It will be Time Well Spent During Days Off ! Find out What’s Happening Next Door to Your East Coast Travel Nursing Jobs Travel nurse jobs available in all 50 U.S. states make a fine medium for touring the country in high style. Chances are your free private housing, a part of the travel nurse benefits package and close to the job site, is also in the respective backyard of America’s top tourist destinations. With your penchant for travel in mind, our team at American Traveler has put together the ultimate resource for our vacation lovers working on the Eastern seaboard this winter—so get out your travel nursing calendar and jot down these dates! Travel Nursing in D.C. a Capitol Idea! Washington DC travel nurse jobs are a bundle of fun in the wintertime! Take for instance, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, offering an array of cultural events this January—the Washington DC calendar offers quintets, guitars and drama at the National Archives too. Plan the whole of January and your Valentine’s Day in the capitol city by clicking on this DC events link. Star-Filled Nights—on Stage that is—are Close to New Jersey Nursing Jobs When it [+]

Apply Early for Your State Nursing License and Get the Job You Want Most It’s commonplace now for healthcare employers to insist that registered nurses have their state nursing license already in hand before they’re interviewed. Experienced RNs looking for a top tier travel nursing agency turn to American Traveler for the highest paying travel nursing jobs . Our career resources help you meet nursing license requirements unique to individual state nursing boards, pursue nursing certifications and higher salaries, and so much more that gets your year off to an ideal start—all you need to do is get organized and let our Consultants help with the rest! A Word from VP of Recruiting on How It Pays to Be Prepared Travel nurse jobs are surefire way to earn great pay and benefits, like free private housing, that will see qualified registered nurses through a prosperous and well-planned 2011. "Health Professionals should look at their staffing agency as carefully as their financial planners; like them, experienced consultants plan for your best possible future, helping travel nurses and therapists establish a plan that works for jobs and job locations throughout the calendar year." says Mary Kay Hull, Vice [+]

Checklists are Promoting Safer Standards in US Hospitals Travel nurse jobs give R.N.s the distinct advantage of exposure to a wide variety of charting systems, familiarizing many with what has today become a popular practice in surgical jobs: making checklists. Surgical checklists are creating a sizeable dip in errors and patient mortality—and it’s not just their content changing patient outcomes and hospital efficiency for the better—it’s also the teamwork required from everyone on the surgical team committed to seeing checklists work. Borrowing a strategy from the aviation industry, healthcare is also using teamwork and briefings, to improve safety and efficiency during operations. Surgical checklists are a component in this, so effective they are becoming a new standard in healthcare; even the most highly regarded US hospitals are improving thanks to checklists. Surgical checklists document every step of a patient’s surgery and hospitalization, from admission to discharge, and are reducing the risk of dying after surgery and suffering other types of complications. In one study that addressed a pool of 7,600 patients, surgical checklists decreased mortality by half and morbidity by one-third; these statistics were generated in six different Netherlands hospitals, on 11 separate checklists comprised of [+]

Studies show that using safety techniques from the aviation industry may be the answer According to a study based on surgical teams from hospitals around the country, safety techniques—similar to ones used by the aviation industry—cut death rates from surgery by an astounding 18%. This is compelling news for those in operating room nurse jobs and other healthcare professionals in med surg jobs, interested in the benefits of teamwork. Known as "briefings" in the airline industry, the meetings are conducted before and after each flight, so that crews can anticipate and prepare for potential and/or future safety hazards. In a healthcare setting, "briefings" aided surgical teams in making important discoveries about the specifics of each patient's illness or condition prior to and after each surgical procedure. Checklists are a Must for Team Building in Surgical jobs The aviation industry doesn’t like surprises and either should operating room nurses and professionals in med/surg jobs. So what kinds of tactics are being used to eliminate surprises, and strengthen professional relationships among the operating room team? Operating room nurses are asked (to learn) to recognize red flags Med surg and OR nurses are expected to challenge colleagues should safety risks come up Operating room nurses are expected to develop [+]

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 [+]

Mark your calendars with these holiday events in Arizona! Are you dreaming of spending the holidays somewhere beautiful? With its temperate winter weather and mountain views, Arizona nursing jobs are getting snapped up fast. If you’re a travel nurse looking to mix desert adventure with holiday cheer, travel nursing jobs from 4 to 26 weeks in the Grand Canyon State are a Christmas wish come true; R.N.s already stationed here enjoy free, Arizona travel nurse housing, close to shopping, nightlife and seasonal events this December you won’t want to miss! Holiday Events in Arizona Glendale Glitters… and smells like gingerbread, December 3 and 4th, from 6 to 10pm - Glendale celebrates "Gingerbread Nights", an annual event for all ages, featuring horse-drawn carriage rides, holiday arts and crafts and more! December 17th and 18th, travel nurses can rock out to their favorite holiday music, dance academy performances and jazz ensembles when "Glendale's Jingle Bell Rockin' Nights comes to town from 6-10 p.m. Tucson Shines Bright this December For travel nurses working near Tucson this holiday season, Luminara Nights at the city Botanical Garden are worth penciling in. December 3rd thru December 5th, surround yourself with floral beauty, twinkling [+]

Travel Nurses Connect with the Resources You Need, Here! Since the success of registered nurses' continuing education hinges on razor sharp critical thinking, it’s important to sharpen the blades from time to time by keeping up with your continuing education credits; free and unlimited at American Traveler, CEU courses are designed for busy schedules and easy to accumulate during any nursing assignment. You can print your completion certificate at home! Continuing Education is an important part of travel nursing job benefits; beyond the free health and life insurance, cost-free private housing and help meeting travel associated costs, registered nurses with CE Direct Membership are eligible to receive one complimentary credit when they view a webinar and fill out an evaluation report. If you’re a healthcare professional interested in building critical thinking skills that—for recent hires in great registered nurse jobs —boost PBDS nursing test scores, a visit to eventbrite.com lets you view and register for upcoming webinars. What is the PBDS Nursing Test? The PBDS nursing test is the Performance Based Development System. Learn what nurses can expect from this test, now implemented in over 500 US hospitals nationwide. Read more about the PBDS test  and download the PBDS [+]

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, [+]

We welcome furry friends with travel nursing tips and resources If your travel nursing lifestyle includes a dog, cat—even canaries—you’ll be pleased with American Traveler’s client support services, designed to accommodate the furry friend accompanying you on your travel nursing adventure. Here, we provide pet-lover tips and resources that get both of you (and in some cases, all of you!) off to a great start. Bookmark these nurse career resources where you'll find free pet sitter locaters and a "people with pets" directory that dishes on pet-friendly hotels, products and services. Remember that planning before the big road trip, in your travel nursing career or for any occasion, is critical. Each year approximately 100,000 dogs are injured or killed inside moving vehicles; pets may even fall from a car’s open window! Avoid potential dangers by outfitting your car with a pet carrier, big enough to let your dog or cat lie down. You can also shop for tethers that safely anchor your pet to the seat while permitting a near full range of motion—or shop crash tested dog car seats. See the kind of gadgets we’re talking about on this video. These kinds [+]