COVID-19 has caused several shortages: paper products, hand sanitizer, and even nurses. When a hospital needs nurses, they might call Fastaff, which has been sending its nurses all around the country. Once a nurse gets an assignment, they pack their bags and need to be there within a week. During a pandemic, these assignments come with some risk, but these nurses are well compensated for their time. They really run into the fire, explained Fastaff Senior VP of Marketing Lauren Pasquale-Bartlett. Theyre very brave, theyre like the special forces of nursing. They go in for these really critical assignments. The need for traveling nurses across the country has increased drastically because of the coronavirus pandemic. One of the states needing nurses is Ohio, according to Pasquale-Bartlett. Particularly in the last few weeks weve seen a two to three increase in demand in requests for nurses to come in and support the staff, she said. That really indicates to us that its an early signal or maybe were right in the middle of a coronavirus spike. Traveling nurses are well compensated. Fastaffs website lists the open traveling nurse jobs in Ohio as paying more than $5,200 a week. Some states are offering more than $8,000 a week for traveling nurses.

1. Assume that a regular salary of a nurse in Ohio is $1,500 a week. Would it make sense for such a nurse to quit the regular job and to take the open traveling nurse job that pays 250% more? What economic considerations would be important for this decision?
2. Suppose the federal law is passed that allows nurses to pause their contracts for the duration of the pandemic. What will be the likely effect of this law on the market salary for travel nurses?
3. The main requirement for becoming a registered nurse is passing the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses. Suppose that nurses from Canada were allowed to take this e x a m and seek jobs of travelling nurses in the US. As a result of that, the number of travelling nurses increased by 3% and the weekly pay of the travelling nurse went down from $5,200 to $4,800. If early vaccination results in additional 10% increase in the number of travelling nurses in December, how much will the weekly pay of travelling nurses change because of that?
4. Suppose a hospital in Ohio pays an equivalent of $3000 a week for overtime work by full-time nurses. Can you think of a good reason to pay $3000 a week for overtime work and $5200 a week for travelling nurses at the same time?
5. Suppose that in the effort to retain nurses, a hospital in Ohio considers offering an annual raise to the full-time nurses. Assume that the typical nurse stays with the hospital for 5 years, currently makes $1,500 a week and would be able to make $5200 week as a travelling nurse for the next 12 weeks (with no additional expenses and with the possibility to go back to the regular work at $1,500 immediately after that). If nurses discount future at 2% a year, what should be the raise to induce the nurse to stay with the hospital?