Tennessee has reopened a fund to help hospitals fly in temporary nurses as they’re short on staff. But hospitals are finding that there’s not much money left, even though the shortage is more critical than when they needed staffing help during the winter surge.
Sky-High Pay For Traveling Nurses Both A Symptom And Cause Of Hospital Staffing Crisis
The job market for nurses is way out of whack. Traveling RNs are making a lot more money than the full-time staffers doing the same job. And that’s causing staffers to hit the road to take a traveling gig, only to be replaced by an expensive traveler.
Nashville Music Venues Say Latest Relief Money May Only Buy Them A Few Months
Nashville’s music venues are still suffering monetary losses because of the pandemic. But now some of them are eligible to get an extra boost from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
ECMO Life Support In Short Supply Across Tennessee And The COVID-Ravaged South
Many more people could benefit from ECMO than are receiving it. That has made for a messy triaging of treatment that could escalate in the coming weeks
Tennessee Hospitals On Track To Surpass Highs From Winter Surge This Week
As the number of COVID patients in Tennessee hospitals continues to climb toward surpassing the peak of the winter surge, nearly a third of the more than 3,000 hospitalized are so sick that they’re being treated in the ICU.
Wait Times For COVID Tests Are Soaring, So Nashville Is Ramping Back Up
Nashville’s public COVID testing site has been forced to expand this week to meet the increased demand caused by the delta variant surge.
Listen: How A Nashville ICU Nurse Copes With Tennessee’s Latest Surge
Hospitals across the South have rarely needed nurses so badly — specifically, those experienced enough to work in an ICU. A shortage of RNs is the primary reason hospital capacity has become a problem again. And the work has only become more grueling.
Feds Threaten Tennessee With Civil Rights Probes Over Top-Down Resistance To Masking In Schools
The U.S. Department of Education has put eight states on notice that their current guidelines conflict with federal policy meant to offer a safe, in-person learning environment as COVID cases grow among school-age children — up nearly 14,200 cases in Tennessee in the last 14 days.
Tennessee COVID Hospitalizations Are Climbing With No Peak In Sight
Hospitalizations just keep climbing in Tennessee. And administrators know the worst is likely yet to come with new infections still surging and more than 5,000 new cases confirmed on Wednesday alone.
Tennessee Hospitals Are Full And Left With Fewer Strings To Pull
COVID is squeezing hospitals in Tennessee so tight, some of the region’s largest medical centers have declared themselves completely full. And the state is trying to help ease the pressure, to the degree it can.
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