Hospitals hire extra staff as COVID-19 surges
EVANSTON, Ill. - Due to the increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations, NorthShore University HealthSystem has created a brand new position to help support medical staff, and it plans to hire dozens of people to fill the role.
NorthShore Evanston Hospital President Doug Silverstein says all of the hospital beds across NorthShore University HealthSystem have been full for the past seven to 10 days.
“When you have that level of patients here, puts a lot of strain on your nursing team, and so what we want to do is try to help our nursing team with taking some of the tasks that we know others can do safely,” said Silverstein.
That's where a "staff support tech" will come in.
“They can help in terms of feeding patients, transporting patients and doing hourly rounding with patients. There's so many different ways our nurses can use our staff support techs to help them,” said Silverstein.
The position is temporary, but it could be critical during a second surge.
The HealthSystem plans to hire about 75 to 100 people for this new role, but Silverstein says that number could double depending on the need.
“They're also going to help us in our outpatient areas, in our immediate care sites and in our drive-thru with various functions - even traffic management work - having 800 cars coming through a day for drive-thru testing,” said Silverstein.
The techs will work with patients who have COVID-19 and with patients who don't.
“So we can ultimately get them discharged to whatever the most appropriate site of recovery should be, and then at that point we can get other patients into the hospital, because it's a constant churn right now,” said Silverstein.
You can find more info about qualifications and how to apply, at northshore.org/careers.