Adding to this breakdown for many were the city and state vaccine mandates. Many believed that they had worked hard with limited resources and experience against COVID-19 and now the appreciation is losing your job over your own ability to make health care decisions. Another major issue is the shortfall of individuals who wish to be health care providers. Many individuals and families observed how hard healthcare workers were required to work and to work while other professions and jobs could work from home.

One of the most important aspects in the shift was the introduction of massive numbers of temporary workers during the pandemic which continues today. Temporary workers (typically known as Locums) are a major contribution to staffing issues. As regular hospital staff learn about the financial rewards that locum providers receive, it only leads to more individuals questioning, “why do I still work here?”.

Locum providers may be receiving two to three times the hourly rate of pay, and in some cases, free housing, rental cars and meal allowances. This is not a good model for worker satisfaction where an individual works through the pandemic with all its stress and is now training an individual who will make many folds their salary with additional perks who has no loyalty to the facility. In some areas of the country locum health workers may be from the hospital down to the street. Employees from hospital A go to hospital B then hospital C without having to travel.

U.S. Health System Failing – by Joel S Hirschhorn