Many MO hospitals have hired traveling nurses to keep the doors open during the pandemic, but that comes at a hefty price

Many Missouri hospitals have hired traveling nurses to keep the doors open during the pandemic, but that comes at a hefty price. 

Scotland County Hospital in northeast Missouri has hired traveling nurses at rates of two-hundred-dollars an hour or more. 

Nursing Director Elizabeth Guffey says nurses are harder to come by due to working long hours during the pandemic, burnout, and not enough pay.

AMN Healthcare Services, a San Diego-based medical staffing agency, says the travel nurse staffing business has grown by 37 percent during the pandemic.