As coronavirus hospitalizations broke records in the United States this week, travel nursing companies saw a surge in demand.
In Greenwood Village, inside a seemingly ordinary office building, a 200-person team at Fastaff Travel Nursing is working to keep up.
“We have thousands of nurses in 45 states in almost 400 facilities,” Lauren Pasquale Bartlett, Fastaff’s Senior Vice President of Marketing told 9NEWS Saturday.
“The vaccine brings a lot of hopeful optimism and some of our nurses already received it but in the meantime, it's not doing much helping populations stay out of the hospitals.”
Just a day before the FDA greenlit a second coronavirus vaccine, hospitalizations in the United States hit a record high of 114,000, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
“As the virus has moved throughout the country, our demand for nurses just follows the hotspots,” Pasquale Bartlett stated.
At one point, that trek throughout the country included the Centennial State. Pasquale Bartlett said Colorado saw a 400-500% increase in need of nurses at one point this year.
“Thank goodness we've still found nurses that put their hand up,” she said. “They bravely run into this fire.”
A fire that is now fueled with a little faith. As healthcare workers begin to get vaccinated, many feel a sense of optimism.
Lydia Mobley, a nurse on assignment in Michigan, told Fastaff after she got her first dose she cried with her grandmother over the phone, sharing the news that she'll soon be able to visit her in person.
RELATED: State lawmaker, health care workers describe 'light at the end of the tunnel' upon receiving vaccine
“It’s a great relief for us and a big celebration that the vaccines are now available in all 50 states to healthcare workers,” Pasquale Bartlett said. “As soon as everyone is vaccinated, we’ll feel really good about that.”
Fastaff expects the demand for travel nurses to remain through the springtime, since it may be a while until much of the population gets vaccinated.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: COVID-19 Coronavirus