Some much-needed relief is on the way to North Texas hospitals as new covid cases continue setting new records.
The state is sending about a thousand traveling nurses to the North Texas trauma area to relieve overworked, exhausted healthcare workers. Misty Smith is one of them.
"It's very taxing on the body," Smith said to KRLD's media partners NBC 5. "It's taxing on the mind. Nurses, we typically work three to four shifts in a normal setting. We're working five, six, seven days a week, picking up night shifts and mid shifts just to help out, taking time away from our family so we can serve the community."
Smith is heading out Sunday to start her new, temporary position at Methodist Dallas.
Health officials say hospitals are more short-staffed now than they have been in previous surges, partly because the highly contagious nature of Omicron means more medical staff are calling in sick.
The extra nurses are desperately needed, but as COVID-19 cases continue to climb and break county records, health officials say they just aren’t enough.
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