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, [+]

Why some nurses are becoming desensitized to hospital alarms Patient safety is foremost in providing excellent healthcare—which is why “alarm fatigue” is an alarming topic. The best way to increase awareness among the medical community, especially those in nursing jobs, is to educate them on what, exactly, nursing alarm fatigue is and when it is most likely to occur. Recently, a hospital in the northeast with a very busy nursing floor had an ill patient’s alarm sounding. Surrounded by constantly beeping monitors, nurses failed to respond to this heart patient’s alarm, signaling a drop in heart rate and ending in fatality 20 minutes later. Nursing Alarm Fatigue has been blamed; it happens because nurses become desensitized to round the clock beeping. You may be suffering from this fatigue, if, while performing your duties you hear so many ubiquitous alarms, you no longer react with the appropriate degree of concern or speed. In the case of the incident stated above, investigators found that the tragedy was due, in part, to the alarm’s volume adjustment by an unknown person; rather than scandal, investigators suspected the alarm was disabled simply because hospital staff sensed its potential to [+]

Single and in her fifties, RN Gerri loves travel nursing ... Gerri just dropped us a line from Baltimore and is having the time of her life. Traveling with American Traveler going on three years now, the Telemetry / ICU expert is enjoying a brief, eight-week assignment in the ‘Monument City’ where trips to “Little Italy” and the city’s Inner Harbor have made for incredible first time experiences. Lady Luck in Atlantic City has tempted the Southern Belle more than once and the Big Apple is on her list of things to do before her assignment is over. Originally from Milledgeville, Georgia, this 54-year-old nursing dynamo loves to travel and has her heart set on assignments in California and sightseeing along Route 66. At first she thought she was too old to travel, but her American Traveler Consultant, Janet Burrell, quickly dispelled that myth. “I hooked up with Janet and it’s been great. We have an excellent rapport and, because of her thoroughness, traveling has been uncomplicated and wonderful,” she said. The 30-year practitioner said American Traveler's free private housing is always above standard and she likes the way everyone at Corporate knows who she is, even [+]