Welcome to Travel Nurse Guide
Nursing Recruitment Article
This is a selection made from among articles on Nursing Recruitment. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for future reading, click here.
from:
Travel Nurse - A Health Career Option For The Restless Spirit
By Terry McDermott
It is like a perfect storm of opportunity. A serious nursing shortage meets a qualified professional that just doesn't want to get tied down in one place for too long. Put together this wandering soul and a temporary position in a hospital and you have a travel nurse.
There is a serious shortage of nurses in this country. The average age of a registered nurse is around 49 and as they quit, retire or burn out there are not enough nurses to replace them. In addition, there are not enough instructors in our nursing schools to teach all of those that want to enter the nursing profession. Since there aren't enough nurses coming into the system to replace the nurses dropping out, hospitals just don't have enough nurses to fill all of the positions.
So what is a desperate Human Resource Director of a major medical institution to do? They need to hire somebody to fill in the gaps even if it is only on a temporary basis. And more and more that "somebody" is a travel nurse.
Travel nursing started as a solution to seasonal population growth in Sunbelt states. During the winter, northern "snowbirds" migrated to warmer climates in states like Florida and Arizona. Consequently, hospitals in these states saw a spike in activity during the winter months and they couldn't afford to staff up year round to be in a position to meet this temporary upswing in demand. A solution was to recruit nurses to come on board for a fixed period of time until the part-time seasonal citizens returned to their permanent homes for the summer.
It was a beautiful, mutually beneficial arrangement. Hospitals could hire nurses for about 13 weeks to fill a temporary need without adding permanent staff. Nurses could travel to very attractive sunny states during the winter and enjoy themselves during the off hours. It was like getting paid to take a vacation, even though the work is just as demanding. During days off or after hours, nurses were essentially tourists. Plus, the pay was pretty darn good.
But over the past couple of decades, the seasonal aspect of the travel nurse industry has changed. The nursing shortage no longer runs from December through February. It is a year-round national crisis. There are simply not enough nurses to fill all of the available positions and the travel nurse industry has exploded as a result. The competition among recruiters is fierce and the nurse willing to move away from home for anywhere from 13 to 26 weeks is a hot commodity.
Travel nurse jobs are available in all 50 states. It is possible for a nurse to identify a destination that he or she is interested in and search around until they find the right position, at the right time, in the right institution, for the right pay. Travel nurses can command from $25-$55 per hour along with significant benefits and, in some cases, free housing. It is not unusual to qualify for a sizable bonus at the completion of an assignment.
Even though most nurses are compensated very well, travel nurses and receive significantly more than the nurses on the permanent staff. This, along with a perceived lack of commitment to the facility, may cause a bit of resentment. But, generally, the permanent staff recognizes that these temporary nurses fill a significant need and prevent the workload from becoming unmanageable.
The nursing shortage will not abate any time soon so the opportunity to travel, work hard, make a great income, fill a need and have a great time will be available to nurses that want to hit the road for years to come.
J. Terrence McDermott is the administrator of Travel Nurse Source, at http://www.travelnursesource.com, a resource center for travel nurses. Travel Nurse Source helps identify medical staffing needs and find qualified nurses to meet those needs.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terry_McDermott
http://EzineArticles.com/?Travel-Nurse---A-Health-Career-Option-For-The-Restless-Spirit&id=484340
Nursing Recruitment Specific links
Nursing Recruitment News
Bayhealth Hiring Emergency Department nurses - Milford LIVE
 Milford LIVE | Bayhealth Hiring Emergency Department nurses Milford LIVE Bayhealth Medical Center will soon be adding new full-time and part-time positions for Emergency Department nurses. Bayhealth's newly created professional positions come at a time when many other employers have cut jobs or implemented hiring freezes in ... |
More nurses needed for Illawarra hospitals - Illawarra Mercury
More nurses needed for Illawarra hospitals Illawarra Mercury Illawarra hospitals insist they will find the dozens of new nurses needed to provide better care. The assurance comes as new figures show the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District has recruited 37 of the 72 extra full-time nurses required to meet ... |
New Katoomba nurses by end of month - Blue Mountains Gazette
New Katoomba nurses by end of month Blue Mountains Gazette BY KRYSTYNA POLLARD Thirteen new nurses will go on the job at Katoomba Hospital by the end of this month, the State Government has announced. Blue Mountains MP Roza Sage confirmed the 13 graduate nurses would start at Katoomba Hospital in February, ... |
Job vacancies save health region up to $2 million - Meridian Booster
Job vacancies save health region up to $2 million Meridian Booster Keller said that with about 20 vacant full time equivalent nursing positions in the region, the nursing vacancies make up the majority of empty jobs. “The majority of nursing vacancies are in North Battleford at the Saskatchewan Hospital mental health ... |
Bayheath to host nursing recruitment open house - Milford Beacon
Bayheath to host nursing recruitment open house Milford Beacon By Anthony Stoeckert Bayhealth Medical Center is holding open houses for Emergency Department nurses on Feb. 1 and Feb. 2 at the Kent General Hospital Emergency Department, 640 S. State St. Full-time and part-time positions are available. |
* Sri Lanka changes basic qualifications for nurse recruitment in northeast - Colombo Page
* Sri Lanka changes basic qualifications for nurse recruitment in northeast Colombo Page Jan 30, Colombo: Sri Lanka Ministry of Health has decided to change basic educational qualifications for recruitment of nurses from the Tamil-dominated Northern and Eastern Provinces. The Ministry has decided to recruit students studied in arts and ... |
Nurses angry as Reilly calls for changes to work practices - Irish Times
Nurses angry as Reilly calls for changes to work practices Irish Times However, he also wanted to appeal to the nurses to think too of the “450000 with no jobs and very little lifestyle”. Yesterday, Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation industrial relations officer Michael Dineen said nurses were “incensed” at the ... |
PhilHealth to deploy nurses as customer relations staff - Sun.Star
PhilHealth to deploy nurses as customer relations staff Sun.Star By Cheryl G. Cruz THE Philippine Health Insurance Corporation will recruit and deploy registered nurses as customer assistance, relations and empowerment staff (CARES) to government hospitals to provide better, more personalized services to members at ... |
HC stay on recruiting private nursing candidates in GHs - Times of India
HC stay on recruiting private nursing candidates in GHs Times of India The selection was to be made through an examination conducted by the newly-formed Medical Services Recruitment Board. Defending the move to hire private nursing candidates in government medical institutions, health minister VS Vijay on Tuesday told the ... Stay on nurse recruitments |
John T. Mather RNs help young patients develop coping strategies - Nurse.com
John T. Mather RNs help young patients develop coping strategies Nurse.com By Janice Petrella Lynch, RN, MSN Linda Hill, RN, adolescent psychiatry staff nurse, created a poster presentation to explain the behavioral approach at JT Mather Memorial Hospital's adolescent psych unit. Last month, the inpatient adolescent ... |