The Latest Edition of The Travel-Nurse Journal Online

NURSING STATION
Hello and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers since the last issue. I am your host Alphatraveler. I have also been a deployed reservist since Jan 2005.

Many Things have happened since my last update to you. The price of gas has risen and fallen. The economy is doing the roller coaster ride of the century. Nursing shortages continue with some interesting twists.

The number of technician roles being created is at an all time high. I just talked to an individual the other day who is being recruited for a new vocational program a college has started in San Antonio. The title is Cardio-Vascular Interventional Imaging Tech. Basically, he would become a very specialized ex-ray tech with a very narrow focus. The money is good. But, I have to wonder...How many jobs are there really going to be for this career? How many raises will there really be?

Other considerations exist too. Will he be licensed? Or will a Registered Nurse be expected to manage, supervise, and sign off on the work of this tech role?

I suspect that many of you are running into this where you work. The healthcare industry was already experiencing a shortage of skilled workers. The economy will only increase the pressure as hospitals start to feel the pinch even more.



Travel Nurses & the Economy
Welcome to a recession proof industry. The news does have reports of hospitals that are scaling back. Some are refusing to hire new nurses. Others use techs, CNA's, and LPN's to perform tasks that are traditionally the role of the RN.
Lets face it. Does an RN really need to do a bedbath? Probably not, but they do need to assess and re-assess the patient periodically. One of the chief arguements for having the RN do the bedbath was that was also a good time to do a thorough physical exam.

Back to the nursing shortage. Yes, it still exists and there are hospitals and other employers who are still working hard to find nurses. Unfortunately, wages are not going up in huge leaps and bounds. But, the wages aren't bad either. Unless you are still living in some parts of the south where wages for everyone are traditionally lower than the rest of the country.

So, while the job growth has slowed nursing is still experiencing job growth and increased demand. Predictions are that 233,000 jobs will be created in nursing between now and 2016. This is in addition to the 2.5 million jobs already in existance. The U.S. Department of Labor is predicting that only 200,000 candidates will be licensed as RN's by 2016.

These shortages will be in addition to shortages caused by retirements, drop outs and increased demand for other reasons. It is estimated that 1 in 5 registered nurses do not work in nursing because of burn out.

Links to some of the stories out there:

Roll Out the Red Carpet

Jobs Increasing Despite the Economy

Students looking for Job Security

Still Travel Nursing Jobs


Weight Loss Secrets are really not a secret. As nurses we all know that we eat too much because of stress, long hours and never enough time to fix the right foods. We also know that exercise reduces stress, increases energy and helps us burn the fat.
But, did you know that you can gain huge benefits just by changing your habits. Did you know that there is a way to Burn The Fat & Feed the Muscle



Featured Website
This issue’s featured site is http://www.codeblog.com/
Code Blog is written from the P.O.V of a pediatric ICU nurse. Its warm, funny and reminds me of why I am a nurse. But, if you have ever wanted to do "extra" procedures on your patients family members I think you can relate to the latest post.

If you are curious about what your fellow nurses think about, write about or just want to laugh lots go to your favorite web browser and type in Nurse Blogs. Be sure you have a few minutes because this is interesting stuff.


Clinical Research Nurse
Nursing is more and more all about evidence based practice. Where does that evidence come from? Why, evidence based practice comes from research. And who better to make sure that research meets the standards than nurses? A short but informative article on the Clinical Research Nurse career http://alternativenursingcareers.blogspot.com/2007/08/alternative-nursing-careers-cra.html
Notice that's a blog.


Nurses in History
She was arrested for creating a public nusiance and sent to jail. She was indicted for mailing "obscenities". She has been accused of being an advocate of eugenics and racism. She was a member of the Socialist Party and was forced to flee to Europe to avoid arrest and prison. Yet, she is one of the most influential nurses in history....
And now, for the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey says)

This infamous nurse is Margaret Sanger. The founder of the organization known as Planned Parenthood.

Margaret was born in 1879. She worked in the East Side slums of New York and became a champion of Womens Rights. It was in large part because of her advocacy for the right of women to use birth control that led to laws that allowed doctors to discuss birth control with their patients in the U.S.

She established the first "planned parenthood" clinic in 1916(or 1917) and was sent to the "workhouse" or county jail for creating a public nusiance.

She died in 1966 but no one will ever forget the legacy that a woman who was "just a nurse" left behind.

Links to Margaret Sanger Bio and DVD

Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America


Choices of the Heart: the Margaret Sanger Story (True Stories Collection)


Travel Nurse Tip
It's Tax time again so this travel nurse tip focuses on items that you can deduct as a travel nurse. Deductible items include:
Stethoscopes
PDR
Scrubs purchased for work
Subscription fees to Nursing Associations
Travel expenses not re-imbursed by your travel agency
Job search costs when you change jobs
Nursing License fees
CEU costs. Any fees you pay for continuing ed


for more information go straight to the source: www.irs.gov


Suggest a Topic
Got a topic you'd like to see? Suggest one to alphatraveler@the-travel-nurse.com and you just might see it in our next monthly issue.

Well, here we are with another post from the hinterlands of travel nursing. In my last post I talked about taking a gig in Washington DC. Since then, my main travel vehicle has morphed. It grew up to be a Jeep. The economy has tanked and I took another travel assignment with U.S. Army. This time I have traveled to San Antonio Texas. I have been here since October 2008 and I am impressed. San Antonio is a friendly town and the Riverwalk is an incredible place to visit. I even took a horse drawn carriage ride.

The economy is having an impact even on travel nursing. Reports are that even though there is a nursing shortage many hospitals faced with tough choices are cutting back on nursing or just not filling the slots. This only increases the pressure to create less skilled categories of workers. Med Tech, Nurse Tech (for nursing students who have not quite graduated) and other categories of healthcare workers are being talked up. The danger to the public is they may be fooled into believing that having less skilled technicians at their bedside is as good as having a skilled registered nurse at the bedside.

There is a role for the CNA, LVN or a licensed Medical Technician in healthcare. What they are not is a replacement for the registered nurse. Too many administrators and other healthcare decision makers when faced with budget woes and nursing shortages are going to be very tempted to make that choice.

Are you an economy traveler?

When you travel to an assignment do you look for the least expensive options? Or do you look for comfort and convenience? I know that there are a vareity of ways to travel. Some travelers prefer to fly to an assignment and use public transportation to commute to work.

In some respects that is the most economical method as you don't have auto maintanence, gas, oil and wear & tear on your car to worry about. Unfortunately, I have never been much of one to rely on taxi or public transportation. So I have developed a method of traveling that suits my needs.

I have a little ford escort that gets great gas mileage. It's an awesome little car in many respects. Repair and maintainence costs are less than for a comparable import car such Toyota or Honda. Of course, it doesn't hold much stuff. I have solved the extra luggage issue quite handily however. as you can see from the picture :) The car top carrier gives me additional carrying capacity and I can take most of the bare essentials needed for an travel nurse assignment with me in one trip.

Comments and huzzahs are always cheerfully accepted. This is a moderated blog so I may take a short while before I give permission for your rasberry to show up. ;)

Your faithful traveler

Alphatraveler

www.the-travel-nurse.com

Cross Country Travel

I just finished driving from Washington DC to Washington State. Amazingly it only took 4 days. I came across the upper northern part of the country. Using a GPS device I fondly refer to as "Mother" I came through Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Illinios, Wisconsin, Michigan and North Dakota. I then drove through Montana, Idaho and Finally on into Washington State. According to mother the total mileage was about 2625 miles.

The trip was wonderful. I saw some awesome scenery. It looks like I will be traveling back to Washington DC next month for an assignment there again though. I have a really good offer that I am considering.

If you are traveling with children now is the time to be scoping out the school districts where your next traveling assignment might be. Unless you home school of course. If you are a home schooler you might want to check out some resources online for home schoolers.

The Home School Mom features a free newsletter, links to other homeschool resources and some free home school educational materials. May be worth a look

Home School Central features a new to home schooling page. They also have a state by state resources directory so you can find local stuff.

Travel Nurse Timeliness

Too long since I last posted here. Time flies when you are having fun. I have been busy working on my Masters Degree and at Walter Reed Medical Center. I spent a year there being a staff nurse, education coordinator and almost but not quite the assistant head nurse in the Intermediate Care Unit. The soldiers are awesome people who work hard at recovering. There just isn't enough that can be said about the men and women in our armed forces.

I have been working on a couple of really good sites that still need some work but they are good complements to the The Travel Nurse .

I have finally put the finishing touches to a site that details healthcare salaries for over 50 healthcare occupations. The site is called http://www.healthcaresalaryonline.com/ Did you know that a benefits package can be worth over $20,0000? see how a typical benefits package breaks down

A site that I am really proud of creating (yes, I feel there is more to be done) is called military-nurse.com. It's good site for those who are curious about the Military Nurse experience. I have also created a pretty good history of military nurses page that should be familiar to most nurses. A lot of the nurses who were pioneers in modern nursing were involved in military nursing as well. Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton and Dorothea Dix all had a part in modernizing military nursing

Some Fun Nursing Facts

National Nurses week which is celebrated the week of May 6th-12th annually co-incides with the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale was born May 12th 1820. The idea of a nurses holiday was proposed in 1953 by Dorothy Sutherland of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In 1974 President Nixon declared a National Nurses Week.

2.5 million - The number of Registered Nurses in the United States.

3.0 million - The number of Registered Nurses in the United States by the year 2012.

92% - The percentage of nurses who are women

600,000 - The number of licensed practical or licensed vocational nurses in the United States.

Largest Healthcare Profession in the U.S. - Nursing

7569 - Approximate number of hospitals in the United States.

1873 - First year a nursing degree was awarded in the U.S.

1846 - The first hospital training school for nurses is established in Germany.

25% - The percentage of Registered Nurses who work part time.

$28.71 - Mean hourly wage for Registered Nurses in the U.S.

Want to know what a travel nurse does?

Are Foreign Nurses the Answer to the Nursing Shortage in the USA?

Over the last few days and weeks I have received a number of interesting articles in my e-mail box proposing an interesting contradiction in viewpoints.

One of the viewpoints states that importing foreign nurses to solve the nursing shortage in the USA is causing nursing wages to be kept artificially low and discouraging qualified nurses from becoming instructors at nursing programs. The net effect is fewer nurses in the profession and lower wages overall for everyone. Foreign nurses are willing to work for lower wages for a variety of reasons. In many cases it's because they don't realize that prevailing wages are higher than they expect. Often, it's because the nurses fear asking for more money because of the perception that the employer will take steps to have them deported if they "rock the boat". According to one article over 30% of the nursing workforce are foreign born nurses. The call for higher wages is coming from a number of groups including nursing instructors and other health care advocates. One of the detrimental effects often cited as a reason to limit the number of foreign nurses we use in the USA is that it steals critical skills needed in the countries that these nurses come from.

The opposing viewpoint states that part of the solution to solving the nursing shortage should involve bringing in more nurses from foreign countries. These nurses are critically important to filling the empty nursing jobs advocates say. There are barriers that need to be overcome including language proficiency and making sure the nurses can meet the standards required to be licensed as a nurse in the USA. Advocates of increasing the number of foreign nurses point out the disturbing facts that nursing shortages are having a direct impact on patient care and potentially harming patients who don't receive adequate care or the right care because of the nursing shortage.

Issues are raised by both sides that are relevant and require answers. Are nurses who come from the Phillipines (0r other countries) the health care equivalent of 'sweatshop labor" forced into an economic slavery? How much harder is it to be a patient advocate if you live in fear of unemployment and deportation? Are we just being selfish when we take the best and the brightest nurses and bring them to the USA? What is the impact on the other countries? The world is in the midst of a global nursing shortage. Aren't we just making the problem worse when we "rob Paul to pay Peter"?

One thing this author knows for sure is this... In times of turmoil come opportunities. Travel Nursing is alive and well in these turbulent times.

If you are a nurse and you are curious about wages and benefits of nursing you really should check out healthcaresalaryonline.com

Until next time I remain your Travel Nurse commentator