For the last two weeks my cellphone has been ringing non-stop as healthcare recruiters from all over the Northeast have been trying to contact me.  Pay rates for RNs, LPNs, PCTs, and CNAs in New York City have almost doubled seemingly overnight and they keep going up.  Salaried doctors and nurses already on staff are facing some pay cuts, but NYC hospitals and nursing homes are desperate, and many recruiters are about to make a killing adding desperately-needed support staff that deal directly with pateints.  Something’s not adding up. Less than a month ago, at the now infamous Elmhurst Hospital in Queens where patients with the Chinese virus are reportedly dropping like flies, the same recruiters were only willing to pay nursing assistants and patient care techs the federally mandated minimum wage with zero medical benefits, zero paid time off, and zero opportunities for a pay raise or professional advancement.  To put this into perspective, just a...(Read Full Article)