NYONE Conference

On November 6th and 7th Dream Nurse Travel headed down to Tarrytown, NY to participate in the annual NYONE conference. 

"NYONE is the professional organization for nurses who design, faciltate, influence, and manage healthcare services in New York State."

We had a wonderful time meeting nurses from all over the state.

We even gave away a free iPad at our Meet and Greet

Visit the NYONE Home page to learn more about the organization and to become a member.

10 Super Cool Nursing Jobs

Syndicated from Nursing Schools
Photo by Bernie Condon

Did you ever think about all the places your nursing degree could be used? The plethera of opportunities is astounding.

1.Holistic Nursing. Holistic nursing focuses on healing the whole person, not just what ails them.

2. Nursing Informatics. Nurses who take this path will combine their knowledge of efficient and conscientious patient care with the latest technologies, enabling them to more effectively care for those in a medical facility, manage records and even reduce some of the most common errors.

3. Forensic Nursing. Forensic nurses must not only access patients and help treat injuries, but must also look for any signs that a crime has been committed and collect any evidence that may be found on the body of the perpetrator or victims.

4. Parish Nursing. Parish nurses generally choose to work in a community of faith, such as a church, temple or other religious institution. Within this group, they work with members to not only improve their physical health, but their spiritual well-being as well.

5. Cruise Ship Nurse. These health care professionals work to help ensure the safety and well-being of passengers aboard a cruise ship.

6. Hyperbaric Nursing. Also called baromedical nurses, this branch of nursing focuses on treating patients within a hyperbaric or decompression chamber. This is one of the most challenging and sometimes intimidating fields of nursing,

7. Oil Rig Nurse.Nurses who want to pursue this kind of career will be entering a highly competitive and sometimes stressful career, but one that can be rewarding personally and financially.

8. Flight Nurse. These nurses get additional training to work with patients who are in transport aboard a medical helicopter or aircraft. Nurses in this field must be able to work under a stressful situation, helping maintain patient stability and life with limited supplies and while in-flight.

9. Medical Esthetics Nurse. Nurses who work in medical esthetics will work with clients to perform procedures like chemical peels, botox, collegen injections, laser therapy and spider vein treatments.

10. Insurance Nursing. For nurses who enjoy working directly with patients, this may not be the best career choice but for those who also have a passion for business, insurance nursing can be an amazing way to use their expertise.

Woman to Undergo Womb Transplant

If you watch the TV drama Private Practice this will sound very familiar to you.  This weeks episode had a woman that was undergoing a womb transplant and the donor was her Grandmother.  The below story is a true account. 

Syndicated from Scrubsmag.com 10-18-11

Bad:
A neonatal intensive care nurse from Melbourne, Australia that desperately wants to have a baby was born without a uterus. According to statistics, one in 5,000 women is born without a uterus. Melinda Arnold, who is 34, and her husband Andrew have tried unsuccessfully three times to use a surrogate mother, and have also been unsuccessful in adoption attempts.

Good:
The good news in all of this? Arnold, who has ovaries that produce eggs, has decided to undergo a womb transplant to have a child, with her mother acting as the donor. That means, if the surgery is successful, Arnold’s baby will be born from the same womb from which she was born. The procedure will be only the third known womb transplant in the world, and will be performed at Gothenburg University in Sweden. The first transplant took place in 2000 and was not successful because the organ was rejected. The second took place August 9 of this year, and has been deemed successful so far, though the womb recipient still has to wait six months before trying to become pregnant via In Vitro Fertilization.
There are health as well as ethical concerns surrounding the womb transplant issue, which, if successful, could provide many women with the opportunity to become pregnant that otherwise could not.

Let us know in the comments section how you feel about the procedure.

Nurse's Night Out Sept 15th

NURSE'S NIGHT OUT

Dream Nurse Travel has teamed up with Buffalo Wild Wings in Ithaca to hold our 1st of many Nurse's Night Out.

We will be there to chat and to help you find a contract or a per diem position in New York State.

Free Beverages and Wings

Bring your Nurse friends too!

Join us on Sept 15th from 6-8!

Are You Afraid of Failure?

Syndicated from NurseTogether.com

Failure! What do you feel when you think about failure? Inadequate? Unworthy? Unlovable? It is so sad that you might have learned to link failure to your value as a person.

Most people who are successful in their work and their relationships have experienced many failures along their road to success. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric bulb, is often quoted regarding failure:

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.

Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man, and I will show you a failure.

If Edison has been afraid of failure, or believed that failure meant he was inadequate, he would never have invented the light bulb!

In order to achieve success in any area of your life, you need to redefine failure. Instead of seeing failure as an indication of your inadequacy or lack of worth, you need to see failure as a stepping-stone to success. Some of the most financially successful people experienced repeated failures.

Walt Disney was a high school drop out who suffered bankruptcy and repeated financial and business disasters.

Milton Hershey, chocolate maker and founder of the famous Hershey Foods Corp., found success only after filing for bankruptcy for his first four candy companies.

Henry Ford filed for bankruptcy for the first car company he started. He didn't succeed until he started his third company, Ford Motor Company.

After P.T. Barnum, American showman, went bankrupt, he joined forces with circus operator James A. Bailey to found Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth.

Quaker Oats went bankrupt three times, as did Wrigley from Wrigley's Gum. Pepsi-Cola went bankrupt twice. Other famous companies that also went bankrupt are Birds Eye Frozen Foods, Borden's, and Aunt Jemima.

Albert Einstein did poorly in elementary school, and he failed his first college entrance exam at Zurich Polytechnic.

Winston Churchill had a lifetime of defeats and setbacks before becoming prime minister of England at age 62. All of his greatest accomplishments and contributions came when he was a senior citizen.

Sir Laurence Olivier, one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, tripped over the door sill and fell headfirst into the floodlights the very first time he had ever set foot on the professional stage!

Woody Allen flunked motion picture production at New York University and the City College of New York and failed English at N.Y.U.

Astronaut Ed Gibson flunked first and fourth grades.

Lucille Ball was once dismissed from drama school for being too quiet and shy.

If these successful people had been afraid of failure, they would never have offered the world their talents. They were able to go on to success because they saw failure as a learning opportunity rather than as an indication of their inadequacy.

Are you ready to change your concept of failure? Are you ready to let go of worrying about what failure says about you and just learn from it? Are you ready to free your soul to do what you really want to do?

If the fear of failure is stopping you from doing what you really want to do, I want to encourage you to change your concept of failure. I want to encourage you to let go of your old way of seeing failure and start to envision failures as learning opportunities on the way to success. Just as Thomas Edison did, I encourage you to see every failure as a step forward!

Volunteering at Free Clinics

photo by koratmember

We are on the brink of flu season and your volunteer work is going to be greatly appreciated.

Most free clinics would not be able to successful operate without the help of volunteers. Typically only 1-2 individuals are paid employees and the rest of the staff is generated from generous doctors and nurses.

Even if you are only able to offer a few days a month, we urge you to do so. We encourage you to call your local free clinic and volunteer your services.

Free Medical Camps has a list of many of the free clinics in the US. Give one a call.

6 super nurse powers I wish I had

Syndicated from Scrubsmag.com July 1, 2011

If you could have a super power at work, what would you want? Here are some ideas of what I would want!

■A Super Bladder–Able to hold all bodily functions for at least 14 hours (without pain!).

■“Vein” Ray Vision–No more palpating! No more multiple sticks! My super eyes can see the best vein on the first try!

■Cloning–the ability to actually be in more than one place at one time (including the break room and bathroom!)

■Mind Reading–yes, Doctor so-and-so, of course I can read your mind and know that you meant to order Zosyn instead of Zithromax.

■Go Go Gadget Arms–you know when that extra piece of tape or blood tube is just a smidge out of reach? Well, G0 Go Gadget arms expand to whatever length you need. (Go Go Gadget legs would be good for us shorter nurses as well…)

■Nurse Midas–Instead of turning everything into gold, the power to turn disgusting smells into lovely fragrances, terrible hospital coffee into a name brand cappuccino, cafeteria food into 4-star cuisine and full hospital beds into empty ones.

What would be your nurse super powers?

Allergy Relief

Your fall allergies have probably already begun for you and if they haven't they are on the horizon. Allergies can be extremely debilitating, which can make life very difficult if you are in a profession where other's needs come before yours.

There are so many different "remedies" out there these days.

Over the counter:

Natural Remedies:

Prescriptions:

What works for you and what doesn't?

Try Running a 5K

photo by Federico Stevanin

Syndicated from Nurse Together by Alice Burron

This summer, I strongly encourage you to try to run a 5K race (about 3 miles). These races are a great way to get in shape, help a good cause, and increase your self-esteem. The running routes often go through parks, mountains and hills, or along bike paths that may introduce you to new places to walk, run or bike. During and after the race, you typically receive food and drink support and enormous encouragement, and maybe even a cool t-shirt!

If you have never run a 5K race before, gaining the courage to embark will be half the battle. Once you have made the mental commitment, all you have to do is begin training. I have designed a walk/run program that will help you go from not running at all, to being able to run a whole 5K in 10 weeks. If you have not been exercising regularly, you may want to see your physician to get the go-ahead.

To prevent injury, be sure to stretch five minutes before and after each workout, wear shoes made for running and that are well-fit for your feet, and stay well hydrated. Good luck, and I would love to hear your success stories!

Key: 5’w = 5 minutes of walking, 5’r = 5 minutes of running.

Family Members from Hell

Photo by Tina Phillips

Syndicated from Madness: Tales of an emergency room nurse

FAMILY MEMBERS FROM HELL:

DOORWAY GAWKER- stands in room doorway and stares at the staff, arms folded, from the doorway with an impatient, angry look on their face

THE VENTRILOQUIST - talks for the patient until you tell them to stop it

THE SHADOW- you have to pry this person away from the patients bedside in order to do your job. then they watch every move you make as you start an IV, give meds, etc.

APATHETIC ANN/ANDY - brings a book, laptop - has a sort of been here/done this attitude - seems uninterested in whats going on

THE SUCKER - accompanies a patient with some kind of bogus chronic problem and has bought into it hook, line and sinker

THE KLEPTOMANIAC - you might catch this person rummaging through the cupboards, drawers and perhaps pocketing a thing or two

THE ERRAND RUNNER - may come up to the desk requesting warm blankets, footies, water, food, more pain meds, etc etc etc

MAMAS BOY MAMA - accompanies their grown son or daughter to the ER and sits with concerned look at bedside

BABY DADDY - accompanies girlfriend to ER and is suspicious of any male that comes into the room. Wants to stay there when pelvic exam is being done.

THE DUMPER- drops off confused mom/dad/annoying sibling/girlfriend/boyfriend and leaves

SPACE INVADERS - crosses that line into the staff area or follows the doctor into their area - definitely a no no

CHRISTMAS GIFTERS - brings mom/dad/grandma who they haven't seen for months to ER because they "aren't doing that well/can't take care of themselves/need to go to a nursing home"

CHICKEN LITTLE - runs to triage desk requesting help for mom/dad/etc in the car who are dying (99% of the time they are fine). Comes up to the desk and tells you heart monitor is dinging - is that OK??!!!

SUSPICIOUS STAN/STELLA- takes notes - wants names of staff, name of medication, name of tests. Has special "medical notebook".

Shift Worksheets for Nurses

ScrubsMag.com has some great worksheets for keeping hospitals organized. They have everything from shift worksheets to ICU specific worksheets.

Check them out.

July 4th = A Busy ER

Photo by tungphoto

Syndicated from Scrubs June 30th

"The U.S. Consumer and Product Safety Commission estimates that in 2009 there were approximately 9,000 fireworks-related injuries, with well over half occurring on or around the Fourth of July."

The Firework Fanatic:

"If you’re working in the ER this Fourth of July, don’t be surprised to see hands with missing fingers, since fireworks that prematurely detonate in someone’s hand can take out a finger or two.

Also common are eye injuries in children, since children are often at the same eye level as the fireworks their parents are holding in their hands and setting off.

Another common injury is damage to eardrums from being too close to fireworks. You could see a few cases of temporary deafness, but hopefully no cases of permanent damage."

DNT's Own Justine Schaff -A New York VIP

Justine Schaff is one of the co-owners of Dream Nurse Travel. This past spring she was recognized as one of the 20 Outstanding Women You Should Know in New York.

Justine fulfilled her dream of becoming a doctor by going to Temple University Medical School. She did her 4 year residency in Oakland, CA and is now currently an emergency medicine attending at Cayuga Medical Center.

In 2004, Justine joined the board of the Ithaca Health Alliance, whose specific goal was opening a multi-disciplinary free clinic. In 2005 the Ithaca Free Clinic opened its doors to all. In her spare time, Justine volunteers at the clinic.

Justine is one amazing woman. We at Dream Nurse Travel are so proud of her and delighted that she received this special recognition. She truly deserved it.

Dream Nurse Travel's New Website

We just recently redesigned our Dream Nurse Travel Website to make navigation easier.

If you would like information about us or a specific position just fill out the "Contact" form.

If you'd like to apply for a specific job opening, click on "Jobs," scroll down to find your position and click "Apply."

If you want to be proactive and begin filling out an application before the position you'd like opens, feel free to click on the "Apply Now" on the top left of the home page.

We also included a bunch of helpful links that will take you to places like NYSNA and Continuing Ed opportunities.

Stop by and leave us a comment using the "Contact" form and tell us what you think.

Accelerated BSN Programs

photo by jannoon028

Have you ever looked into Accelerated BSN Programs?

BestNursingDegree.com has a list of all of the colleges that offer the program.

"An Accelerated second degree BSN program is a full time commitment. What you are essentially trying to do is compress four years of full time nursing school into an average of about 15 months."

Have you taken one of these programs or know of someone who has? What are the pros and cons?

Unwritten Rules of ER

photo by-nixxphotography



Syndicated from Madness-Tales of an Emergency Room Nurse


1) If you come in on a backboard you will have to go to the bathroom within minutes of arrival.

2) If you come in with a probable broken hip you will have to to the bathroom immediately on arrival.

3) If you order food you will be too busy to eat it.

4) Xrays that were done in a nursing home of that broken hip will never come with the patient to the hospital. They will have to be done again.

5) If your patient overdosed on pills and you have to do a gastric lavage, they will always have eaten a disgusting meal before they took the pills.

6) If you get a loud, obnoxious drunk, detox will be full.

7) If one person comes up to the triage window to ask how much longer it will be, it will have a domino effect and everybody in the waiting room will come up there too.

8) If your pro football team is any good at all, you will slow down during the games.

9) If you wear any kind of new uniform or shoes someone will bleed, vomit or pee on them.

10) If you are the charge nurse and go to the bathroom, your phone will ring.

11) If you are having a horrible, busy day, at least one of your frequent flyers will show up. (Its like they have radar or something)

12) If you have a patient who is crashing, ICU tell you they have to transfer a patient to take yours.

13) Its true that when the moon is full, or there is a change in barometric pressure, the weirdos come out of the woodwork.

14) At some point in your time in ER, an embarrassing relative, old boyfriend, hated friend will come in while you're working.

15) When you are really, really busy, one of the following things will happen: the computer will go down, the tube system will go down, a lab machine will go down,
the hospital down the street will go on divert.

Facebook almost got me fired!

Syndicated from allnurses.com May 9, 2011

This is a story from a lady about her Facebook experience. She writes it as a warning for all.

Hi AN family,

This topic has been discussed throughout many threads but I wanted to designate a single thread to this issue. I am a Facebook junkie just like many people from my generation.

I would never post anything patient related or anything that would breach HIPAA. I posted a very tongue-in-cheek status about the daily struggles of nursing (such as drug seeking patients, non-compliant patients, and the patients with a grand sense of entitlement to name a few).

It was meant to be sarcastic and humorous. Well, long story short, HR got a hold of it and almost fired me for it. They said it made me look like a cold, callous nurse and that doesn't sit well with their core values as a facility.

My point of this thread is to be extremely careful about what you post on the internet. My page was as private as it could be but they managed to view it through a "friend's" page.

Luckily, I was able to keep my job and learned a valuable lesson. Don't post work related ANYTHING on your social networking sites.

Do you post about work on Facebook and have you ever been reprimanded?

NYSNA Workshop: Avoid Medication Errors

picture by Renjith Krishnan

May 26 Avoid Medication Errors
NYSNA Headquarters, 11 Cornell Road, Latham, NY

Objectives
•Identify the rights of medication administration as it relates to nursing practice.

•Develop a system to decrease distraction when administering multiple medications.

•Identify common adverse drug errors and how to prevent them.

•Discuss several methods to decrease dosage calculation errors and IV calculation.

•Discuss the action and use of selected drug categories.

•Develop methods to increase error prevention in medication administration.


Click here to Enroll in the Workshop!

Hospital Error Rate

"Just this month, The Journal Health Affairs released a study that found one out of every three patients admitted to a hospital suffered some kind of injury due to a medical error."

"The Obama administration is calling on hospitals and medical centers to meet two major goals by the end of 2013: to reduce medical mistakes by 40 percent and reduce preventable hospital readmission rates by 20 percent."

"Obama administration officials say the overall goal is to prevent nearly 2 million patient injuries and save more than 60,000 lives over the next three years. They also save the program could reduce health costs up to $35 billion, including $10 billion the Medicare program over that same time frame."

You can read the entire article over at MPR.org

National Nurses Week

National Nurses Week is May 6-12.

NursingWorld.org has some great ideas to promote nursing.

What are your plans?

Travel Nursing Myths

Image: © iStockphoto.com/MoniqueRodriguez

What have you heard about travel nursing?

“Ugh, I’d have to move every few months.” “The staff nurses will hate me!” “I’m too old for this.” Guess what? Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

Let’s clarify some misconceptions you may have had about travel nursing, and perhaps give you reason to evaluate whether travel nursing is a career for you


Myth #1: Traveling nurses have to move to a new city every 13 weeks.

Truth: Travel nursing assignments do normally last 13 weeks, but they can last longer, and a lot of times travel nurses can choose to extend their current assignment.


Myth #2: Being a travel nurse means I have to be away from my friends and family.

Truth: There are a lot of travel nurses who take assignments that are close to their homes and have shifts conducive to getting back home for three- to four-day stretches.


Myth #3: Travel nursing is only for young people/I’m too old to start travel nursing.

Truth: Many travel nurses are somewhere in their late 40s to late 50s and have plenty of nursing experience, which actually makes them perfect for travel nursing.

Myth #4: Only single people with no families can be travel nurses.

Truth: There are a lot of travel nurses who bring their spouses or significant others with them on travel nursing assignments, especially when the spouse is retired or has a job that allows some mobility, too.

Myth #5: Travel nurses can’t bring their pets with them on an assignment.

Truth: Taking Fido along on a travel nursing job is not only possible, but is a really good idea. Not only can a pet be a great travel buddy and make your travel nursing housing feel like home.

Myth #6: Travel nursing doesn’t provide a reliable income for me or my family.

Truth: In reality, travel nursing is a great way to provide a solid and steady income for you and your family. Even with the economy down from when travel nursing was at its peak, travel nursing jobs are still paying well and there are still plenty of them available.

Myth #7: The permanent nursing staff doesn’t like travel nurses.

Truth: Travel nurses are normally welcomed to the hospital by the perm staff. The staff members are generally excited to see a travel nurse arrive and happy for the help they will provide, since it gives them a break from working extra and/or long shifts.

Myth #8: Having too many travel nurse assignments on my résumé may look bad.

Truth: Actually, the broad range of experiences that travel nurses have can bolster their résumés. Since travel nurses are inherently exposed to and have to learn different nursing philosophies and methods.

Myth #9: I have to go where the travel nursing companies tell me to go.

Truth: This is probably one of the most confusing travel nursing myths out there. Recruiters always work to put travel nurses in assignments that the nurses want. They take the time to learn what the nurses desire in an assignment and for their careers, and try to find a match that meets their goals.

However, at smaller companies, recruiters may not have as many contracts as the larger companies and may suggest assignments that are similar to the one a nurse really wants. If that’s the case, the nurse may have to look at a few different companies at a time to find the assignment she really wants, but travel nurses are never forced to work somewhere they don’t want to. And if those companies can’t place a nurse in the location she wants, there are plenty of larger travel nursing companies out there that have contracts all over the country, so no travel nurse should have trouble finding a job where she wants to work.

Syndicated from Jeff Long and you can read his entire article over at Scrubsmag.com

S-CUT. Getting patients clothes off Pronto.

No, we were not paid to advertise this product. It is just super cool.

When you are met with a patient who needs to have their clothes removed as fast as possible, sometimes scissors don't "cut" it. Ha that's funny, scissors "cut."

Anyway, this S-CUT can make removing clothes a snap. No need to move the patient around.

According to their website:

S-CUT replaces scissors, knifes and similar tools. Ordinary fabrics as well as leather belts, zippers and heavy outerwear can be easily cut. All you need is a free edge of the clothes where you can start the cut.

S-CUT is designed for optimal ergonomics and provides an excellent grip. Using scissors in heavy materials will most often require a lot of effort. The S-CUT is used with a pulling action requiring minimal effort

Thoughts?

Can Nurses Refuse Doctors Orders?

Sydicated from Emergency Room Nurse by Girlvet on April 11,2011

Girlvet is an amazing ER nurse and she asks this question and tells her story:

Can a nurse refuse to carry out a doctors order?

I am getting to the point of no return on an issue. The issue is giving narcotics to people are know drug seekers. They are the people who come to the ER every one to two weeks with some pain complaint, have documented drug seeking behavior and are still given narcotics. This happened this past week with a patient of mine. I am beginning to feel really uncomfortable with it. To the point where I am going to make a stink about it.

Doctors hate these patients just like we do. Many times they will placate them so they will leave. They don't want to have a confrontation. They put the nurse in the position of having to carry out something that is unethical. We continue to enable the patient to keep coming back for more. I am tired of being put in this position. I'm going to bring it to the management. I'll let you know what happens.

Your thoughts on this issue? Have you ever refused a doctors order?

NHSC offers Loan Repayment Program

Syndicated from April 1st, 2011 By Scrubs Magazine

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) is accepting applications for its loan repayment program through May 26. Connecting practitioners with communities in areas that are most in need of primary health care services, the NHSC supports these services in the form of loan repayment and scholarships.

Numerous service options are available for the loan repayment program, including a full-time, five-year service commitment that would receive up to $170,000 in loan repayment. A full-time two-year service commitment would result in the practitioner receiving up to $60,000 in loan repayment. Other contracts accommodate half-time service.

Around the country, the NHSC is made up of 7,000 primary health professionals at more than 10,000 health care sites. Visit nhsc.hrsa.gov for more information, including an application that can be completed entirely online.

Great App for your Phone

This one of the best apps for your phone and it's free. It is called MedPage

• News from medical conferences. Their reporters are on-site covering over 60 meetings and symposia


• Their original news is peer-reviewed under the direction of the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Office of CME


• Free Continuing Medical Education (CME/CPE/CE) credits across 30+ specialty areas


• Action Points with each story can help answer patient questions


• Audio and video reports accompany most stories


• Articles can be saved and shared with colleagues via, email or twitter


• Full text search of our articles published in last 3 years

The Symbol of Medicine & Chakras

Did you know that some think the origin of this medical symbol is that the serpents may represent positive and negative kundalini as it moves through the chakras and around the spine (the staff) to the head where it communicates with the MIND by intellection, the domain of Mercury [wings].

Just thought you might find that interesting!

Nurses Survival Kit

1. A pencil to remind you to list your blessings.

2. An eraser so you can make your mistakes disappear.

3. A rubber band to stretch yourself beyond your limits.

4. A string to tie things together when everything is falling apart.

5. A marble in case someone asks, “Have you lost your marbles?”

6. A stick of chewing gum to stick with it and accomplish anything.

7. A tea bag to remind you to relax and take a moment to breathe.

8. A candy kiss to remind you that someone, somewhere cares about you.

9. A toothpick to remind you to pick out the good qualities in people.

10. A Band-Aid to heal hurt feelings, whether yours or someone else’s.

Nurse Uniforms Through the Ages

1885

1890

1898 Spanish American War Nurses

1908

WWI

1919 1937 WWII uniforms Vietnam War uniforms

1960s Sear catalog

1970s Today Which would you most like to wear?

Comfy Scrubs

What are you wearing?

Skechers Uniforms

Landau

Urbane Scrubs

Iguana Med

Dickies Medical