Lakewood man working to recruit thousands of registered nurses to help fight the coronavirus in NYC

LAKEWOOD, Ohio (WOIO) - While we are dealing with the impacts of the coronavirus crisis here in Northeast Ohio, the situation in New York City is much worse. Hospitals are overflowing with patients and many of them do not have enough nurses to care for them.

“We’ve seen the nursing orders explode over 500% what they normally are, and the hospitals are now competing against each other for staff,” said Jesse Sabo, Senior Recruiter at Prime Staffing.

If you’re a registered nurse, New York City needs your help.

“We’re expecting over the next couple of weeks for the demands to keep continue increasing,” Sabo said. “I’ve been working 20 hours a day, 7 days a week and I’m looking forward to be able to sleep when this is all over.”

Jesse Sabo lives in Lakewood, but he is a Senior Recruiter for Prime Staffing. His company staffs 90% of the hospitals in New York City. He is looking for thousands of med surge nurses, ICU nurses and ER nurses to work with the growing number of patients being put on ventilators.

“The nurses understand their role right now and that this is war and they are a soldier on the front line and my job is to recruit the soldiers for the war,” Sabo said. “The pay is astronomical. We’re paying med surge nurses $90 an hour which will be four shifts per weeks 12 hours a day, that’s over $4,000 per week as a nurse which normally it’s not even half of that.”

You need to be a registered nurse, but you don’t have to have a license to practice in New York, they’ve waived that restriction, and many others.

“It’s unheard of for the state of New York to waive the requirements to nurses,” said Sabo. Everyday they’re lessening and lessening the requirements so nurses can come into the hospital faster and every minute counts right now.”

If you’re a nurse and want to help, you can email Sabo at Jesse@primestaffingnyc.com or call (212) 629-7200.

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