Halifax Health in Daytona Beach is offering a new incentive to nurses, saying the current surge of COVID-19 cases has left the hospital extremly short staffed.

As of Thursday afternoon, Halifax Health was treating 107 COVID patients, with 27 of them on ventilators.

The hospital is now offering a program called Halifax Flex, that offers nurses the same pay as a traveling nurse without ever having to leave the hospiital. Traveling nurses, on average, earn more money than in-hospital nurses.

Nurses in the new program will earn $45 an hour for 13 weeks, working four shifts a week. Hopsital staff shared they’d like to hire around 150 more nurses, and they hope this program helps alleviate the strain on current employees.

“We don’t stop. Our team members are very dedicated to each other, their patients, their community. So, we would have to say to them, 'No thats OK. You have to take a day off. You can work four shifts, but anything more than that we want to look at it," said Kimberly Fulcher, Chief Human Resource Officer at Halifax Health. "Sometimes we do allow five, but our team members they are tired, and they’ve been through a lot. But they are here and they are ready."

Fulcher said the hospital needs more experienced nurses as soon as possible. Right now, 63 employees are out sick with COVID-19. According to Fulcher, they all still get paid while recovering.

Applications for this program can be filled out online here.