There is record demand for travel nurses, who take out-of-town assignments on short-term contracts of 13 weeks or less at elevated wages. Per-diem nurses, who are willing to take a shift or two in their local hospitals, have been pressed into service. In El Paso, University Medical Center has added 150 travel nurses, respiratory techs, respiratory therapists, doctors and medical technicians, plus 60 doctors and nurses supplied by the military, according to hospital spokesman Ryan Mielke. But in many places, it is up to nurses to speak up when they feel conditions are unsafe, which can endanger their jobs, said Jean Ross, co-president of National Nurses United, a nurses labor union. “This is the warmest welcome I’ve ever had as a travel nurse,” she said.
