Who Makes a Good Travel Nurse

On some levels working as a professional travel nurse looks like the ideal job. It provides nurses with an opportunity to live and work in different parts of the country. They can interact with new people. Travel nurses pull in an excellent salary. They make friends all over the country. They can move south in the winter, and north in the summer. If they feel like taking a few months off, they don't have to worry about explaining things to their bosses, they just give themselves a few months to improve their mental health before they accept a new assignment. Travel nurses claim that their jobs gives them an opportunity to re-establish their patient focused medicine. Nurses have excellent medical and dental benefits. Who wouldn't want to be a travel nurse?

The reality is that not every person who comes out of a nursing program is not suitable for a career as a travel nurse.

When you are considering a life as a travel nurse you have to ask yourself if you really like to travel. The life of a travel nurse is serious, hard core traveling. Travel nurses are constantly on the move, going from one state to another, taking assignment after assignment. All the moving around eventually takes a toll on the body and soul.

Bear in mind that travel nurses are working, this is not an extended family vacation, they aren't back packing across Europe. While they are on an assignment travel nurses are on a schedule. They are expected to report to work, on time, at the beginning of each one of their shifts. While they are working they are dealing with sick and injured people. They are expected to give one hundred and ten percent of themselves while they are working. Travel nurses go away to work, not to party.

Do you have an easy time making new friends. Travel nurses are constantly going to cities and towns where they are strangers. They don't know anyone in these places. In order for their experience to be positive they have to have a talent for turning complete strangers into close friends.

Nurses that have a significant other may have a hard time adjusting to life as a travel nurse. Unless the significant other is able to travel from one location to another it is difficult to stay together as a couple. One circumstance when travel nursing does work when a couple decides to work in tandem and are able to find nursing assignments in the same hospitals and medical facility's.

Before you sign with a nursing agency decide if you can tolerate moving away from your family, friends, and pets. Working as a travel nurse is going to require you to spend several months away from your home town.

Carefully consider all the requirement and responsibilities expected from a travel nurse before you sign with a nursing agency. Qualities that a good travel nurse should embrace are a zest for adventure, a strong work ethic, confidence in their medical knowledge, and a gregarious personality. If you are a nurse with at least one year of experience working in a hospital and feel that you would make and excellent travel nurse start placing your application at agencies.

Where to Find a Home Nurse

When a doctor tells an adult child that their elderly parent needs round the clock care the child's first though might be to place their parent in a nursing home. This isn't necessarily a bad idea. A majority of the nations nursing homes hire competent and caring employees, there is normally a nurse on duty, the patients receive their medications in a timely fashion, and nursing homes provide their patients with the opportunity to interact with other patients.

On the other hand there is the option of hiring a home nurse. Many home nurses care for their patients for a few hours a week or even on a daily basis. They come into the home at an appointed time and make sure that the patient is in good health, taking their medication, and following the doctors orders. However in cases where round the clock care is required, there are home nurses who will move into the patient's spare bedroom where they can keep a watchful eye on their patients at all times.

It is not unusual for the family to decide that a home nurse is the option they prefer to take, this is especially true when is doubtful that the patient has long to live. The next problem is finding a home nurse to move into the patient's home.

The first thing the family needs to know is that, when round the clock care is required, more then one home nurse will be needed. Most of the times a family has to hire multiple nurses that then arrange to work in shifts. By working on a rotation nurses are able to stay alert and watchful while they are with their patient. Working in shifts also allows the nurses an opportunity to have a private life where they can take a break from their medical duties.

Where can you find a batch of home nurses that are capable of tending to your elderly parent's medical needs?

One of the people who can make a few suggestions about where you can start looking for reliable home nurses is your parent's physician. The doctor should be able to make a few recommendations of nurses and nursing agencies that can match your parent up with a group of reliable and personable nurses that you can confidently welcome into your home.

If your parent's physician has predicted that it is doubtful that your parent will live past a certain point you can contact your state's hospice. They will be able to help you make arrangements for your parent's care and can help you find reliable home nurses.

Check and see if there are any nursing agencies in your immediate area. If you are unable to locate a nursing agency that specializes in home nurses in your local area, you might try contacting a nursing agency that specializes in travel nurses.

If, for whatever reason, the nurses that you hire do not work out, contact the agency immediately. Be friendly and polite when you explain your families reason's for requesting a replacement.

What's Better for an Elderly Parent-A Nursing Home or Home Nurse

As parents age they usually develop a wide variety of ailments that slow them down and make day to day living difficult. As they continue to age and their physical conditions worsen, their children find that they are taking on an ever increasing share of the responsibility of caring for their elderly parent. At some point a majority of these children realize that at some point their parent's health has deteriorated to a point that the child can no longer take care of the parent. At least not by themselves. When this happen the child has to decide if their elderly parent would better off in a nursing home or if moving a nurse into the home would be a better option.

Nursing homes are great because they provide twenty-four hour round the clock care. Most nursing homes hire competent and caring people. Your parent will receive three well balanced meals, receive their medications in a timely fashion, and have the benefit of a social life. The down side to nursing homes is that it is sometimes difficult to visit your elderly parent. It is also difficult to decide if moving your elderly parent from their familiar surroundings and into an unfamiliar nursing home will cause their parents condition to worsen at a more rapid rate.

A home nurse is a nurse who is trained to come into a patients home and care for them. They are responsible for making sure that the patient continues with their physical therapy and takes all their medications.

Some home nurses come into the home for just a few hours a day to check their patients overall health and to help them take their medication. These nurses are typically paid an hourly rate and usually don't move into the home.

Some people hire a home nurse to help patients rehabilitate after surgery. These nurses come into a home and check that the patient is proceeding with their physical therapy, that they are eating, that their spirits are high, and that they are taking their medications and painkillers, and to answer any questions that the patient might have. This type of home nurse could be at a patients homes seven days a week or as seldom as once a week. This type of home nurse is typically employed by a hospital or medical facility. The facility pays the nurse and then bills the patient or the patients insurance company.

In some case doctors recommend that their patients recommend that a patient needs twenty-four hour, round the clock care. In these cases, a home nurse normally move into the patients home. The home nurse typically sleeps in the patients spare bedroom. They help arrange doctor's appointments, make sure the patient is following a strict diet, they see that the patient is taking all their medications, and make sure that the patient doesn't seem to becoming depressed over their condition.

It is not unusual for a home nurse who moves into a patients house and become a valued member of the family.