Omicron surge in southern states adds to tensions with staff issues

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Omicron surge in southern states adds to tensions with staff issues

Transcript¹

As COVID hospitalizations surge, hospitals in southern states can no longer avoid paying competitive wages for traveling nurses, and that creates tension with local nurses who are usually paid less.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

For most Americans, getting vaccinated² remains³ a choice. But like many individual choices, it has consequences for other people. In Southern states, vaccination⁴ rates are low and hospitalization rates are rising.

Shalina Chatlani reports from the Gulf⁵ States newsroom.

SHALINA CHATLANI, BYLINE⁶: Northeastern states have been battling the omicron surge for weeks. Now health systems in the South are in crisis mode.

ALAN JONES: We're dealing⁷ with a really shifty enemy, and it's changing the rules of the game.

CHATLANI: Alan Jones with the University of Mississippi Medical Center says the big challenge now is staffing.

JONES: We would not have expected that we'd have closed beds and a nursing shortage or that it would put out, you know, 175 or 200 of our employees on any given day.

CHATLANI: Nurses are burnt out and quitting. In 2021 alone, over 2,000 nurses left Mississippi. UMMC has five times more nursing positions open than usual. Others have tested positive for COVID-19 and can't work. Demand for travel nurses to fill the gaps is high.

JONES: Maybe in some places we get one step ahead, maybe in some places get one step behind.

CHATLANI: While infections with omicron tend to be less severe than delta⁸, the new variant⁹ is more transmissible. Unvaccinated COVID patients are driving up hospitalizations. And the South has among the lowest vaccination rates.

April Hansen, an executive with travel nurse agency Aya Healthcare, says staffing was a crisis nationally before the pandemic. But now the workforce¹⁰ gap is unsustainable.

APRIL HANSEN: They had a little bit of a breathing room that they just don't have today. Core vacancy¹¹ numbers have nearly doubled.

CHATLANI: With the first wave, she says demand was generally quiet outside major cities.

HANSEN: It didn't take long until that changed.

CHATLANI: Now contracts are available everywhere, and the competition is tough.

HANSEN: Location drives interest. And so places that are highly desirable, like Hawaii as an example - they don't have to try as hard to lure¹² staff.

CHATLANI: Depending on the specialty¹³, travel nurse contracts can pay thousands of dollars a week. Big hospitals might be able to pay, but health care officials say that can be too high for smaller operations, which end up just closing beds.

Sitting outside close to a hospital where he works, Jackson nurse Jimwesley Williams says last year he left for work in Texas, Maine and Wisconsin.

JIMWESLEY WILLIAMS: But I think now in the South - because Mississippi isn't the only place - there's a need here for nurses also, and they've upped their pay.

CHATLANI: Out-of-state gigs were lucrative¹⁴ because hospitals there were desperate, but they were also exhausting.

WILLIAMS: I came back home for school and for family, and I was just blessed enough to find a contract that paid really well here.

CHATLANI: Some Southern hospital systems have more than doubled their travel nurse pay. Williams got a contract worth about $100 an hour and says a number of his colleagues have returned because they miss home.

ROBERT HART: There is a population out there that has ties to this area. So we are able to pull those people back.

CHATLANI: Dr. Robert Hart is executive vice¹⁵ president of Ochsner Health, which runs 40 hospitals across Mississippi and Louisiana. At its peak, Ochsner had around 1,400 staff out sick. But, Hart says, the worker shortage isn't a new problem.

HART: We've got multiple plans in place and partnerships¹⁶ with various universities to educate nurses, increase the size of nursing schools.

CHATLANI: But hospital leaders in the South say that for the foreseeable future, they'll continue to struggle with understaffing.

For NPR News, I'm Shalina Chatlani in Jackson.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE ALBUM LEAF'S "RED-EYE")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

5 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

8 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

9 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

10 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

11 vacancy   

n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺

参考例句：

• Her going on maternity leave will create a temporary vacancy.她休产假时将会有一个临时空缺。
• The vacancy of her expression made me doubt if she was listening.她茫然的神情让我怀疑她是否在听。

12 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。

13 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

14 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

15 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

16 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句