Need a COVID nurse? That'll be $8,000 a week

She remembers her employers telling her and her colleagues to “suck it up” as they struggled to care for six patients each and patched their protective gear with tape until it fully fell apart. The $800 or so a week she took home no longer felt worth it.

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“I was not sleeping and having the most anxiety in my life,” Tripeny said. “I’m like, ‘I’m going to go where my skills are needed and I can be guaranteed that I have the protection I need.'”

In April, she packed her bags for a two-month contract in New Jersey, then a Covid-19 hot spot, as part of what she called a “mass exodus” of nurses leaving the suburban Denver hospital to become traveling nurses. Her new pay? About $5,200 a week, and with a contract that required adequate protective gear.

Months later, the offerings — and the stakes — are even higher for nurses willing to move. In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, nurses can make more than $6,200 a week. A recent posting for a job in Fargo, North Dakota, offered more than $8,000 a week. Some can get as much as $10,000.

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