Everything You Need To Know and More Looks like you just landed a new travel nurse or travel therapy job. Congratulations! Your next step is to pack light and relocate to your new city. You brought your skills, bright smile and determination; your consultant at American Traveler is handling the rest, and will soon send a detailed driving route and other vital information to make your assignment worry-free and the ultimate healthcare travel job experience! Travel Nurse Housing Essentials For a complete pack list, click on up-to-date Suggestions for Completing Your Apartment, and be sure to bookmark the American Traveler Housing Tips page for future reference. Here are the basics! Kitchen: A good set of kitchen knives, complete set of cutlery, silverware tray, waste basket, coffee maker & mugs,  toaster oven, veggie peeler, can opener, cork screw, strainer, cookie sheet and frying pan. Don’t forget to pack or purchase, a dustpan and broom, and all the bowls & plates you’ll need during your travel nurse assignment. Electronics: Your important electronic possessions may include a T.V., DVR , cell phone, PC or laptop,  printer, alarm clock, iPad, stereo system. Bring all that apply, and don’t forget the phone charger, spare [+]

Tips and Positive Affirmations for a Travel Nurse Career American Traveler congratulates our recent hires on landing the ultimate in therapist and registered nurse jobs! You’re well poised for rapid career advancement in travel nurse jobs offering top pay and benefits package that include free private housing, health insurance, referral bonuses and more! Checking in with the real life professionals in our travel nurse video is a testament to just how fulfilling and exciting all of this can be—and yet those first few days on the job often result in butterflies. Don’t despair! Calm yourself with the following travel nurse tips and positive affirmations: Tip: It almost sounds too simple, but keep smiling. A pleasant demeanor shows you welcome change; plus your new colleagues are all the more likely to offer their help. Why this tip works: With new procedures to learn and equipment to master, you’ll want to make friends in every new travel nurse job. Your fellow RN’s are the ones to brief you on everything from patients to supervisors, to helping you remember where you parked your car. Affirmation: This hospital chose me. Why this positive affirmation works: Because American Traveler staffs in [+]

Get Your Top 5 Kitchen Do’s and Don’ts Here Travel nurses are busy people with places to go and people to see, but that doesn’t mean they can’t prepare, say, a pizza during a Chicago nursing job that takes its cues from Deep dish, or, during a Hawaii assignment mix things up in the kitchen with newfound Polynesian flair. With free travel nurse job housing featuring all the amenities (like great kitchens), and proximity to great shopping, R.N.s can pick up all kinds of in season fruits and veggies that make mealtime special. Just make sure the pantry isn’t lacking with this fail-safe checklist: Must Have Pantry Items Sugar and flour Nuts (peanuts, walnuts, cashews) Rice (brown, white, long grain and minute rice) Dijon mustard, mayo, soy sauce, ketchup Chicken and beef stock Salt, Extra Virgin Olive oil Canned fruit and veggie goods Marinara and pizza sauce Tuna and salmon, packaged in pouches or cans Whole wheat bread, and pasta Got the goods? Great! Now it’s time to get started on a delicious home cooked meal! Five Cooking Do's Do: Save yourself time by cooking extra batches of chicken, pork or fish and store for future use. Once you seal it and freeze it, [+]

Springtime in the Bluegrass state offers travel nurses the chance to witness the most exciting two minutes in sports! On May 5 through May 7th, the 137th Annual Kentucky Derby & Oaks unfolds at the famous twin spires of Churchill Downs in Louisville. If you’re an R.N. working in Ohio or Kentucky travel nurse jobs, this is a golden opportunity to enjoy gourmet food, Mint Juleps and dressing in high Derby style. The Travel Nurse Guide to the Kentucky Derby Get a Taste the Derby! Famous for its signature drinks and Old Kentucky Home dishes, like Burgoo stew, the Taste of the Derby (click the event link to see a photo gallery of 2010’s amazing spread) is on Thursday, May 5 this year, and lets you sample food and drink prepared by world famous chefs. Travel nurses who are self-described “foodies� won’t want to miss this Mellwood Arts and Entertainment Center event! A "Ladies First" Race at the Oaks! Just before the big Kentucky Derby race, there’s a Ladies First event, known as The Kentucky Oaks on Friday, May 6th; on this day, travel nurses can grab their best buds and enjoy the ultimate [+]

Prevent Hair Loss During Chemotherapy Treatments Get the Facts on the Penguin Cold Cap R.N.s in oncology and med/surg jobs figure prominently into the care and treatment of breast cancer survivors; keeping patients’ morale high during chemotherapy is an absolute must—and that’s why compassionate professionals in registered nurse and travel nurse jobs should prioritize keeping up with the latest in alopecia solutions, recognized worldwide. The Penguin Cold Cap is such a solution, and grabbed the interest of the healthcare community at large, recently, when its related non-profit, The Rupunzel Project, which subsidizes the cost of cold caps for women with breast cancer, was featured on Good Morning America. The reason Cold Caps are increasing in popularity; It’s good news for your patients!      Cold caps have been around for decades, but are only recently achieving success and popularity. First introduced in 1994, with FDA support pending until more studies are run on the risk of developing scalp metastasis, Penguin cold caps recently calculated a miniscule 1.1% risk. These studies were on women with cancer in the early stages, and further showed an 80 to 90% success rate among patients whose treatments allowed them to use the caps correctly.

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Top 10 healthcare employer hazards to correct in 2011 Some things in the hospital staffing blogosphere just cannot be overlooked. "Top 10 Healthcare Technology Hazards for 2011" published by Media HealthLeaders is one. This list is enough to make any healthcare employer evaluate and revaluate again patient safety standards, practitioner safeguards and equipment reliability and training. Medical research group, ECRI Institute compiled the list, say authors, to encourage healthcare employers to take preventive measures and to "formulate programs to minimize dangers." Additionally, say hospital headhunters, extra attention to hospital staffing and healthcare recruitment tactics could result in higher quality candidates, increased patient safety and a reduction in clinical errors. Standards used for the list include recall information, medical device problem reporting and investigation of  "device-related" incidents. The following includes excerpts from the list.* 1. Radiation overdose Forty healthcare employer incidents of software errors, manufacturing-required software modifications or dose calculation errors for radiotherapy systems, linear accelerators and radiation treatment planning systems occurred between July 2009 and July 2010, reports ECRI. 2. Nursing alarm fatigue Nursing alarm fatigue can happen when the number of alarms begins to overwhelm healthcare staff, causing them to modify alarm settings to reduce the number of alarms [+]

As the saying goes, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."We couldn't agree more. Individuals who are selected for highly competitive travel nursing jobs and travel therapist jobs may consider themselves "lucky", but many of them have improved their chances by being well prepared. And an essential part of being prepared is having all the necessary documents ready to go. Says Mary Kay Hull, Vice President of Recruiting at American Traveler, "Medical facilities often need to fill travel positions quickly. Sometimes they can't commit to a travel nurse or travel therapist candidate -- no matter how well qualified -- if a mandatory piece of paperwork is missing or delayed. We do everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen, by giving our travelers as much information in advance as possible." Many of our travel nurses, especially the first-timers, want to know what documents they need to provide for a travel nurse job. Depending on your specialty and the facility, it's likely that some additional documentation will be required. Not to worry, you'll be notified of what's due when you're a little further along in the hiring process. But [+]

Link into Travel Nurse Wardrobe Resources, Get Scrubs Coupons, Here! Scrubs have come a long way since they catered exclusively to surgeons “scrubbing in� for the OR; no longer strictly blue or green, color choices in medical scrubs abound—and today the majority of registered nurses are proud to wear them. Laura Ashley, Disney and Timberland labels are just a few designers behind fun scrubs, relegating the starched white dress and hat of yesteryear to the back of most registered nurses’ closets. There are, however, a few hospitals in Ohio, Georgia and Utah—the later being one of 24 compact nursing states in the U.S.—that mandate the white uniform for nurses, a rule that eliminates patients’ confusion when it comes to distinguishing among hospital staff. Considering that scrubs outfit so many in healthcare—from doctors and nurses to food and housekeeping personnel—it’s important to note hospital I.D. badges. Travel Nurse Jobs Feel Most Comfortable When They are Outfitted with the Right Resources American Traveler wants members of our team to have access to the very best nursing career resources, so with the spirit of this in mind, we’ve provided a shortlist of some of the best places to find quality [+]

Last year, hospitals required travel nurses to receive the H1N1 flu vaccine in the form of a shot or nasal spray. Now hospitals are strongly encouraging you to get vaccinated again, in preparation for the 2010/2011 flu season; you can read about this year’s flu strain, its symptoms and tips on how to prevent catching the virus at flufacts.com. Flu.gov Flu season begins in October and lasts until May, with outbreaks of influenza peaking in the coldest winter months of December and January; fact: did you know that December 5-11 is National Influenza vaccination week? The Center for Disease Control (CDC) advocates getting vaccinated early. You can browse CDC’s "What you need to Know" facts about this year’s flu strain and 2010/2011 vaccinations, which also protect against H1N1 (swine flu) this year. Travel nurses at American Traveler enjoy free healthcare insurance and should take advantage of that full coverage by getting vaccinated ASAP! Plug your current zip code into Take Care Clinics or your nearest pharmacy, where most insurance covers cost. Advise your friends and family that even without insurance, the price of a flu shot runs about $30—a small price to pay when you are guarding against the influenza virus, [+]

Advance Your Nursing Career: Take a float shift, share your expertise and rise to all occasions! Nurse Managers and healthcare staffing experts agree that it’s a necessity—for any top-notch hospital—to have experienced registered nurses on staff, who float to departments experiencing staffing shortages and higher patient volume. In addition,  floating to departments experiencing staffing shortages assures hospitals that travel nurses really play an important role and can perform to the best of their ability. Registered nurses, among them travel nurses, approach their float assignments capably and with a high degree of adaptability and skill; further good news—as revealed by a study that looked into flexible healthcare staffing approaches, like travel nurse jobs—found that, surprisingly, more nurses are choosing to float in today’s healthcare landscape, rather than waiting to be asked. American Traveler checked in with Clinical Coordinator, Debbie Bacurin, R.N., a former Nurse Manager, to weigh-in on what drives this emerging trend for floating nurses. “We are seeing more and more facilities post float nurse positions, this lets the nurse know upfront that she/he may work on any unit for their scheduled shift. Resource managers are helping nurses on float shifts transition more seamlessly into Med/Surg, [+]