Georgia nurses are driving hours to fill staffing gaps due to Omicron

The FDA is expected to green light new COVID-19 vaccines any day now to help people protect themselves from the latest strains of the virus.
Tori Hood, an emergency room nurse at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, gives 15-year-old Tristan Linscott her first COVID-19 vaccine dose at a pop-up vaccination clinic at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, Georgia in January 2022. (Sam Whitehead/WABE)

Nursing shortages in Georgia have reached a critical point — much like peak, early-pandemic levels.

In order to ease the burden of healthcare workers calling out sick due to the Omicron variant, hospitals, long-term care facilities and other healthcare settings are calling on temporary or travel nurses to drive sometimes hours just to work a shift.

Matthew Mawby is the co-founder of the Alpharetta-based healthcare staffing agency, StaffHealth.

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