Local: (805)-371-3680 | Toll Free: (800) 240-CHIV
Travel nurse demand is waning as healthcare hiring strategies adapt post-pandemic.
What’s new: Healthcare employers are reportedly spending more to recruit and retain permanent employees. In turn, the stagnant or reduced budgets for travel staff are lowering demand and pay rates.
The backstory: Facing staffing shortages during the Covid pandemic, hospitals looked to temporary clinical help. Travel nurses commanded and benefited from the lucrative hourly rates.
But that’s now changing.
This month, employment firm Incredible Health surveyed more than 3,300 registered nurses. The report found that nurses’ interest in travel positions has decreased by 22% from 2023. It also found that 67% of health executives surveyed did not increase travel nurse positions in the last year.
What they’re saying: “With permanent nurse wages going up, as well as travel nurse wages going down, you’re [going to] have more nurses who want to stay in permanent [positions,]” Dr. Iman Abuzeid, Incredible Health’s CEO, told Modern Healthcare.
By the numbers: Tennessee-based Community Health Systems reported spending roughly $48 million on contract labor in Q1 2024, compared with an estimated $85 million in the first quarter of 2023.
Similarly, Texas-based Tenet Healthcare reported that its consolidated contract labor expense comprised 2.9% of its first-quarter spending, compared with 6% in the year-earlier period.
What’s next: Agencies geared toward travel positions will need to adapt their strategies.
Incredible Health offers an online support community, salary estimators, and continuing education. Meanwhile, the staffing company AMN Healthcare is investing in technology to help its clients calculate their staffing ratio needs to achieve maximum efficiency.
Go deeper: About the change in staffing strategy at modernhealthcare.com.
