This November puts med/surg nurses, the largest group of specialty R.N.s, in the spotlight as America celebrates Medical Surgical Nurses Week, November 1-7, 2011. American Traveler’s Med/Surg Nursing Jobs Cover Virtually All Areas of Practice We recognize the high demand for specialized medical talent, and put our recruiting experts to task in working closely with Med/surg nurses and placing them in America’s best hospitals. Here are just a few of the areas where med/surg nurses apply their skills and clinical training every day. AIDS/HIV Asthma Cardiovascular Endocrine disorders Gastrointestinal care Geriatrics Hematology/oncology Infection Military nursing Musculoskeletal disorders Neurological disorders Nutrition Wound care For the R.N. looking for career advancement in specialized work settings that can keep up with a penchant for traveling the country, start your med/surg jobs here. Travel nurse jobs have approximately 30% more total compensation than permanent positions; plus the allure of unlimited CEUs that advance your clinical skills. For a complete list of nursing practice areas in which med/surg nurses are changing lives for the better—or to send an e-card, print a poster for your healthcare facility and learn of other ways to promote this important nationally celebrated week in healthcare, visit AMSN.  There are decorative ribbons for R.N. name badges, ball point pens and [+]

Hospital hiring trends may be looking up. Analysts with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) project that private and public hospitals will add more than 500,000 healthcare jobs to payrolls over the next eight years. Robust clinical employment opportunities include ER nurse jobs, med/surg jobs and a bevy of critical care nurse specialties. Director of talent management at the Cleveland Clinic, Lois Bock, told Hospital & Health Networks that during the first two months of 2010, the Clinic filled 500 physician and RN jobs, along with numerous clinical support positions. Hospitals doing well as the economy recovers will be ones focused on quality patient care, said Deborah Bacurin, clinical coordinator for American Traveler Staffing Professionals, a leading employer of ER and med/surg nurses. With healthcare reform’s emphasis on performance and efficiency, Bacurin said, hospital’s looking for maximum reimbursements can’t afford to cut back on staff, as fewer nurses can lead to increased medical errors, a breakdown in patient-doctor communication and a drop in positive outcomes. At University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, patient admissions are up by 14 percent, prompting the hiring of 50 new nurses in recent months, reports the Iowa City Press-Citizen. [+]

Answering calls for faster, more convenient service in an outpatient setting, hospital systems, big and small, are branching out into the outpatient surgery business. Margins on outpatient surgeries are superior to inpatient counterparts – sometimes by as much as 20 percent, which could lead to a spike in travel nurse jobs in hospital-based surgery centers in select markets. Growing from about 240 outpatient surgery centers in 1983 to about 5,000 today, the Wall Street Journal reports that 65 percent of all surgeries in the U.S. don’t require an overnight hospital stay, compared to 16 percent in 1980. Minimally invasive techniques, improvements in anesthesia, smaller incisions and less blood loss have all enabled outpatient surgery to gain a stronghold at U.S. hospitals. In addition, financial incentives for hospitals to shift to less complex surgeries amid rising health care costs and changes in Medicare and insurance reimbursements has encouraged the development of both freestanding outpatient surgery centers, as well as hospital-based surgery centers in all 50 states. Opportunities for operating room techs, med/surg nurses, ER nurses and advanced nurse practitioners are expected to be abundant in coming years, as in addition to medically needed surgeries, the popularity of [+]

OR Nurse Jobs get more cutting-edge with the da Vinci® Surgical System Surgery used to present two options for doctors and their patients: a large open incision or laparoscopy; in the case of the later, surgery was limited to a handful of simple procedures, but now there’s an alternative that can be used in a wide variety of complex surgeries—and the fun part? It looks a little like a video game in an arcade. What are we talking about? The da Vinci® Surgical System, a hot topic in the medical community, and one that encourages Med/surg nurses to advance their education on medical robotics; just like their colleagues in OR nursing jobs, are encouraged to learn everything they can to better assist post-op patients. If you fall under the OR nurse jobs or Med/Surg category, consider the da Vinci a buzz-word in your continuing education as a nursing caregiver. Chances are you’ll concur with studies on the positive clinical outcomes (like reduced pain) of this high tech surgery and understand why more and more hospitals are welcoming da Vinci in. Created by the Intuitive Surgical company and named after Leonardo da Vinci for its precision in anatomy and 3-D images reminiscent of his drawings, [+]