It is true many nurses made a shit ton of money getting huge bonuses to sign a contract. The smart ones worked agency, and signed contracts. Unfortunately you are relaying only part of the story. Many nurses were prematurely laid off after the first onslaught of COVID-the hospitals dumped the staff that worked ridiculous case loads and put their lives in jeopardy. Many nurses died, that first COVID was a bitch. I have a good friend who is an ER nurse in Florida-she caught COVID a couple of times, she ended up with lungs with greatly diminished capacity.. They laid her off after the first COVID peak. Here in Oklahoma all the big hospitals dumped a lot of staff after the first COVID peak. The nurses felt betrayed many did not come back.
Conditions were just horrible N-95 masks were in short supply, gloves and gowns too. Nurses were required to store their masks in a bag for reuse the next day. The problem with that tactic is once the masks become saturated with moisture they do not work the same. The masks were never meant for recycling. In fact the only thing that really worked during this pandemic was real respirators, and most nurses were not afforded that life saving luxury.
Fact is most hospitals are no longer paying much of a premium to work with COVID patients. In fact most hospitals no longer test their patients unless they are symptomatic. But then again COVID is not the plague now that it was, probably no deadlier than the Flue. Is it because this virus is more wimpy or because most of the populace has had the virus or been inoculated? Probably both but members of this board would never admit this.