Health

Orlando Health looking to hire nurses to combat pandemic

Orlando Health is holding a job fair Friday, hoping to hire registered nurses, graduate nurses and certified nursing assistance to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.

“This past year in nursing has been like nothing else I’ve experienced before in my career,” said Brian Martinez, administrator for patient care services at Orlando Health South Seminole Hospital.

Martinez has also been a nurse for 13 years.

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“COVID really shook up all of out norms and it was really hard to pivot and anticipate everything that was going (to happen),” he said.

Like so many places, Central Florida is seeing nurses working overtime to keep up with the demand the virus is creating.

But the problem is there aren’t enough nurses to go around.

The nurse shortage in Florida is severe.

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Since April, only 236,000 of the 324,000 nurses licensed to work in Florida have been employed, according to the Florida Center for Nursing,

Qualified nurses were treated like a commodity before COVID-19.

Now, some hospitals are finding it even harder to fill nursing position vacancies.

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All Central Florida hospitals are hiring nurses right now.

The Orlando Health hiring event runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at its South Seminole location in Longwood.

Candidates must set an appointment for the event.

Click here to learn more.

Katlyn Brieskorn

Katlyn Brieskorn, WFTV.com

Katlyn Brieskorn is a Digital Assignment Editor at WFTV. She joined Channel 9 in July 2019.

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