There are all sorts of things you could blame, but saying 'we have no choice' when you do have a choice is disingenuous. As for not requiring a nursing mandate

There are all sorts of things you could blame, but saying 'we have no choice' when you do have a choice is disingenuous. As for not requiring a nursing mandate, if the need is great enough, I could see bringing nurses-in-training to work, or putting on nursing boot-camps to allow someone to do the lowest-level nursing things. I don't claim to have thought about this deeply or to really understand the ramifications, though. I also think that the nurses who say "I'm dead tired, but I need to be back tonight or your life is on the line" need to take a break anyways -- it is like in airplane videos when they say to put on your oxygen mask before you put one on someone else. ---- If we are concerned about the nurses being sick -- they are the ones who understand best what it means and how bad it can get. If we are concerned about the nurses making the populace sick, it is worth remembering that being vaccinated doesn't stop you from catching and spreading the disease.