At my hospital you mostly see these contracts with the ICU - what happens is that people get their ICU experience (and they're not necessarily new nurses, btw), get their NP or CNA, then bounce. So those floors have at max 2 years from those hires, which is not a very good return in investment. So it is not necessarily to do with any "desperation" to hire since the applicant pool is actually pretty competitive for the ICU but it's just they want to make sure people stay. New grad contracts are for the same reason - maybe people want ER or ICU or any other specialty but as a new grad with 0 experience, some places don't hire those, so the new grads get in where they can, get their 1 year and then move.
