Piedmont is offering nurses up to $30,000 in sign-on bonuses to work at the Atlanta-based health system.
The bonuses are for nurses in critical care intensive care units, med-surg, the emergency department and other specialties. Piedmont also is offering up to $18,000 in sign-on bonuses for respiratory therapists.
Matt Caseman, CEO of the Georgia Nurses Association, told Georgia Health News that the state's need for hospital bedside nurses "is the worst we've ever seen it."
Georgia and the nation face a growing nursing shortage, one exacerbated by a pandemic that has increased fear, moral injury and isolation among nurses and other front-line healthcare workers.
Other health systems in the U.S. are offering tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses to get nurses and other healthcare workers to sign on with their organizations. Baptist Health System in San Antonio, for example, is offering new nurses, as well as patient care and lab associates, up to $20,000 sign-on bonuses.