The rapid proliferation of COVID-19 infections throughout the United States has led to a shortage of nurses and other front-line staff at viral hotspots, making it unable to cope with floods of unvaccinated patients, including burnout. Losing workers in a profitable out. A temporary gig in the state.

Florida, Arkansas, and Louisiana all have more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any other time in the pandemic, and nursing staff are lean.

In Florida, ambulance services and fire departments are tense to respond to emergencies, as virus cases fill so many hospital beds. Some patients wait up to an hour in an ambulance before being admitted to a hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. This process usually takes about 15 minutes. Barry Burton, administrator of Pinellas County, said.

Joe Canter, Louisiana’s Chief Public Health Officer, was bounced off six hospitals before one who had a heart attack found an emergency room in New Orleans that could accept him. ..

“It’s a really dire situation,” Canter said. “Currently, the state does not have sufficient qualified staff to care for all these patients.”

Michel Thomas resigned from the emergency department manager at a hospital in Tucson, Arizona three weeks ago after hitting a wall.

“I didn’t have a breathtaking time,” Thomas said on Tuesday. “I’ve reached that point … I can’t do this anymore. I’m so tapped out.”

She helped other nurses deal with being alone and having a cell phone in the room with the dying patient so that the family could say goodbye.

“It’s like an incredible burden and trauma,” said Thomas, who wasn’t sure if she would return to nursing.

Miami’s Jackson Memorial Health System, Florida’s largest healthcare provider, has lost nurses to staffing agencies, other hospitals, and pandemic burnout, said Julie Staub. Hospital CEOs say nurses are being tempted to work in other states for double and triple salaries.

According to Staub, the system hospital has begun paying retention bonuses to nurses who have agreed to stay for a period of time. To make up for the shortfall, nurses who have agreed to work extra receive $ 500 for every additional 12-hour shift, in addition to the usual overtime hours and a half. Still, hospitals may have to resort to an agency to fill the opening.

“You see people chasing the dollar,” Staub said. “It’s very appealing if they have the flexibility to pick up, go somewhere, live for a week, months, whatever, and make more money. Every healthcare system has it. I think you are facing. “

Texas Governor Greg Abbott told state officials on Monday to use staffing agencies to find additional medical staff across state boundaries as Delta Variant overwhelms current staffing resources. Did. He also sent a letter to the Texas Hospital Association requesting that the hospital voluntarily postpone all selective medical procedures.

In parts of Europe, with the help of vaccines, despite the widespread distribution of delta variants, we have avoided similar hospital crises.

The UK had more than 5,900 COVID-19 patients in hospitals on Monday, but the recent surge has not overwhelmed medical centers. As of Tuesday, the government said 75 percent of adults were fully vaccinated.

The same was true for Italy. In Italy, summer infections did not result in a surge in hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions, or deaths. Approximately 3,200 people nationwide were admitted to regular wards or ICUs nationwide on Tuesday, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

Italian health officials have advised the government on pandemics and attribute the relatively number of hospitals to the national vaccination campaign, which fully vaccinated 64.5% of Italians over the age of 12.

In the United States, there are an average of over 116,000 new coronavirus infections per day, with approximately 50,000 hospitalizations. This is a level I have never experienced since the winter surge. Unlike the rest of the pandemic, hospitals are now seeing an increase in all non-COVID patients, from car accidents to surgery postponed during an outbreak.

It put an even greater burden on nurses who were already tired after dealing with the constant death of patients and the illnesses of their class.

Gerald Brogan, director of nursing practice at the National Nurses United, a subsidiary of the National Nurses United, said: “The risk to me and my family is too great.”

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, COVID-19 hospitalizations surpassed the worst-ever pandemic surge in Florida, with no signs of giving up and setting a record of 13,600 on Monday. Over 2,800 people needed intensive care. In the midst of a surge last summer, there were more than 10,170 COVID-19 hospitalizations.

At the Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, Florida, the number of COVID-19 patients has doubled weekly over the past month, exhausting staff who are already in short supply, said Penny Caesar, who is in charge of hospitalization there. Stated.

The hospital has transformed the overflow area to accommodate the increase in hospitalizations. Some staff became ill with COVID-19.

“It’s just hard. I’m just tired. I just want to do this,” Caesar said.