What is a Travel Nurse

A travel nurse is a licensed nurse who typically works in a hospital for a few months at a time before moving onto a different hospital in a different part of the country.

Hospitals like to hire travel nurses and other traveling health professionals for a variety of reasons. Travel nurses can bring a variety of experience and knowledge that a hospital can benefit from. Lots of times, a travel nurse can act as a mentor for other nurses that have just completed their training and are not yet comfortable and/or confident with their new professional status. Medical facility's that have just opened will often hire the services of a travel nurse until they are up and running smoothly. The new, inexperienced staff will be able to benefit from the travel nurse's previous work experience. Most travel nurses enjoy the experience of traveling, meeting and working with new co-workers, and hope to gain a well rounded work experience that will serve them when they settle on working full time at a specific medical facility. Many travel nurses claim that the experience allows them to develop a better understanding of their chosen specialty. These same travel nurses also claim that their unique work experiences have helped reintroduce them to patient focused nursing.

Before they start working at a new hospital, a travel nurse has already established an agreement with the hospital. This agreement states what salary the nurse will be making while she is working for the hospital. Before traveling to the new hospital the nurse knows how much of their travel expenses will be paid for. They also know where they will be living while they are working at the medical facility.

Travel nurses generally enjoy a more lucrative salary then they would receive if they worked in a single location. The salary the travel nurse earns is generally based on the location they are working, typically a travel nurse will not earn as much working in a hospital in a rural community as they will earn working in a large inner city hospital. Some nurses prefer travel nursing to nursing in a single medical facility because they enjoy the opportunity to see the world and other cultures. Working in a constantly changing location challenges a travel nurses knowledge and talents. The skills that travel nurse develop on their journeys are skills that they will be able to utilized when they settle on a home base.

Travel nurses find employment through a travel nursing service. This service pairs nurses with medical facilities that are seeking a travel nurse. The travel nursing service typically has a long and happy relationship with hospitals, medical facilities, and medical professionals. The nursing service helps reach agreements between the medical facility's and the travel nurse. The travel nursing service will also be able to help the travel nurse make sure that they have the proper licensing to work in the state they are about to be going to.

Before a nurse can become a travel nurse there are a few professional criteria that they must complete first.

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.

Turning a Temporary Travel Nurse Position Into a Permanent Job

For the most part the life of a travel nurse seems to be for nurse that are in the dawn of their careers before they relationships, families, and other responsibilities that force them to find permanent employment. The other time that many nurses become interested in an occupation as a travel nurse is towards the end of their careers, after their children move out of the house, leaving their parents free to pursue nomadic whims.

It happens, especially to the younger nurses, that they are working at a travel nurse assignment and find that they fall in love with the city they are in, they adore their co-workers, or they find the job so rewarding they want to keep it.

When a nurse finds an assignment that they don't want to give up is consider the contract they signed with their nursing agency. If they signed a contract that has a time line it is going to be difficult to get out of the contract and accept a permanent working position. Nurses that have long term, binding contracts with an agency will probably find that they have to work as a travel nurse long enough to fulfill their contract. Once they have worked out the terms of their contract they can go back to the hospital or medical facility that they enjoyed so much and seek a permanent position.

Sometimes travel nurses will find out that the temporary position they are currently filling is just that, temporary. For whatever reason the job was created on a one time basis and no matter how badly the travel nurse may want it at a permanent position it just isn't possible. When this happens the travel nurse has two options. They can decide if it is the hospital they like working at, or maybe they just really like the city, or perhaps they really click with their current batch of co-workers, or they feel that the job they are doing is tailor made for them (and it really might be). If they look at all their options and decide that it's the hospital or their fellow nurses that appeal to them they can apply for a permanent position in the hospital. If the travel nurse decides that it isn't necessarily the hospital, the staff, or the position that appeals to them they might want to consider looking for a hospital in a similar location.

If, after you have looked at all the options and decide that it really is the position that is making you consider exchanging your nomadic shoes for a more permanent pair, talk to your nursing agency, even if you have a long-term, binding contract, the agency will be able to keep and eye peeled and look for similar positions. If you are at a point in your life when you are able to accept a permanent position look at other hospitals across the country. Just because the hospital you were working at only offered the position on a temporary basis doesn't mean that other hospitals wont have the position available on a permanent basis.

The main reason that younger travel nurses give up their careers as travel nurses in favor of more permanent positions because they are tired of traveling, they are ready to start a family, or other members of their family need them at home. When its time to find a permanent position keep an optimistic attitude, you'll find the right position.