An Analogy About Breast Cancer During Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Guest Post By Melissa Jansen There’s a big party going on and only 1 in 8 women get to go. Nobody knows how to get a ticket but everyone knows only the lucky ones get to go. Everyone spends all their time and energy trying to figure out what they have to do to be special enough to get a ticket. Everyone wants to be at the party.¹ You get a ticket! Only 1 in 8 get to go and you a LUCKY girl! You get to the party and right as you get through the door you feel FREE.²…
A Stronger Heart Built by Strong Relationships
As a travelling nurse, getting your individual fitness and exercise going is important for cardiovascular health, but that’s not all. To build a stronger heart, I’d like to highlight another essential principle instead of just regular exercise and fitness – building real relationships. Often people assume that keeping your body healthy and preventing cardiovascular disease can be achieved solely through fitness and exercise, good eating and positive behavior change. Indeed, as a travelling nurse, I can understand how even finding time to exercise on your own and eat well in a new home is a challenge in itself. But the…
Beat the Boredom: Travel Nursing Activities and Ideas
“What activities did you do on your travel nursing assignment in ___________?” You are going to have a really hard time answering that if you don’t get out and explore and see what is out there! Most recruiters will tell you that their travelers are most happy on assignment when they are out and about and enjoying their temporary home and exploring their community, outside of work. Getting our and about is a great way to fend off homesickness, even for the most experienced #GypsyNurse. Even if you do not know what to do, no worries! We have collected some great ideas…
Nursing: A Healthy Back
A nurse’s back is his/her most used tool. If you end up with an injury or a strain, it will make it almost impossible to do your job and take care of others. We push, pull, lift, turn all day long. It’s important to maintain good back safety. Back injuries are very prevalent in the nursing field. In the latest study that I can find, the Bureau of Labor Statistics states the following: In all industries combined, 1998 injury data shows that nearly 12 out of 100 nurses in hospitals and 17.3 out of 100 nurses working in nursing homes…
Top 10 Travel Safety Tips
Safety is of great concern to travel nurses. Here are my Top 10 Travel Safety Tips. Please note that this list is not all-inclusive. Most generally, if you exercise common sense and use your ‘gut’ feelings you will be fine. The biggest thing that I will stress is that if you feel unsafe, leave the unsafe location immediately. Always be aware of your travel safety. Here are some tips that I try to follow to stay safe: 1. Check the new neighborhood: http://www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/ or http://www.crimemapping.com 2. Plan your stops in town vs rest areas. Avoid places without vehicles or people around. I…
Strength Training for Healthy Bodies
The following is a Guest Post via Elizabeth Scala Healthy bodies for everyone! Today I write about a topic I really enjoy: Strength Training As a travel nurse, it may be hard to find time to do a lot of things but one thing you should try to fit into your busy schedule is working out. Strength training, in particular can help shape your body and mind. Lifting weights, strength training, weight training, or resistance training- whatever you want to call it. According to Wikipedia, strength training is the use of resistance to muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance,…
7 Signs of a Great Travel Nurse
This article is provided by Yuma Regional Medical Center Here at The Gypsy Nurse, our community of over 100,000 travel nurses allows us to interact every day with wonderful travel nurses from all across the country. While each Gypsy may have different reasons for choosing this unique profession, we’ve found some consistent traits in what tends to make for a successful travel nurse that make them stand out as a healthcare professional. While this list may not cover everything, here are 7 traits that great travel nurses share. 1. Compassion There are many responsibilities and duties that a travel nurse has…
Tips for Traveling with Pets on Your Next Travel Nurse Assignment
This article is sponsored by Gifted Healthcare® There are many things to consider when making the jump to your next travel nursing assignment, especially if you’re a dog or cat parent. Recent events have shown how tragedy can strike a furry friend if his or her owner is not well-informed or prepared to travel with a pet. Whether traveling by car or by plane, before embarking to your next travel nursing destination with your furry companion check out these tips and must do’s to make your traveling experience seamless, and most importantly, safe for you and your furry BFF. Road Tripping…
Night Shift Nurse: Finally, A good night’s (day’s) sleep!
Many night shift nurses have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Check these tips to help you get a great night (or day’s) sleep. Insomnia: Insomnia is trouble falling asleep or staying asleep through the night. Episodes may come and go (episodic), last up to 3 weeks (short-term), or be long-lasting (chronic). Create Darkness: Two great ways to create darkness to help you sleep better during the day are to use a Sleep mask like this one by Sleep Master or to create a dark room by using some Black-out shade or window covering like the one pictured here by…
Adventures in Travel Nursing
I like to quote famous people in my writings. For this article, I’d like to cite a famous author, Hunter S Thompson, who once said, “Buy the ticket, take the ride”. Which, if you think about it, is exactly what travel nurses do. They take the chance of adventures that a lot of people can’t bring themselves to take. The rewards are off the hook, but even so, it takes some bravery, and a lot of gumption to step into the arena. An assignment can fly by quickly, or it can seem like a lifetime. This can depend on how…