Travel Nursing

Nursing Shortages in Alaska

Posted in Hiring Nurses, Hospitals, Nurse Employers, Nursing, Nursing News, Nursing School, Nursing Shortage, Nursing Specialties, Travel Nursing

Image of Alaskan mountains by arthur chapman via Flickr

Alaska has added more than 11,000 health care jobs in the last decade. But they’re still seeing a shortage of nurses, especially in specialized areas like operating room nursing, according to this story on the KTVA website.

There are an abundance of Alaskans who are qualified to take entry-level positions in nursing. The director of the University of Alaska – Anchorage’s School of Nursing, Barbara Berner, says that her school alone graduates about 200 new nurses per year, while the estimated need for nurses in the state is 130 nurses per year.

So there is both a shortage (for some of the most specialized areas) and a surplus (for entry-level positions), at the same time. Berner says that she’s also hearing that many institutions are not requiring as many traveling nurses from out of state to do basic nursing care, as they had in the past.

Across the state, including at Alaska Regional Hospital, experienced specialty nurses are in short supply, and it’s necessary to draw people up from the Lower 48, which doesn’t always work out.

“I would say for every 10 nurses we recruit from out of state we are able to keep one,” Kaminski said.

Students who are finishing specialized graduate programs are getting picked up much more quickly.

“People with particular specialties often have jobs before they even leave the graduate program because there is such a need in the state,” said Berner.
And to help ease the shortage of operating room nurses, a cross-training program is being piloted in Anchorage.

“We take nurses who have a couple years of nursing experience, who are eager to go into perioperative nursing settings and we pair them up with a preceptor one on one to go through the program; in the end they are trained to be perioperative nursing nurses,” said Kaminski.

It’s hoped innovative training like this will mean hospitals and other facilities can retain the qualified nurses they have and continue to hire from in the state.

Tips for Travel Nurses on Going Green

Posted in Hiring Nurses, Hospitals, Nursing, Nursing Jobs, Nursing News, Nursing Specialties, Travel Nursing

SKYDIVECOP - Fotolia.com

Travel nursing can be exciting, challenging, and rewarding, but it can also be a little rough on the environment. The San Francisco Chronicle’s website has a list of tips for reducing your carbon footprint.

These suggestions are geared towards travel nurses, travel therapists, and other mobile healthcare professionals who wish to be more green while on assignment.

On average, American commuters traveled 25-minutes to and from work each day in 2009 or 50 minutes per day, according to the American Community Survey of the U.S. Census. Densely populated areas may have trouble meeting federally recommended air quality standards due to the pollution vehicles create. Altering daily habits will aid in reducing carbon emissions in these areas as well as in other communities across the U.S., where Aureus Medical’s healthcare employees are assigned.

1. Purchase a fuel-efficient vehicle. The rising cost of gas makes buying a fuel-efficient car sensible for a commute and a sound future investment. Many newer used cars can offer exceptional mileage options that range from 24 to over 35 miles per gallon, which can greatly reduce the amount of fuel required and the emissions the vehicle produces.

2. Maintain the car by ensuring the correct air pressure in tires. Proper inflation alone can drastically improve gas mileage, which will save money over the course of the year and decrease pollution.

3. Consider public transportation, such as buses, subways and commuter trains. This helps make the footprint of the overall system greener due to the decrease in pollution per capita.

4. Bike to work. Not only will it save gas, but will also reduce car maintenance costs, parking fees and toll expenses. According to Time Magazine, an individual may be able to save $5,000 annually by biking to work.

5. Walk to work. Depending on the location of temporary housing and the hospital facility, a mobile, a travel nurse or travel therapist may be able to walk all or part of the way, and incorporate public transportation that follows the route required.

Helping Foreign Nurses Receive Certification Quickly

Posted in Hiring Nurses, Hospitals, Nurse Employers, Nursing, Nursing Jobs, Nursing News, Nursing Shortage, Travel Nursing

An organization is helping foreign nurses get certification quickly so they can begin to practice in Canada.

The organization, called the CARE Centre for Internationally Educated Nurses, has been around for about a decade.

Even nurses who have had a complete education and plenty of experience have had to start four-year training programs all over again once they relocate to Canada. CARE is doing something about that.
“You can easily go back into nursing within one year or two years,” said the organization’s Domine Reutayisire in this article on CBCnews.ca.

Tambudzai Kasiyamhuru came to Canada two years ago from Zimbabwe. She spent 16 years there working with AIDS patients.

She came to the CARE centre in Windsor “so I can quickly write my examinations and quickly get a job here in Canada,” she said.

Kasiyamhuru currently volunteers at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital and she has two part-time jobs elsewhere.

“There’s a high probability that I can get a [full-time] job as soon as I finish my exam and get my license,” she said.

Marie Wood worked all over the world as a nurse for the British army, and later in palliative care in England. She even earned a medal from the Queen. But that didn’t help her navigate the bureaucracy of Ontario’s College of Nurses.

“I was emailing back and forth with the College of Nurses and getting nowhere. They were always [telling me] it takes time, but as soon as CARE came along, they seemed to pull up their braces, so to speak, and get on with things,” Wood said.

Wood volunteers at Hospice while working on her accreditation.

Both women plan to write their exams in May, far sooner than they could have done arranging it on their own.

Nurses in demand
Rutayisire said there are jobs in Windsor for nurses.

“There is quite a bit of demand. We do have two big hospitals and we have nurses who work in long-term care facilities as well, and community nursing. So nursing is in demand all the time,” Rutayisire said.

There’s still a need for more nurses in Ontario. The Ministry of Health plans to create another 500 positions this fiscal year.

So it’s not quite “Goodbye to the nursing shortage” yet, though it certainly seems to vary by region. This is an innovative way to address the problem.

Keeping Nurse Labor Costs Down

Posted in Hiring Nurses, Nurse Employers, Nursing, Nursing Jobs, Nursing Shortage, Per Diem Nursing, Travel Nursing

This article in Health Leaders Media has an interesting perspective from hospitals regarding controlling nurse labor costs.

It lays out a three-pronged approach to reduce personnel costs for nurses; a new approach to nurse overtime, use of supplemental labor such as from nursing agencies or from an in-house nursing pool, and focusing on retention efforts rather than going through the time and expense of finding and hiring a replacement.

The “Effective use of Supplemental Labor” section discusses the need for nursing agencies, as well as how alternative supplemental labor sources can help with costs:

Many healthcare leaders routinely budget for traveling or per diem nurses, but much of that may be unnecessary, says Hunt. Although there are reasons to use supplemental nurse labor, daily census demands shouldn’t be one of them, she says. Supplemental labor is expensive, she adds, so these nurses should be used to address seasonal volume increases, medical leaves, or to fill in during large training initiatives such as ICD-10.

“I do believe there is a place for supplemental nurses; it’s how you use them. (more…)

Nurses Tend to Stick Close to Home

Posted in Hiring Nurses, Hospitals, Nursing, Nursing Jobs, Nursing News, Nursing School, Nursing Shortage, Travel Nursing

A study has found that nurses tend to find work that is close to the nursing school that they graduated from. This means that areas without nursing schools — such as rural areas — tend to have a harder time finding nurses.

And if there aren’t enough nurses to go around, that has serious implications for the health of the people who live in those areas.

The study found that more than half of all nurses work within 40 miles of the nursing school they graduated from. Additionally, almost 80% of the nurses surveyed stay within the state in which they graduated from high school.

“Given the strong tendency for nurses to practice close to where they attended nursing school and to attend nursing school near where they graduated high school, it’s not surprising that parts of the country with few or no schools of nursing are struggling to find nurses,” (more…)

Advantages of Being a Travel Nurse

Posted in Nursing, Nursing Jobs, Travel Nursing

For some people, the thought of traveling to different places, meeting new people and still getting the chance to use their well-developed nursing skills is exciting and attractive. A great sense of adventure combined with a determined attitude make a career as a travel nurse rewarding and fun while still presenting a nurse with the ability to help and heal.

There are many benefits to traveling; one of the most obvious is the increase in pay. Virtually every nurse who travels sees the higher pay rate as the greatest incentive. Even though many people are not terribly excited about leaving home and going to an unfamiliar place for weeks at a time, the money can be a great motivator.

Additionally, most agencies go above and beyond to provide nurses with the comfortable accommodations and perks to ensure comfort during their assignment. Many also offer generous sign-on bonuses and salaries that can sometimes top $100,000 per year.

Another benefit of being a travel nurse is the opportunity to grow professionally in a variety of different fields. While every travel nurse must have a strong clinical background with two years of experience, travel nurses may be afforded the opportunity to work in the best teaching facilities in the region, or the smallest country hospital. No matter where they go, seeing the way that other facilities treat and care for patients is a great way to expand the scope of professional knowledge and make lifelong nursing contacts.

For those who have a sense of adventure and a flexible, gregarious personality, travel nursing is a great way to meet the need for adventure and get to know new people. By looking at each assignment as the chance to experience something different, travel nurses may use their contract time to explore different places and have a great time doing it. Because travelers are never tied down to one place, there is always something to see and somewhere new to go; and because contracts are typically 13 weeks, travel nurses have the opportunity to move from coast to coast, and most anywhere in between, in a short time frame. For those who enjoy the pace, pay and perks that come with being a travel nurse, it can be a great opportunity to see the best this country has to offer first-hand while expanding horizons and enjoying a wonderful career.

A Nurse Agency Can Be a Valuable Resource

Posted in Nurse Employers, Nursing, Nursing Jobs, Nursing News, Travel Nursing

To launch an ultimately successful job search, you will need to make use of every available resource, including the use of a nurse agency. Listed below are the top seven ways recruiters can provide an added boost to your job search.

Chance to Apply for Non-Advertised Jobs

Job openings are often listed with a nurse agency rather than being posted to the facility web site or advertised on a job board. As a result, if you limit your search to job boards or apply only to facilities directly, you may be missing out on a large number of possible opportunities.

Recruiters Market Candidates

A nurse agency that receives résumés from qualified candidates will match those job seekers to specific facilities. They will take into account the candidates’ professional background or culture and will try to market them by highlighting their relevant qualifications and accomplishments, stressing how these will serve their particular client’s needs.

Embed Keywords (in your resume)

If you have been consistently submitting your résumé but receiving no reply it may well be that it has been screened out by keyword-specific software.
This software searches for certain keywords embedded in your résumé that the hiring manager has deemed important for a given role. If your résumé does not contain a sufficient number of these keywords it will be overlooked by the pre-selection software.

Nurse recruiters know the relevant keywords for different practice areas and will make sure to distribute these words strategically throughout your résumé, so that it makes it past the initial screening.

Edit Resume for Best Presentation

Recruiters are able to assist you in creating a résumé that highlights your most relevant accomplishments. Since hiring managers typically just scan your resume during an initial read-through, recruiters will place your most significant and relevant accomplishments in the first two lines of each job on your resume to ensure your accomplishments are noticed.

Assist with Targeted Job Search

The most effective recruiters will submit your résumé only to those positions which are a best match in terms of your experience, skill-set, and accomplishments. This strategy greatly increases the likelihood that you will be invited to interviews that are more likely to lead to job offers.

Provide Comprehensive Services

In addition to submitting your résumé to employers, recruiters can also assist in three areas: 1) interview preparation, including a briefing with regard to facility culture; 2) obtain interview feedback from the hiring manager and market your candidacy; 3) help you to negotiate job offers. Because the fee that the nurse agency will collect is directly tied to your starting salary, it is in the recruiter’s best interest to negotiate the most favorable terms possible.

Insight into the Profession

It is often the case that nurse recruiters were once practicing nurses themselves, so they are knowledgeable with regard to the qualifications, responsibilities, and work schedules of different practice areas. This enables them to be a highly valuable resource when it comes time to really learn about the job details, especially if you’re interested in making a change in practice area.

Nurse Licensure Compact 101

Posted in Nursing, Nursing Jobs, Nursing News, Travel Nursing

Before the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), practicing physically or electronically in more than one state meant having to apply for an RN or LPN/VN nursing license in every state in which you practiced. This was a costly and time consuming process. Thanks to the Nurse Licensure Compact, having to apply for and maintain multiple nursing licenses is no longer required for many. This change is making it easier for nurses whose home state is part of the Nurse Licensure Compact to practice in participating states, allowing them the opportunity to broaden their nursing horizons by working in critical nursing shortage areas, as a travel nurse, or electronically in multiple states.

In order to hold a multi-state nursing license, your primary residence must be in one of the compact states. Your primary state of residency is the state in which you pay federal taxes, are registered to vote, and/or hold a driver’s license.
The 24 states that currently participate are: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

If your RN or LPN/VN license is through one of these states, then you already hold a multi-state license. If you currently hold a multi-state license, it is important for you to be aware of the nursing guidelines for each state in which you work. Nurses who practice under a multi-state license are responsible for complying with the Nurse Practice ACT of the state in which they are practicing.

Although a multi-state license allows you to practice in any of the compact states, if your residency changes to another compact state, you must apply for a primary license in your new state of residency. If your residency changes to a noncompact state, you must apply for a license in that state, and your license then converts to a single-state license. This means that you will have to apply for a nursing license for every state in which you work. A multi-state licensed nurse who wishes to practice in a noncompact state must apply for a single-state license in the noncompact state. For example, if you hold a nursing license in Maryland and wish to work in New York, you would still have to apply for a New York nursing license because they are not a compact state.

Rest assured, practicing with a multi-state license is not a means of running from disciplinary action in one state in order to practice in another. All participating states provide information to a licensure system, NURSYS, that is available to other compact states. Any disciplinary actions or investigative process for which the nurse is involved will be reported to NURSYS, allowing all participating states to be aware of any issues. All compact states participate and report to NURSYS, as well as 20 other states.

The Nurse Licensure Compact has made working in multiple states much easier for nurses whose primary license is in a participating state. Each year additional states elect to participate. If your state is not currently a member be sure to keep current on licensure issues, so you will know if your state elects to participate.

Debt Default Could Impact Health Care

Posted in Nurse Employers, Nursing, Nursing Jobs, Nursing News, Travel Nursing

Congress is negotiating trillions of dollars in budget cuts as a condition for authorizing a raise in the debt ceiling. The deadline for the raise is August 2nd and, according to the Treasury Department, if the raise is not approved, the U.S. will not be able to pay off its debt obligations.

How does this affect the health care field? A debt ceiling agreement needs to be reached by the deadline in order to avoid a suspension of funding for the millions of patients who rely on Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs. A government cash flow shortfall would become a critical and potentially fatal cash flow shortfall for physician practices and care centers, causing layoffs and limiting how many Medicare and Medicaid patients can be seen. Under these circumstances, some practices may have to close their doors for good.

Earlier this month, the American Nurses Association (ANA) sent a letter to lawmakers in the House and Senate, asking them to oppose the budget proposals that would lead to drastic cuts in these federal programs.

In particular, cuts to Medicaid would increase the number of uninsured and would threaten the viability of nursing homes, hospitals and other necessary providers. Other consequences of cutting Medicaid include crowded emergency departments, delaying the diagnosis of life-threatening diseases and an increase in spending on otherwise preventable health complications.

Lawmakers need to rise above partisan politics and realize that the decisions they make about health care programs can have serious consequences. Hopefully, before August 2nd, lawmakers will move to protect these vital programs and the vulnerable elderly, disabled and poor Americans they serve.

Traveling Nursing Jobs

Posted in Travel Nursing

Editor: Today’s post is from a guest RN writing about her experiences in travel nursing.

I have recently been considering a travel nursing job. I love to travel and there are parts of the country that I have yet to see. I have known a few travel nurses, and they all say the same thing, “I love it!” Never one to get stuck in a rut, I decided to do a little research. I searched the internet and found a wonderful site where I could put in one application and it would be sent to 21 travel nursing agencies. I love efficiency so I decided to do that. Then I wanted to know more of the pros and cons about this type of nursing. Since within minutes of applying, I received several emails and a phone call, I talked to the first recruiter and asked about the benefits and detriments to travel nursing.

The pros were numerous. Travel nurses earn, on average, more than 20% than their hospital-based full-time counterparts. There are bonuses of several thousands of dollars for completing the entire assignment (usually 13 weeks). Travel nurses, because of the bonuses, are able to take off 1-2 weeks, or even an entire month, between assignments (I’m still looking for the downside to that!) Traveling the country, full benefits, no mandatory in-service or staff meetings and no hospital politics. Utopia? (more…)