Friday, October 9, 2009

What's Better for an Elderly Parent-A Nursing Home or Home NurseTraveling Nurses: The pay and the benefits

There are a lot of benefits to becoming a traveling nurse not to mention top pay in a very high demanding field. There is a huge demand in the nursing profession and travel nurses are placed in areas around the country to fill those vacancies.
A quick overview of all the benefits you may find when becoming a travel nurse is listed below. These benefits are just a few of the many rewarding benefits you will experience.

Travel:

As a traveling nurse you are reimbursed for all your travel expenses from moving to and from each assignment. Some agencies cover gas mileage while some will offer up to 650 for air travel expense. Most agencies have worked it in a way that your travel expensive is tax free.

Housing:

While on assignment your housing is paid for including your basic utilities. Private housing usually includes a one bedroom apartment close to your assignment that is full furnished. If your needs are greater then a 1 bedroom then you may have to pay a small portion towards your special housing needs. You can also choose to live in your own accommodations that you find yourself and will be given a housing allowance based on area of assignment. Some of the communities that travel nurses are placed in include gyms, pools, spas and clubhouses. You can even travel with your spouse, children or pets. Depending on your needs your agency will help you obtain the housing that you need to suit your lifestyle.

Retirement Plans:

Most agencies will offer you some kind of retirement plan, a 401K or something of that nature. You will want to see if the agency you work matches your contributions.

Medical, Dental and Eye Insurance:

Most of the top agencies will offer you medical, dental and eye insurance at no cost to you. Your dependent coverage will depend on the company and is usually available for a minimal fee. You are usually offered a choice of plans that you can choose from that will suit your lifestyle and needs.

Top Rate Pays:

As a traveling nurse you will be opened up to a higher pay level then if you where a non-travel nurse. As a traveling nurse you can obtain hourly pay up to $60.00 per hour depending on the assignment and the location of the assignment.

Sign on Bonuses:

Depending on the type of assignment available and the demand for the position to be filled some facilities will offer a sign on bonus. A sign on bonus can range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars easy. Some agencies will even offer you a sign on bonus to sign on with their agencies. As the needs in the nursing field grow more agencies are looking to fill positions.

Completion Bonus:

Although not as common as the sign on bonuses some agencies will offer a completion bonus for when you complete an assignment.

Referral Bonus:

Some agencies also offer their employees a referral bonus when they have someone sign up with the agency and say that their employee referred them to the agency. Sign on bonuses can range from a hundred to a thousand dollars. Some agencies have even offered more for their referral bonuses.

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.

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.

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.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Travel Nurse Agency: How to Choose the Right One

Travel Nurse agencies are intermediaries between a travel nursing jobseekes and travel nursing employers Travel nursing career is a critical career and in that respect a travel; nurse does not go about finding employment working at various hospital themselves. That is where a travel nurse agent comes into the travel nurse careers. All employment applications are processed by the travel nurse agents. it is your responsibility to the appropriate agent.

A travel nurse first need to have direct dealings with his travel nurse agent as he determines the success of the travel nurse, as in salary payment and other benefits. Payment his made by the hospital to the travel nurse agent on behalf of the nurse which means a travel nurse must have inquired about the method of payment, how often payment checks are made by the agency. Like weekly, monthly or at the completion of each nursing job etc. knowing the agents payment plan enable you to plan your own life. Network with those using the agency service and see if they are happy with them.

There are so many things you could find out from those working with the agent; like how often they get work, work duration and condition of work environment, is the travel nurse job all the year round or there are breaks in between. Go out of your way to ask funny question and you never can tell what you are going to realize from them.

To put a travel nursing agency on your consideration list, you need to read their policies on travel expenses, rules and regulations. Like some travel nurse agents pay travel expenses on their travel nurses while some don't pay.

Talk to the travel nurses who are already employed by the agency about the living arrangements. Most travel nursing agencies find housing for their nurses. Talk to the other travel nurses about how accessible the hospitals are to the housing. Find out if the housing is typically well furnished. Ask if the housing facility's are kept clean or if the agency just looks for the cheapest possible place.

Finally, you also need to consider requesting for information about the duration of your service with the travel nurse agency, how long the travel agency has been doing that kind of agency work. Then how sure is your check payment at the end of each agreed service period.

How do I pick a Specialty before a Career as a Travel Nurse

As a travel nurse working towards a travel nursing career , once you have completed most of your educational training and requirement, you will need to choose a specialty. Depending on your choice of doctors selection, you may prefer to work in a large and rowdy hospital where they lots of patients. And you may not want to expose yourself to the stress of working in that kind of environment. Theses two factors will help you decide the kind of specialty to want to work. If truly you want to pick up a travel nurse job then you must choose a specialty in order to help a travel nurse agent decide your suitable location.

Research about each available specialty is something a nursing student need to carry out in order to settle on a specialty store and also decide the one that best suite their interest and their individual personality. Consider the following specialties if you can see any one that suite your interest: occupational health, home health care, emergency care, ambulatory care, critical care nursing. For example if you wish to work as an ambulatory care nurse, the you should be ready to help treat many illness and injuries, you can also teach educational courses but not likely for an ambulatory nurse to go into video conferencing.

Nurses who pursue careers in ambulatory care are not nurses who ride around in ambulances. Nurses who specialize in ambulatory care are nurses who work at helping treat a multitude of illnesses and injuries. It isn't unusual for ambulatory nurses to expand their career to include video conferencing. It is often ambulatory nurses who can be found teaching educational courses.

for an occupational health nurses, they work with patients that were injured at work. The work in relationship with OSHA and not a normal thing for an occupational nurse to be hired by a business for the purpose of coming into the working environment

Critical care nurses are exactly what they sound like, nurses who work in the critical care unit. These nurses take care of patients that are recovering from severe injuries, heart attack victims, and severely ill patients. Critical care nurses need to have steady nerves and have to be able to maintain their composure in all situations.

Emergency care nurses are nurses who work in the emergency room. Emergency care nurses see patients who are suffering from strokes, heart attacks, severe injuries, and sudden illnesses. Some nurses who specialize in emergency care go on to get a helicopter pilots license so that they can fly the hospitals helicopter and pick up and transport patients to different hospitals. Emergency nurses see a variety of illnesses and injuries on a daily basis.

Holistic nursing are a kind of travel nursing that has to do spiritual need of patients and provision of other services such as aroma therapy acupuncture. To be an holistic nurse, need to possess a good communications skills and must be ready to stay long on a single patient.

Nurses looking for travel nurse careers that has to do with the rehabilitation of a patient that has just left the hospital for home are the home care nurses. But consider that these type of nurses are going to move into the house of the patient for all medical attention to be observed...

To your success,

Jaybest

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

How Right is Travel Nurse Job for me

Depending on the assignment a traveling nurse accepts her day can be filled with the hustle and bustle of a busy emergency room or the laid back floor of people on the mend. The choice of course as to what assignment a traveling nurse will be doing is up to the traveling nurse themselves!

Usually a traveling nurse's assignment is only temporary and s/he will work in a variety of clinical settings. Jobs can last from a week or to as long as the employed nurse is willing to work. As a traveling nurse you can work anywhere in the country and you are able to expand on your skills. By expending on your skills you will be able to further your nursing career.

As a traveling nurse the nurse gets to decide which assignment they wish to accept. They are given the opportunities to not only help where needed but to travel the world and tackle various jobs in the nursing field. As a traveling nurse though sometimes the job is a little more detailed, a traveling nurse is required to fill out paperwork, move around from assignment to assignment, negotiate their contract provisions to name a few.

Traveling nurses are need for various jobs, Have you ever wanted to cruise around the world? Well did you know a cruise ship could not leave a port unless there is a doctor or nurse on board? This is an excellent opportunity for a nurse would loves cruises and wishes to take their passion for cruising and their passion for nursing and blend them into a career and lifestyle.

Hospitals are also hurriedly erected in areas of disaster. These places are always looking for nurses to travel to the area and help in times of crisis. Think of the Katrina hurricane, medical attention was needed in the area and many traveling nurses where employed for this medical disaster.

A traveling nurse's job can sometimes be more rewarding and challenging then day to day nursing jobs. You are learning new skills, sometimes under pressure in emergency situations. You are going to foreign areas that you are not familiar with and learning new techniques and styles of doing things. Procedures may not be the same from area to area so as a traveling nurse you are constantly learning. It's not only a job but a full time education.

Depending on the length of some assignments and the need some agencies will pay a traveling nurse up to 3,000 to take an assignment, they include these bonuses as an incentive to pull in nurses where they are highly needed. Some agencies even pay for the traveling nurses traveling expensive for their relocation, housing and basic utilities. Some agencies will even offer you other incentives while you are employed with their agency. When you are searching for the right place of employment its best to search out agencies and become aware of exactly what an agency offers and get everything in writing.
To your success,
Jaybest

Travel Nurse Jobs and Career

Becoming a Travel Nurse
Planning to become a travel nurse involves so simple steps. Apparently the first thing you need to do in becoming a travel nurse is to a REGISTER NURSE (RN). This you can easily do via so many programs to prepare you for the NCLEX _RN examinations. Just like other careers, work experience a recognized hospital for a minimum of one year is also required. But having more experience gives you a better chance of getting higher pay as a travel n nurse.


On deciding on that you are becoming a travel nurse, you will now need to look for the agency that handles such. And that you know is right for you. There are so many benefits and bonuses attached to your service so you need to look out for one that pays you most especially as these benefits are not the same everywhere.
The next thing is now for you to contact the agency for further information. Look out for those that are already working with them and interview them. They will know better. You can network with this people to get the best out of your new career. There is no better way to know how a travel nurse agent is doing than to network with those who are currently working with them. As you may want to know, these people are your recruiters and you can’t know how they are doing unless you ask people.


Having decided which agency you want to work for, and having accepted your application, selecting the available job is now the next thing. The length of the job and other thing attached like location of the job which can be anywhere. Be careful in choosing a job as an agreement goes between you and the recruiter. Consider the following carefully: location of the job, length of time and working condition. Is rest assuring that all other necessary resources you need to work with will be provided by your agent.


You may be lucky at time that the company you are working for wishes to replace a permanent nurse and then use you as a replacement.
Note that there are many aspect of traveling nurse as a career that you need to consider carefully before making any final decision. Now consider being away from your family as a travel nurse and beloveds. But if you are still single or your partner wishes to stay and work at home then you will agree with me that it’s a great career opportunity.
To your Success,
Jaybest