As of Monday, Northeast Georgia Health System had 110 confirmed COVID-19 patients in its care. The Gainesville-based system hadn’t seen so many COVID-19 patients since February, officials said.
Elizabeth Larkins, executive director of medical nursing at Northeast Georgia Health System, said her teams of nurses and respiratory therapists are exhausted, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“Our staff that are in the front lines are still recovering from the mental and emotional strain of the past 18 months,” Larkins said, while trying to hold back tears at a Monday press conference in Gainesville. “Many of them tell me they don’t know if they can take another surge.”
The health system is now looking to hire more than 500 nurses to lessen the strain. Larkins said there are more than 340 registered nurse positions and more than 170 certified nurse assistant positions that need to be filled.
Many of these jobs come with sign-on bonuses ranging from $5,000 to $8,000. You can check them out on the health system’s website.
In April, Annette Kennedy, president of the International Council of Nurses, called on governments to invest in nurses’ pay and education not just for now but for the future.
Despite the pandemic raising awareness of what nurses go through and how essential they are, ICN warned in a report that ongoing issues could worsen the shortage of qualified nurses.
Pay and working conditions are at the root of strikes in Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, the United States and other countries.
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