’re established, speak openly and honestly with your recruiter about ways you can both work together to ensure that you are taking on assignments that meet your worth as a nurse.
While it may not always be effective to march into your nursing agency’s office and ask for more money, it may be possible to receive additional compensation in other ways. For instance, your agency may be able to grant specific requests that can add to your pay outside of base wages.
For instance, if you want an increased housing allowance or would like a stipend for travel, ask for it. Need a meal delivery service because you’re working in a COVID unit and don’t want to expose others? Speak up!
You can ask for compensation for a lot of additional expenses you may not have considered, including public transportation passes, uniform expenses, licensing fees, continuing education classes, moving services, or Internet and phone costs. If you’re specific about the resources you need, a recruiter can more effectively advocate on your behalf.
Discover your dream travel assignment here.
Currently, Michigan is leading the country in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations and it’s clear the pandemic is far from over. Other parts of the country are showing signs of stabilization — even improvement. In other words, the state of the pandemic is subject to your location.
Here are the latest COVID-19 updates for travel nurses.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
The most recent data available from the CDC shows a current COVID-19 case count of 31,015,033 and 559,172 deaths. The New York Times COVID case map shows a stabilization of infections in the Northeast with clusters of outbreaks in the Midwest and some fluctuations in the West. While overall, cases and hospitalizations are on the rise across the country, some states — like Michigan — are certainly rising at much faster. National Geographic reports that 24 states, including Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Florida, are now seeing an increase in COVID-19.
Essentially, the CDC is chalking up the rise in cases to the relaxing of state restrictions, along with the sharp increase of variants that are now dominant. The reason that variants make such a difference is that because they have mutated in a way that allows the coronavirus to have more places to adhere to the host cell–some explanations have described this as making it more “sticky” to help illustrate.
Because the virus is “stickier,” it takes less of the virus to infect someone, making it more contagious. With other strains, you may have needed a higher exposure to actually get infected. With the new variants, it could only take a few virus particles to infect you. There are even some suspected reports of a “double mutant” virus that could be especially contagious right now.
According to the CDC, as of April 9, the US is seeing the fourth straight week of COVID cases rising in the U.S. In a White House briefing on April 12, officials shared the latest data on the novel coronavirus in the U.S., with both good and bad news. The bad news is that while the 7-day average for new cases has increased about 3% over the past 7-week period–now averaging around 66K new cases per day — deaths have not increased. Deaths have actually decreased by 5.2% to around 684 deaths per day. However, we do know from past data and trends that death rates tend to significantly lag behind new cases and infections by several weeks, so it could be weeks before we see hospitalizations and deaths from cases that are just now occurring. And the other piece of data certainly seems to support that, as hospitalizations have increased by 6.6% over the past 7 days as well. All in all, those hospitalizations could end up as deaths, which would drive the death rate back up.
In hard hit areas, like Michigan, which has the highest number of hospitalized patients with COVID in the entire nation, pandemic fatigue is high. Among healthcare workers, burnout from yet another surge is taking its toll. ERs and hospital beds are filling up. One patient described trying to get treatment for mere stitches as akin to a “war zone.”
Meanwhile, increasing numbers of young people are being infected, which takes a toll on nurses. “These people are sick,” one nurse told a local Michigan news station. “They’re young. They require a lot of care…it’s hard. People are just emotionally exhausted.”
Currently, the demands for COVID travel nursing assignments are nowhere near where they were this time last year, but there are still some assignments hovering around the high $5k/week pay rate. Here are some of the rates currently available on job boards:
There are also many vaccine clinic travel nursing positions open, which is a unique opportunity to have somewhat shorter days and a more stable and predictable environment. The pay is not as high, but it could be a good fit for some nurses. As an example of one such job, there are openings in western Michigan for around $1.9K/week for vaccine clinic RNs.
Speak with a recruiter about available assignments in COVID-impacted areas today.
The biggest is the U.S. has halted use of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine pending further safety evaluation after six women developed a rare blood clotting disorder within a two-weeks of receiving it. While some rare side effects are to be expected with a vaccine but this particular blood clotting disorder is cause for concern. The disorder is known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, and it’s extremely rare, prompting concern that the immune response triggered by the vaccine somehow caused the body to attack its own platelets. All six women were between the ages of 18 and 48. Sadly, one woman died and one is still hospitalized with complications.
Seven million people have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, so admittedly, six people out of that number is a very, very small amount. However, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is an adenovirus vaccine–the same type of vaccine as the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has also been linked to blood clotting disorders–so officials are taking an abundance of caution to ensure its safety before any continued use.
“We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the C.D.C., said in a joint statement released by The New York Times. “Right now, these adverse events appear to be extremely rare.”
According to the CDC’s count, 190 million doses of the vaccine have currently been administered. 22.3% of the country has been fully vaccinated, while 36.4% of the population has received at least one dose. Even one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines may confer as much as 80% protection.
As of April 19, every adult in every state will be eligible to receive the vaccine and the White House will be rolling out mass federal vaccination states next week as well.
In other news:
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
If you’re looking to take a travel nursing assignment soon, it’s important that you familiarize yourself with what policies are in place should you become sick with COVID-19, become directly exposed to someone with COVID-19 or need to quarantine.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
Many agencies will still pay you if you need to quarantine or take time off to recover from COVID. That said, policies vary, depending on the area and the facility’s guidelines. Make sure you understand exactly what you need to do and how a possible exposure, infection or quarantine could affect you.
Here’s what travel nurses need to know about COVID and quarantining.
Before you sign a contract for a travel nursing assignment, be sure to ask all the right questions about COVID and quarantine. By now, most travel nursing agencies are well-versed in COVID-19 policies, be sure to ask about:
Be sure you understand:
Speak with a recruiter about available assignments in COVID-impacted areas today.
Although you will ultimately follow your agency and facility’s protocol and policies, it can also be helpful to fully understand what the CDC recommends for quarantining with COVID. The CDC recommends you quarantine for 14 days if you’ve been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
“Close contact” is defined as:
In some situations, that could very well include an infected patient, especially if you were not outfitted with the proper PPE or in an emergent situation that was out of your control.
In some situations, quarantine length may be reduced to only 10 days but guidelines for that will come from the local healthcare department. This is another reason it’s important to find out details about the assignment before accepting any travel nursing assignment as a traveler.
The CDC also has healthcare worker-specific guidelines about when you can return to work after you’ve had COVID. The guidelines vary based on the severity of your illness and whether you have any immuno-compromised conditions that may impact your recovery. In general, the CDC says that healthcare workers who had mild to moderate COVID infections and are not severely immunocompromised can return to work if they meet the following criteria:
The loss of taste and smell can linger for weeks and months, which is why the CDC doesn’t count it as a symptom that should prevent you from returning to work.
Many travel nursing agencies have also put together COVID resources for travel nurses including everything from extra mental health benefits to support should you fall sick while you’re alone in temporary housing.
Ask your agency what resources are available to you as a traveler, especially if you are working in a COVID unit or current COVID hot spot. Potential resources include:
If you’re a nurse who has chosen vaccination and has completed both doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines (Johnson & Johnson is only one shot), then the rules change a bit for what you need to know about quarantining. You are considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after you receive your final vaccine dose. The two-week mark is because it takes several weeks for your body to form antibodies in response to the vaccine, so, to be fully protected, it’s best to wait at least two weeks.
According to the CDC’s most recently-released guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals, if you’ve been directly exposed to COVID-19 but it’s been more than two weeks since your last vaccine dose, you may be protected. Here’s what the guidelines say for fully vaccinated people:
But even if you’re vaccinated, you’ll need to follow any protocols your own workplace puts into place, so always check with your agency and contract hospital for exact rules and precautions.
Of course, if you have been fully vaccinated, be sure to make several copies of that vaccine card and let your nurse recruiter know, as it may be valuable information for your future assignments.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
Well, it’s official: COVID-19 is officially on the rise again in nearly every single state in the U.S. The increase started slowly, with cases inching upwards in states like Michigan. Experts cautiously watched the numbers, wondering if they may plateau or turn the other way as vaccinations continue to grow.
However, the verdict is in and unfortunately, it now looks like the U.S. has entered into what is being called a fourth wave. Read on for more on who’s being affected, if experts except the tide will turn and what travel nurses need to know.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
There are two main things to understand with COVID-19 right now: 1) every single state in the country has eased restrictions in major ways, from allowing more indoor dining to opening up more indoor venues to some states completely doing away with mask mandates all together and 2) the number of new COVID-19 infections has definitely increased, about 20% from last week alone, notes NPR.
Experts suspect that common sense would see those two facts as connected, but the question has remained of how connected they would be–and what the end result will be. Are there enough people vaccinated that even opening up more can contain the cases? Will the spread of new infections be primarily in younger, healthier individuals now that so many at-risk individuals have been vaccinated? Will warmer weather in general and public health behavior make any difference at all?
It’s too early to officially call it, but experts are definitely fearful of a fourth wave. In fact, in a press conference on March 29, CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, urged Americans to practice infection-curbing measures like masking and social distancing. “I know you all so badly want to be done,” she said in her press conference, where she admitted to going off-script. “We are just almost there, but not quite yet.” Cases in some states, like Michigan, where a notable rise in infections received a lot of press attention, are rising the fastest among people in their 50s. Cases, in general, are being seen in people from the age of 10 to 60, but the over 65 sect number seem stable, largely attributed to the level of vaccination in that age group.
The most recent data available from the CDC shows a current COVID-19 case count of 30,147,895 and 547,296 deaths.
According to the CDC, there has been an almost 7% increase in COVID cases across the U.S. in the past week of data. However, hospital admissions have only increased by 0.1% in the same time frame. At the moment, deaths have also not increased and have stayed in their downward trend.
So far, the rise in COVID cases appears to be primarily in the under-age 60 sect and according to some doctors, associated with much more mild versions of the disease than they have seen in the past. There’s also more testing available than this time last year, which can add to the increase in numbers we are seeing–more people are aware of the test, willing to get tested and are able to access a test when they need it as compared to last year, when testing was scarce and people were more apt to stay home.
In Michigan, one of the first states to record a doubled COVID case count in only two weeks, hospitalizations are rising the fastest in people in their 50s. Cases, in general, are being seen in people from the age of 10 to 60, but the over 65 sect number seem stable, largely attributed to the level of vaccination in that age group.
However, experts are still cautioning that the severe cases of the virus can still strike younger people–and they can serve to spread it to people at risk, so there’s no reason to let guards down just yet. Additionally, numbers of infections and severe health complications from the record-setting large number of spring break travelers will still take several weeks to materialize.
Currently, the demands for COVID travel nursing assignments are nowhere near where they were this time last year, but there are still some assignments hovering around the high $5k/week pay rate.
Here are some of the available travel nursing jobs right now:
Speak with a recruiter about available assignments in COVID-impacted areas today.
The unfortunate news is that the U.K variant of the virus, the B.1.1.7, does appear to be rising and is said to be about 50% more transmissible and more dangerous the original strain. The good news, however, is that the current vaccines are thought to provide protection, even against the variant.
“The vaccines that we’ve been using here, at least according to lab results, do appear to be giving good protection against all the variants of concern that we’ve got at the moment,” Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, told NPR. “Now, there may be some small reduction in efficacy but not enough to be really worried about.”
According to the CDC’s count, 148 million doses of the vaccine have currently been administered. 28.9% of the country has been fully vaccinated, while 16.1% of the population has received at least one dose. It’s thought that even one dose of the vaccine provides a high amount of protection — 80% protection with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
In other vaccine and COVID news:
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
More hope appears to be on the horizon with declining COVID case numbers and increasing vaccinations. However, concern over rising cases internationally, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 variants are still present.
Here’s are the latest COVID updates for travel nurses.
Ready to start travel nursing? Start here.
The current COVID data is a bit confusing and bordering on worrisome and hopeful According to the CDC, new cases decreased from Jan 11-Feb 26. The next week, they rose. Then, in the week of March 2, they decreased again. And as of March 10, there was a 11.2% decrease in the overall daily number of cases when looking at the past week, which the CDC called an “encouraging sign of continued progress.” However, they also noted that even with the decline, the number of cases on March 10 of 56,586 cases is still higher than the 42,597 cases reported during the first peak in the pandemic on April 6, 2020. In other words, numbers are going down, but they’re still higher than they need to be to declare us free from COVID.
The upcoming spring break for colleges and schools in the country is also causing health experts to hold their breath. The combination of pandemic fatigue, the allure of warmer weather, more vaccine protection and declining case counts could be a deadly equation, some are warning. USA Today reported an increase in flights to Florida, Disney World reservations at full capacity and bars with no masks mandates packed with spring-break goers. There is some fear that with more people traveling and not wearing masks, the opportunity for variants that will potentially resist the vaccines to spread will increase.
“I just can’t believe that less than a month after the winter surge finally subsided, we’re potentially dealing with another one,” Michael Daignault, an emergency physician in Los Angeles and chief medical adviser for Reliant Health Services, told USA Today “I don’t know what it’s going to take for people to learn their lesson. It’s very frustrating.”
Hospitals continue to see a decline in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. As of today, the U.S. has seen 532,335 deaths from COVID-19. Overall, the recent weekly death count has decreased by 19.3%.
The CDC has also been able to analyze more data on COVID, which has allowed them to release more statistics on how the pandemic has disproportionately affected certain population groups, including American Indian and Native Americans (3.7x more likely to be hospitalized than non-Hispanic white Americans), Black or African Americans (2.9 times more likely to be hospitalized) and Hispanic and Latino people (3.1 times more likely to be hospitalized). All of the aforementioned groups also faced disproportionate rates of deaths from COVID in comparison to non-Hispanic white Americans.
The emergent need for travel nurses due to COVID-19 has definitely slowed and some nurses have even seen their crisis contracts suddenly cancelled at the lastminute. However, travel nursing is an industry that will never go away and there are still travel nursing assignments with average weekly pay available in areas such as:
Speak with a recruiter about available assignments in COVID-impacted areas today.
To date, 109 million doses of the vaccine have been administered. Close to 10% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated. Vaccination efforts have been helped with things like mass vaccination sites and the initial rollout of pharmacy vaccinations at some major retailers, including CVS and Walgreens locations, as well as a catch-up to local health departments after severe winter storms derailed some shipments.
Overall, there have also been some reports of some vaccine eagerness ebbing, as both vaccine availability and hesitancy increase. The combination of state restrictions easing, reports of new infections decreasing and general fears about the virus somewhat slowing are all culminating in what some experts fear may be an aversion to vaccines in the coming months. In a strange way, it’s almost like the demand for a new phone or video game: now that the vaccine is becoming easier to get, fewer people are lining up to get a shot in their arm. “The more people we vaccinate, the harder we’ll have to work to get the next group in,” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine told PEW Research Center. “Once we vaccinate the eager early acceptors, we’re going to have to go out and find people in the general population who haven’t lined up yet.”
As more people are achieving full vaccination status–defined by the CDC as two weeks after the second dose of both the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines–the CDC has also released guidelines on what fully vaccinated people are allowed to do. This includes:
In other vaccine news:
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There has also been more attention turned to the stress that travel nurses especially have experienced in this pandemic. The travel nursing industry largely heralded as an upbeat way to gain experience, meet new people, earn money and travel all at the same time has been completely upended in a lot of ways by the pandemic. Instead of a positive experience focused on growth and fun, travel nursing was thrust into the bellies of the COVID-19 beast, a band-aid solution to hospitals that couldn’t care for patients fast enough.
Coupled with the sudden emergent needs of caring for patients with COVID-19, the pandemic also brought severe isolation and stress to travel nurses, who were often sequestered alone in hotel housing near the hospital and forced to quarantine away from others. “I did have moments where I didn’t want to talk to anybody because I felt like no one could really understand what I was going through, and that made me feel more alone,” one travel nurse said in a CNN feature.
If you are a travel nurse, it might feel like you are only just now coming up for air after back-to-back assignments or a crisis contract suddenly getting cancelled. And if you are realizing that you are burned out or struggling with any mental health issues, be sure to take a break and reach out for the help you need. The beauty about travel nursing is that you can absolutely take a break when you need it — not only will it help you rest and ensure you can come back to work recharged and ready to help your patients again, but you can also rest assured that there will plenty of jobs to come back to.
Ready to start travel nursing? Start here.
The last two weeks of COVID tracking have been confusing with declining numbers of new cases and increased vaccine availability. But, experts are cautioning that we aren’t in the clear just yet.
Here’s what travel nurses need to know about the latest updates in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
Following a 7-week decline, we have now reached a plateau in new COVID cases in the U.S. And while many of us were encouraged by the decline in the first place, it’s important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that even with the decline, the cases are still higher than they were in the first peak of the pandemic. In other words, that decline was in large part due to a drastic uptick in cases from over the holidays.
On March 2, CDC Director Director Rochelle Walensky also cautioned in a White House press briefing that the numbers from the previous 7 days show a slight increase in new cases–new cases and deaths rose about 2% higher than they were the week prior. Her words come on the heels of many states lifting COVID-19 restrictions, from Michigan, which doubled the allowed capacity of restaurants and resumed nursing home visitations, to Texas, which lifted its mask mandate and opened the state entirely.
Walensky expressed concern over states lifting restrictions, noting that the current 2,000 per day death rate should not be considered a new norm, and pointing out that the new variants now known to be circulating could threaten to undo all of the progress that’s been done so far.
“Please hear me clearly. At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained…Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know could stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, not when we are so close,” she stated.
Ready to start travel nursing? Start here.
Hospitals have also been seeing a decline in cases, hospitalizations and deaths, which is encouraging. While the U.S. passed the 500,000 mark of deaths from COVID-19 and is now up to a total of 513,000 deaths, the CDC does note a 23.8% decrease in deaths from the previous week.
The emergent need for travel nurses due to COVID-19 has definitely slowed and some nurses have even seen their crisis contracts suddenly cancelled at the last-minute. However, travel nursing is an industry that will never go away and there are still travel nursing assignments with average weekly pay available in areas such as:
Speak with a recruiter about available assignments in COVID-impacted areas today.
To date, 78.6 million doses of the vaccine have been administered. Vaccination efforts have been helped with things like mass vaccination sites and the initial rollout of pharmacy vaccinations at some major retailers including CVS and Walgreens locations, as well as a catch-up to local health departments after severe winter storms derailed some shipments.
And as you have probably heard, Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has been granted emergency use authorization by the FDA. (A quick note: EUA is not the same as FDA approval and because COVID-19 vaccines are not yet FDA-approved, they also can’t be mandated by an employer.) It’s not yet known when the vaccine will be readily available for distribution and in fact, the White House has warned that it will most likely be very limited supply at first.
In other vaccine news:
There has also been more attention turned to the stress that travel nurses especially have experienced in this pandemic. The travel nursing industry largely heralded as an upbeat way to gain experience, meet new people, earn money and travel all at the same time has been completely upended in a lot of ways by the pandemic. Instead of a positive experience focused on growth and fun, travel nursing was thrust into the bellies of the COVID-19 beast, a band-aid solution to hospitals unable to care for patients fast enough.
Coupled with the sudden emergent needs of caring for patients with COVID-19, the pandemic also brought severe isolation and stress to travel nurses, who were often sequestered alone in hotel housing near the hospital and forced to quarantine away from others.
“I did have moments where I didn’t want to talk to anybody because I felt like no one could really understand what I was going through, and that made me feel more alone,” one travel nurse said in a CNN feature.
If you are a travel nurse, it might feel like you are only just now coming up for air after back-to-back assignments or a crisis contract suddenly getting canceled. And if you are realizing that you are burned out or struggling with any mental health issues, be sure to take a break and reach out for the help you need. The beauty about travel nursing is that you can absolutely take a break when you need it — not only will it help you rest and ensure you can come back to work recharged and ready to help your patients again, but you can also rest assured that there will plenty of jobs to come back to.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
As rates of new infections and hospitalizations from COVID-19 are finally slowing down, travel nurses are seeing an unfortunate side effect: their crisis contracts canceled unexpectedly.
Crisis contracts can come with high rewards for both hospitals and travel nurses alike–hospitals are able to depend on sourcing high-quality health professionals who can see them through a crisis event very quickly and travel nurses are compensated for placement in uncertain and potentially dangerous circumstances with crisis pay. However, with high rewards also comes high risk.
Travel nurses taking crisis contracts run the risk of having to be available at a moment’s notice, rearranging their lives very quickly, facing difficult situations on the job and as we are seeing, having their assignment dropped last-minute. Here’s what travel nurses should be aware of as more crisis contracts are being dropped as COVID-19 hospitalizations trend downwards.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
At the beginning of the pandemic, hospitals staffed their ERs and ICUs with many travelers in anticipation of being hard-hit by COVID-19 patients. Even in some hospitals where staff nurses in more elective departments, like surgery, were being laid-off, travelers were able to procure contracts with high wages in other departments and specialties.
And throughout the pandemic, as the virus has peaked near holiday events and in the cold weather, crisis contracts have been readily available. As spring approaches, however, in almost every part of the country, new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are finally decreasing. According to the CDC, the U.S. is currently in week five of a continual downward trend of new cases. Percent positivity rates for tests are going down, along with hospital admissions, and vaccination rates continue to climb, all pointing to a possible and hopeful end to the pandemic in the future.
With new cases and hospitalizations down, however, the emergent need for crisis contracts has slowed as well, leading to the abrupt cancellation of some traveler’s contracts. Hospitals in “hotspot” areas, like Utah and Arizona, that may have been utilizing travelers to get through high infection times or hospitals that may have been preemptively staffing in fear of variant infection have very quickly lost the need for the high cost of crisis travel nurse contracts.
Ready to start travel nursing? Start here.
TravelNursing.org’s Facebook and Instagram pages are full of frustrating stories of travel nurses who have had last-minute cancellations or are awaiting official confirmation of a contract pulled just as they were about to leave. From Washington to Texas to Ohio to Arizona to Iowa, as patient numbers have dropped, so too have the contracts that travel nurses thought were a done deal.
Samantha Firari, RN, had her travel nurse assignment to Tulsa, OK canceled only a day before she was set to move while Sarah McGibbon explained that while she was able to keep her contract in Grand Island, NE, it was only after being forced to move from Med/Surg to PCU.
Many staff nurses also chimed into the conversation, noting that they had witnessed their hospitals canceled travel nurses on contract. An ER in North Carolina, for instance, canceled 8 traveler contracts and while the staff nurse who reported the cancellation noted her hospital had done it in as “professional” way as possible, we can still imagine that it was an unfortunate situation for all involved.
Even travel nurses who haven’t had their contracts canceled yet are living in anxious anticipation of being next. “[My contract hasn’t been canceled] not just yet, but I’ve been offered to take off for two weeks, switch to night shift,” says Kristin Thompson. “The census bottomed out the week I started. It’s only a matter of time, I’m afraid.”
Speak with a recruiter about available assignments in COVID-impacted areas today.
Unfortunately, you can’t necessarily predict or prevent a contract from being canceled. However, if you are aware that contracts are being canceled in the area that you’re booked in, don’t be afraid to talk with your recruiter –– you have every right to ask if there is any risk of cancellation. And if you aren’t aware of the policies in the event that you are canceled, be sure to learn them and ask with every contact you secure in the future.
In some cases, your contract may stipulate that you will receive some kind of pay if you are canceled. However, as trauma ICU nurse Rodney Sassee points out, most hospitals and facilities stipulate that they can cancel with no payout as long as the citing reason for cancellation is low census.
If your contract is canceled, there are some steps you can take. First, you’ll want to check with your agency to see if you are eligible for any cancellation pay. You may also be eligible for unemployment benefits or be able to secure another assignment in the area or even a different department within the same hospital if you have already moved.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
