Straining to handle record numbers of COVID-19 patients, hundreds of the nation’s intensive care units are running out of space and supplies and competing to hire temporary traveling nurses at soaring rates. Many of the facilities are clustered in the South and West. … More than 40% of Americans now live in areas running out of ICU space, with only 15% of beds still available. … Nurses who work in the most stressed ICUs, changing IV bags and monitoring patients on breathing machines, are exhausted.