If someone’s looking for job security in a field where pay is almost certainly rising, the nursing profession still has openings.
Hospitals in Mississippi say they’re worried about the departure of 900 nurses brought to the state in September under a contract paid for by the federal government. The nurses were sent to hospitals across the state to provide more manpower during the Covid-19 pandemic’s delta variant phase, which came close to overwhelming medical staffs during its peak.
The problem, however, is much greater than losing the 900 contract nurses. Gov. Tate Reeves said in August that at least 2,000 nurses in Mississippi resigned from their job during the pandemic. Many of them took higher-paying jobs in other states, or went to work as traveling nurses for companies that offered even higher salaries.
No one can blame any nurse, or a worker in any field, who switches to a higher-paying job. Mississippi’s experiences with nurses is a good reminder that jobs are not restricted by state borders. It’s common for people who live near one side of a state line to work on the other side — in the medical field, the oil industry and any number of careers.
As for Mississippi’s nursing shortage, 18 hospital systems in the state, along with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn, asked the governor last month to use some of the federal pandemic relief money to address the problem. They want him to set up a program to give health care workers, especially nurses, a greater incentive to continue working in Mississippi — or to return to work in the state if they’ve recently left.
The governor has not responded publicly to this proposal. But The Associated Press reported that he said the federal contract that brought the 900 nurses to the state has fulfilled its mission and will not be renewed.
Reeves noted, correctly, that Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations have come way down in the last several weeks. Left unsaid, of course, is the knowledge that we’ve seen this trend before. Mississippi had a quiet summer in terms of the virus, and it looked like the worst was behind us — until the delta variant arrived.
Everyone would like to think that our currently declining rates of infections, hospitalizations and deaths are another sign that the virus’ havoc is closer to its end than its beginning. But the truth is, we just don’t know.
Other variants already have been identified, and it’s just a question of when they start spreading in Mississippi — and how much of a threat they turn out to pose.
In light of the possibility that things may one day get worse, the idea to spend some of Mississippi’s $1.8 billion Covid-19 relief money to bolster the state nursing corps is a good one.
It’s hard to think of a better health-care investment during a pandemic than to make nurses’ pay more competitive with other states. There is no doubt their work has saved many lives during the past 20 months.
