More and more travel nurses are finding themselves working in a hospital that has a nurses union. What does this mean for the traveling nurse? First, know that this trend is gaining steam.  Just this past December, three large RN unions (in California, Massachusetts and Maryland) merged to form the 150,000-member National Nurses United.  Its mission? Says Deborah Burger, RN, one of three charter co-presidents of NNU: "We are going to make sure we organize every single direct-care RN in this country. RNs and our patients deserve to have a national nurses' movement that can advocate for them." The NNU -- which is seasoned, well-organized and well-financed -- has a very convincing sales pitch.  Among the “pros” of unionization are more security for nurses, more clout when battling administrators, and higher pay and seniority protection for nursing jobs.  Thus, many facilities are accepting a nurses union -- and many traveling nurses are choosing to join a union. To join, or not to join? Not everyone is a fan of RN unions. The “cons” include high union dues, having to comply with their bylaws and other regulations, and having one more layer of bureaucracy between the nurse and the patients. [+]

From one side of the country to the other, big things are happening in healthcare; for nurses bound for Nevada travel nursing jobs or already working there, a discontinuation of hard card nursing licenses, effective January 1st of 2010, leaves some of us, who spent years faithfully carrying them, anxious and confused.  That’s one way of looking at it, but on the upside, this change literally lightens our load, and with support from the Nevada Board of Nursing, it should be a painless transition. If you’re wondering why the cards are history, here’s the reason: At a September ’09 meeting, it was decided that the hard cards failed to serve their intended purpose of keeping status and licensure information up to date. Some employers were accepting the card alone as proof of current licensure/certification status, without confirming on the Board’s verification system.  Since the accuracy of the information on hard cards is only guaranteed to be valid on the day the card is issued, a suspension, revocation or other imposed discipline may not show up—hence the Board’s recommendation that all employers of nurses/CNAs verify statuses online at the Nursing Board’s website, where we travel nurses [+]