Design Your Dream Nursing Career
By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN Just as little kids mull over the possibilities of what they want to be when they grow up, nursing students custom design their dream career. A few years on the med-surg floor first, then perhaps a move into the ER or ICU, followed by a return trip back to school for a Master’s degree and later on a nurse practitioner career. Nurses with a wandering spirit are more likely to map out a career as a travel...
The Business of Exporting Travel Nurses
By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN As the U.S. makes it a priority to fill empty nursing positions by any means possible, the Philippines appears to have made exporting travel nurses into a business. I mentioned in a prior blog how the Philippines is a prominent supplier of nurses to America (despite reports that many U.S. trained travel nurses remain unemployed). A Finland newspaper, discussing travel nursing, mentioned how “the...
Health and Language Literacy Intertwine for Traveling RNs
By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN Literacy is no longer exclusively a problem for teachers to address. Nurses and especially travel nurses who travel to certain regions and communities are also facing language and health literacy issues while treating patients. The importance of reading the fine print has been ingrained in the mind of anyone who has ever read a contract. But for ailing or injured patients and their loved ones, taking...
Travel Nurses Can Help Patients Avoid Readmission
By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN Patient discharge teaching is one of the most important parts of the cycle of care and by no means is it the end of the care plan. Unfortunately due to short staffing, heavy patient loads and all around time management issues, discharge teaching can turn into skimming through the discharge papers, hurriedly asking the patient and their family if they have any questions and getting their signature on the...
Overtime Could Benefit Travel Nurses Most
By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN Now is the time to review your travel nursing agency’s policy on overtime along with your current assignment contract. One of the temporary fixes for the nursing shortage that appears to be benefiting both staff and travel nurses is increased opportunities for working lucrative overtime hours (double time in some rare cases). Since the pay scale for traveling nurses is predominantly higher than it is...
Insurance Companies: Finally Flexible?
By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN Preexisting conditions are a part of life. In fact, some say that simply being born qualifies as a preexisting medical condition. Yet it has been a traditional part of health insurance practice to charge higher premiums for individuals with any significant medical history and in some cases deny them coverage all together. This type of policy has been a long standing source of tension between insurance...