MILWAUKEE – Kristina Starcevic grew up hearing stories from her father, a former journalist, about her hitchhiking adventures in her early twenties. She wanted to have the kinds of stories that he was doing.
“How can I ensure safety?” I ask. “And breastfeeding was safe. “
Feeding milk?
This doesn’t come to mind when other people are looking for an assignment with a “travel opportunity,” said Starcevic, 33, but begs for delay.
And the numbers. Staffing Industry Analysts, an independent research and consulting firm, estimates that there are between 40,000 and 50,000 cell nurses each day. In general, they travel a minimum distance from home, say 50 miles, and paint under a 13-week contract. But some cross the country or even abroad for a year at a time.
There are vacancies for these nurses, who are almost itinerant workers who are preparing the flu season and from July to October to cope with the annual increase in newborns. They head to rural and urban areas, and infrequently rush into calamity: New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, the Midwest by flooding, California because of unlimited wildfires.
And now, they characterize a booming workforce niche, the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Starcevic has been helping respond to COVID-19 since March. The ability of fitness systems to handle the virus varies widely, and at hot spots, many managers struggle to remove the void left by front-line fitness care staff who have fallen or wish to be quarantined. . technicians – they went to New York, Seattle, New Jersey and other epicenters to practice their trades.
Starcevic is currently in Houston, where he is running for the first time as a flexible nurse in extensive care. Your job: jumping from one unit to another, starting at 7 p. m. 7 a. m. , 4 days a week, thirteen weeks at a time, while treating the sickest patients with COVID-19.
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Starcevic became a registered nurse in 2011 and spent her first seven years in her hometown of Reno, Nevada, at night.
She moved to Wisconsin a few years ago to be with her boyfriend after leaving in Reno.
He began taking jobs in the state, his first assignment was at a rural hospital in Wisconsin, and his time in Appleton, a city of about 75,000, he enjoyed the latter so much that he stayed for another thirteen weeks.
“If I hadn’t needed so much to go to Texas, I would have lingered, again,” he said.
For Starcevic, the allure of recovery is the delight of new cultures, further learning as a nurse, and seeing other hospitals function. There is also the feeling of not being connected to a place.
“I can and you have a lighter heart, ” he said.
Starcevic is now on his fourth excursion as a traveler, this time in Houston; His previous contract in Dallas. She was attracted to the state of the lone star because of Austin’s mythical music scene, but was left with her attitude.
“People here have time for you,” he says.
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Starcevic discovered his role fastaff Travel Nursing, a firm that specializes in the immediate reception of nurses in crisis centers.
“They will have to have their license up to date; they will have to be ready to fight; they will have to have a bag packed,” said Lauren Pasquale Bartlett, vice president of marketing for Fastaff.
There are about 800 fitness staff agencies in the country and many service nurses, according to Bartlett. Analysts in the staffing industry expect the nursing market to succeed with $6. 4 billion by 2020, a 5% increase over last year’s revenue.
In March and April, Fastaff sent three times as many nurses as at the same time last year. In Texas, it has multiplied 10. La call is for critical care nurses, Bartlett said.
Earlier this year, the average salary for a nurse was about $ 1,700 consistent with the week, according to the NurseFly staffing firm. In March, that salary was 76% higher to more than $ 3,000 consistent with the week. more than double. It is not unusual for readers to also get relocation, room and board subsidies.
Travel nursing has become more available through inter-state licensing agreements. Recently, 33, adding Wisconsin, are fully participating in the Enhanced Nursing Licensing Compact, which allows nurses with a valid license in one of the states to practice freely among others. Nursing Licensing Compact expenditures await legislative approval in six other states.
In reaction to the pandemic, nursing has been strengthened through a series of decrees that eliminate licensing regulations.
Starcevic in Dallas when the first instances of the new coronavirus began to appear. His hospital set up a 20-bed extensive care unit to care for these patients and spent the remaining 10 weeks treating them. Starcevic, along with the other nurses, provided 100 percent of the care in her unit, she said: respiratory therapy, physical therapy, and lab work.
She is now applying to the Texas Medical Center in Houston and treating more COVID-19 patients. At 2. 1 square miles, it is the largest medical complex in the world. Starcevic accepted the day of his interview and had a week to find accommodation.
Some customers prefer to stay in hotels or rent empty houses or apartments and fill them with rental furniture, others decide to live in mobile homes and trailers, Starcevic prefers to rent furnished spaces. He said the infirmary can be very lonely, but in Houston he has a roommate, the owner of the house, and they “really fit in. “
Despite its danger, Starcevic and his colleagues at the UCI prefer to paint on the floors of COVID. In those hospital spaces, the N95 mask is worn at all times, except for lunch breaks.
“I take care of those in poor health of those in poor health,” he said. “A point where your core is beating, you have a smart core frequency, a smart blood pressure, and the next moment you crash. “
She resigned he he he hesed to the likelihood of being infected, saying, “It’s yes, even when. “
In case he was weakened, he gave legal force to one of his smart friends, some other ICU nurse.
Starcevic has noticed intubated patients for more than a month. The worst are those that come with pre-existing conditions, such as hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes.
He said his hospital was adequately staffed for the first 4-5 weeks, but not much longer. Some of his colleagues experienced professional burnout and others took a break due to deaths in their families caused by COVID-19.
“Seeing so many dead can bill a soul, ” said Starcevic.
For her, the worst component of the task is taking care of the circle of family members who do not perceive or conform to the procedure of dying. But notice that they are writhing in pain.
“All my life I had wondered what it would be like to be a nurse in times of war or in a pandemic,” she said. “When the pandemic was first announced, I wasn’t even scared. It was more of a “let’s do this. ” “
The project values him and plans to extend his stay in Houston, but first, after his contract ends in October, he needs to at least take a few weeks off to see his boyfriend, who is lately on a project in Colorado.
“There is an undeniable emotion that comes from not knowing in one domain for too long,” Starcevic said.
Follow reporter Agya K. Aning on Twitter @agyakaning
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