The highly contagious omicron variant can more easily infect vaccinated staff than previous strains, threatening to further exacerbate the worker shortage.
Health-care workers across the country are preparing for or already tackling a wave of new Covid-19 cases as a result of the fast-spreading omicron variant.
"It's a concern that actually exceeds my concern over omicron-specific hospital admissions based on the trends that we're seeing," he said.While the hospital's been able to find people to fill those shifts right now, "if that trend continues we will be in a very difficult position and we will have to move into crisis staffing," he said.
At South Dakota-headquartered Sanford Health, hospital officials are watching Covid cases spike in other parts of the country and adjusting their own surge plans."We're taking this time to step back and prepare," said Erica DeBoer, chief nursing officer at Sanford. "What worked about our surge plan before and how do we fine-tune that so that we're well prepared?"
Traveling nurses agency Trusted Health is already seeing a surge in demand for workers similar to past waves at roughly four times higher than normal, according to Amanda Maxedon, vice president of marketplace.Health workers at the beginning of the pandemic also weren't struggling with almost two years of fatigue.
"I think that's a big de-stresser, knowing there's more help coming on the units than there has been in the past," she said.While health-care systems take steps to support their workers' mental health, Maxedon said it's important for the support to feel meaningful to employees.