Reese Brown on a travel nurse assignment in New Jersey in May 2020. The short-lived travel nurse boom was a temporary fix for a long-term decline in the profession that predates the pandemic. In the 1980s and the 1990s, travel nurses were often covering for staff nurses who were on maternity leave, meaning that 13-week contracts become common. By 2021, travel nurses were earning an average of $124.96 an hour, according to the research firm — three times the hourly rate of staff nurses, according to federal statistics. Courtesy Pamela Esmond“The reality is they don’t pay staff nurses enough, and if they would pay staff nurses enough, we wouldn’t have this problem,” she said.

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