Traveling Respiratory Therapists being offered $140 an hour to work at hospitals

Dave Hess

Dave Hess

Joined
Jul 26, 2020
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FL
I know a Director of Respiratory Therapy at a hospital and most of her employees are quitting to work as traveling RTs at various hospitals in the region, state of FL and other states.

$100 an hour is the minimum and so far the bidding for this skilled healthcare profession is up to $140 an hour. I’m not joking !!!!

Not getting political.... but it’s good these hard working folks get the pay they deserve. For waaaaaay too long hospital administrators didn’t appreciate this career field and RTs felt they got less respect compared to nurses.

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Remember, this is $125 contract pay, so they will take home less than this after taxes and insurance.
Plus, you are away from home, working 5-6 days/week (12 hour days mind you) with really sick patients.

I know of several of my coworkers that went to do the travel RN deal making $125 or more an hour, and most have said they have never worked that hard in a long time. I know one in her early 50's that never worked overtime while here actually left her contract early because of the physical and mental toll it was taking on her.
 
blupupher said:
Remember, this is $125 contract pay, so they will take home less than this after taxes and insurance.
Plus, you are away from home, working 5-6 days/week (12 hour days mind you) with really sick patients.

I know of several of my coworkers that went to do the travel RN deal making $125 or more an hour, and most have said they have never worked that hard in a long time. I know one in her early 50's that never worked overtime while here actually left her contract early because of the physical and mental toll it was taking on her.
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I would add, that unless you have tried wearing a PROPERLY fitting true N-95 mask ( heathcare workers are generally fit tested to make sure the mask fits and does not leak), with an astm level 3 mask over that for hours, you have no idea how hard it is to breath and work quickly.

I have a lot of respect for those that do it for entire shifts, its very exhausting. I wear them for our acute stemi patients that we have to treat before their Sars-cov panel is back. Wearing it and moving for 2-3 hours and i'm sweating , tired and my nose is almost dented and bruised. I cannot imagine 8-12 hours doing that. I will say, some hospitals use a lot of CAPRS for this reason.

But still, the work, the exposure to the sickest and the risk of high viral load exposure, risk of taking it home you our loved ones, They do it day after day, nurses, resp techs, nursing techs. They have my respect.
 
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Dave Hess said:
I know a Director of Respiratory Therapy at a hospital and most of her employees are quitting to work as traveling RTs at various hospitals in the region, state of FL and other states.

$100 an hour is the minimum and so far the bidding for this skilled healthcare profession is up to $140 an hour. I’m not joking !!!!

Not getting political.... but it’s good these hard working folks get the pay they deserve. For waaaaaay too long hospital administrators didn’t appreciate this career field and RTs felt they got less respect compared to nurses.

.
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If you think anyone in healthcare is respected, I would like to sell you some property...
 
Ws6 said:
You realize a typical newish RT makes about what a solid waiter/waitress makes at a chain restaurant, right? I'd say they're being paid just about right, now!
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The point was, authorities were cracking down on people profiting off rolls of TP hand sanitizer for $5 in the pandemic, which aren't necessities in the grand scheme of things, yet it's OK if medical professionals can? They up and quit their $40/hour hospital jobs to make $140/hour by traveling to other hospitals. What happens to the hospital they worked at now they are short staffed? The other staff have to work extra shifts? Patient care suffers?
 
atikovi said:
The point was, authorities were cracking down on people profiting off rolls of TP hand sanitizer for $5 in the pandemic, which aren't necessities in the grand scheme of things, yet it's OK if medical professionals can? They up and quit their $40/hour hospital jobs to make $140/hour by traveling to other hospitals. What happens to the hospital they worked at now they are short staffed? The other staff have to work extra shifts? Patient care suffers?
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Maybe if their hospitals treated them better they wouldn't have left. Everyone knows it's a short-term thing, as far as careers go, so if they are willing to walk away from their hospital for it, there's probably a reason. Maybe the hospital will stop treating their employees like disposable items when they realize how much it's costing them. Until then, they're just going to have to suck it up and pay the travelers.
 
CKN said:
Here is the rub-
For Nurses right now it's the old law of "supply and demand". And the vast majority of us would do the exact same thing-given the circumstances.
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It's more than just that. It's being treated like trash for years and years and finally having the ability to stick it to the people who continually treat them like trash by allowing them to be assaulted, attacked, working shorthanded (and when something happens because of it, it's NEVER the hospital's fault...), etc. Money won't fix everything, but bending your employer over for 2-300% your normal pay can probably make some of that stuff more tolerable at least.
 
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atikovi said:
The point was, authorities were cracking down on people profiting off rolls of TP hand sanitizer for $5 in the pandemic, which aren't necessities in the grand scheme of things, yet it's OK if medical professionals can? They up and quit their $40/hour hospital jobs to make $140/hour by traveling to other hospitals. What happens to the hospital they worked at now they are short staffed? The other staff have to work extra shifts? Patient care suffers?
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I guess it depends on if you like the free market or not...
I believe most nurses work far harder then say, a computer programmer like me.
Probably worked far harder in college as well...
And they just might save your life!
Who do you think makes more money?

IMO, there is no such thing as fair.
 
.....and the new minimum wage bill will significantly hurt the federal budget because of home healthcare workers. It seems that those people work very close to minimum wage. Quite a spread in compensation, no?
 
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