Employers continue to leverage temporary staff to meet increased business demands. One of the nation’s largest online job boards announced last month that 29 percent of employers responding to a recent employment survey said they hired temporary workers in the first quarter of 2011. Twenty six percent planned to do so in the second quarter, according to a March 31, press release. Though the survey doesn’t specifically address healthcare staffing, survey results come from a broad spectrum of more than 2,800 hiring managers and 5,600 workers. "A good indication that travel nursing jobs and travel therapy jobs are picking up," said Mary Kay Hull, from American Traveler, a leading supplier of travel nurses and therapists to hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, outpatient rehab, ambulatory surgery and home health providers. Trending was most positive for companies with 500 or more employees and least promising for companies with 50 employees or less. Hiring was hottest in the West and coolest in the South. Nurse job pay, as indicated by survey findings, is expected to change little in 2011. Fewer than half of employers planned to issue pay raises. Of those, only 15 percent anticipated increases beyond cost of living. "Here’s where travel nursing [+]

Without the ability to effectively communicate with under-served minorities, healthy patient outcomes are in peril, say experts at the Pennsylvania Patient Authority. Their agency reported about 232 incidents over a six year period at Keystone State healthcare facilities involving accidents and near accidents that might have been prevented with video interpreters. Risk-related incidents included patient falls from not understanding care instructions, unwanted circumcisions and surgeon/patient disconnects. In some cases, language barriers made it difficult to obtain patient consent, delaying treatment and jeopardizing outcomes. Video interpretation services rely on a portable two-way video monitor system easily transported to the ER, bedside or visitor waiting area.  At a cost of about $0.80 to $1.00 a minute, the caregiver or registered nurse simply selects a language and the system conferences in an interpreter live via satellite almost immediately. For healthcare employers serving large urban communities, video interpretation systems are a godsend.  They alleviate high costs associated with on-site interpreters and enable better patient care through improved communication with Limited English Proficient, Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing patients. For career nurses on the front lines, a video interpreter means they no longer have to wait for a live [+]