Beshear pleads with furloughed KY health workers to reject offers from other states
Jessica Estes of Lewisport near Owensboro makes about $60 an hour as a psychiatric nurse practitioner in Kentucky.
She was offered $180 an hour, plus free lodging, travel expenses and a food allowance if she would bring her skills to assist coronvavirus patients in the hard-hit state of New York.
“That’s a lot of money, three times my salary, even if it meant an 80-hour week, which I have done many times,” she said. “But I feel I have a responsibility to the residents of Kentucky. Plus my family would prefer that I stay in the state.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear would be pleased with Estes’ decision.
The Democratic governor is worried that some of the thousands of health care workers who have been furloughed or laid off because of the state’s ban on elective medical procedures will choose to accept lucrative work offers in other states instead of applying for unemployment benefits as they wait to help with Kentucky’s expected spike of COVID-19 patients.
Recently at a daily 5 p.m. news conference, Beshear held up an advertisement from hard-hit New York.
It said: “Positions available. PAs (physician assistants) and NPs (nurse practitioners). Large deployment to NYC (New York City). $13,000 per week. Food stipend. Travel reimbursement. Luxury lodging. 21 day minimum.” It included a phone number if anyone were interested.
Beshear said health care systems in some other states were “willing to pay big dollars” to “our frontline health care workers and our first responders” to assist them in the coronavirus pandemic.
He warned: “We know there might be other opportunity out there but if you go to another state and come back you will have to self-quarantine for 14 days.”
The governor then pleaded, “But let me say right now, we need you. We don’t have excess. We want to help all of those around us. If it is appreciation, you got it. Not just from me but it’s from everybody all over this commonwealth.
“So, we need you. We hope that you will stick with us. And your efforts are going to be incredibly important in helping us get through this.”
Estes, who also is executive director of the Louisville-based Kentucky Board of Nursing, said the board has not been solicited by any other state for nurses “but I am aware of the headhunters on a personal front.”
Beshear spokeswoman Crystal Staley said the administration is “aware of the state losing intensive care unit nurses to other states.” She did not have a ready number on how many have left.
Estes said she does not know any Kentucky nurse who has left the state during the coronavirus pandemic to work in other states.
“It’s a personal decision, especially when you hear of hospital and health care facilities with layoffs, furloughs and you need work, but I think most Kentuckians want to stay here,” she said.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Kentucky has 60,360 nurses of all practice levels: 45,500 registered nurses, 1,230 nurse anesthetists, 130 nurse midwives, 2,980 nurse practitioners and 10,520 licensed practical nurses.
Their annual pay ranges from $181,120 to nurse anesthetists to $39,460 for LPNs.
Adam Haley, executive director of the Lexington-based Kentucky Academy of Physician Assistants, said some of his board members have told him they are aware of the out-of-state recruiters.
“You hope our health care workers stay in Kentucky but it’s entirely left up to the individual,” said Haley.
Kentucky has about 1,500 physician assistants. Their average annual salary is $84,800 a year.
“I don’t know how many PAs have taken up offers from other states but anecdotally I have heard some have,” said Haley.
He added: “There may be more with the various staff reductions at some hospitals and health clinics in the state.”
In recent days, hospitals across the state have delivered bad news to employees, telling them of layoffs, pay cuts, furloughs and other job action due, in a large part, to suspension of elective services and diagnostic tests.
Most of the job reductions will be temporary, the institutions hope.
Baptist Health Lexington, which announced various job cuts this week, would normally “in a time of crisis proudly assist other states by providing medical care,” said spokeswoman Ruth Ann Childers.
“This is an unprecedented crisis that puts our staff in harm’s ways by traveling to another state, and would require them to be in quarantine for 14 days when they return,” she said. “Our hope is with the amount of unemployment assistance available to them as a result of the furlough, they will stay healthy at home and no amount of money will tempt them to leave.”
Chuck O’Neal, deputy executive director of the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services, said he has heard that New York requested emergency ambulance resources and personnel through a federal act governing ambulances and that a private ambulance company in Kentucky has responded with two ambulances and four personnel for two weeks.
“They will have to be in quarantine for 14 days when they return,” said Poynter.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 3:15 PM.
