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Posts Tagged ‘Travel Nursing Jobs’

I had the fantastic opportunity to work as a school nurse for five years. I found the work to be very challenging but also very rewarding. It’s a great specialty for nurses who enjoy working with children and teens. Being a mother, the position worked out well for me because my hours as a school nurse were the same as my kids’ hours in school.

Every school district has certain requirements and positions, and most districts have a limited number of nursing positions. Where I worked, school nurses were required to be RNs but some school districts hire EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians, also known as Paramedics) and LPNs (Licensed Practical Nurses) depending on what their budgets allow. Read Full Story

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – According to the Associated Press, a new state law designed mainly to crack down on Medicaid fraud, is having unexpected consequences by keeping some health care professionals from getting or keeping their licenses at a time when the state is suffering a shortage.

Nursing jobs and healthcare workers affected by Florida law designed to crackdown on fraud

A little-noticed provision in the 160-page measure is preventing doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and others licensed by the state from working in Florida if they have old felony convictions for fraud or drugs.

The law, which went into effect July 1, prohibits applicants who’ve had such convictions – even if unrelated to Medicaid or other government programs – from getting new or renewed licenses until at least 15 years after they’ve completed their sentences, including probation. The ban also applies to no contest pleas and cases where judges have withheld findings of guilt. More than 30 license applications have been denied or withdrawn because of the law.

Here’s the irony: The provision covers only those who have violated Florida or federal laws. Applicants convicted of the same crimes in other states can still be licensed in Florida.

“To favor people who commit their crimes out of state doesn’t make any sense,” said Anna Small, legislative counsel for the Florida Nurses Association. Read full story.

Nurses Forum offers information about nursing jobs, travel nursing, forensic nursing, forums, a directory of nursing schools in the United States plus continuing education and career opportunities.

According to the latest figures from UK nursing regulator, NMC, there has been an 18% increase in complaints made against nurses and midwives.

An NMC report reveals that the regulator received 1,759 complaints judged to be suitable for further investigation in 2008-2009, an increase of over 18% compared to the 1,487 in 2007-2008.

This represents the highest number of allegations received by the UK’s largest health professional regulator since 2005, according to the NMC

Nearly 15% of complaints related to charges of dishonesty including theft, false claims to registration with the NMC and sleeping while on duty.

Ian Todd, director of fitness to practise at the NMC, said ‘We have no objective evidence to explain why the number of complaints has increased. However, members of the public have increasing expectations of the standards of care they should receive and we live in a consumer society in which people are more willing to complain when they have received poor care.’

Visit Nurses Forum for information about nursing jobs and travel nursing.

According to The U.S. Department of Labor’s March 2008 Employment Summary reports, employment in the health care sector continues to grow, adding 360,000 jobs during the past 12 months. The Labor Department estimates employment of registered nurses will grow 23 percent from 2006 to 2016 and the country will need 500,000 new RNs by 2016.

“I’ve been a nurse since 1969 and have experienced different economic up and down turns,” said Linda Norman, DSN, RN, FAAN, senior associate dean for academics at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee. “There has always been a sustained need for nurses and a shortage of nurses.”

“Nursing not only is a recession-proof profession but it is one that has multiple opportunities,” Norman added. “The value of nursing is being appreciated throughout the health care industry.”

“The number of nurses who graduated has gone up during the last 40 years, but, the interesting piece is the demand for nurses also has increased,” Norman said. “Nursing programs have had difficulty keeping up with the demand.”

Pat Witzel, RN and chief nursing officer at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center located in New York, stated, “Nursing is not generally affected by the economy. People becoming ill or needing health care services is not dependent on what happens economically.”

The average age of a nurse  is almost 50 years with many possibly retiring soon.

“The workforce will be consistently losing nurses during the next five, 10, 15 years, and those nurses will need to be replaced,” said Hila Richardson, director of the undergraduate, continuing education and community health programs at New York University (NYU) College of Nursing.

Nursing jobs  and travel nursing  will always be in demand because people will always need medical care, however schools are just not producing enough nurses.