Click this link to view an informational interview I conducted with Gloria Kizewski, a former traveling nurse. Gloria spent her younger years of nursing traveling the country. She now is an LPN in Colorado. Gloria was nice enough to take time out of her day to explain to me some of her experiences in these jobs.
Chances are, everyone's been to a doctors office, hospital, or emergency room, and spent way too much time waiting to be cared for. You get mad, but there's nothing you can do about it. You end up furious, and probably blame the nurses for slacking off. In most situations, though, it's not the nurses' fault. They're probably trying their hardest to get to everyone, but it becomes nearly impossible after a while. This is because there is an extreme shortage of nurses in the medical field. Doctors offices and hospitals everywhere are running short on nurses. This isn't like the shortages of the past, either. Heather Janiszewski Goodin states in her article, "The Nursing Shortage in the United States of America" that, "Today's nursing shortage will not be resolved by simply returning to the solutions of yesteryear, and strategies to reduce its impact will have to be more creative and focus on the long-term." This shortage is different and even more severe. Because there aren't enough nurses to go around, hospitals just end up stacking on more patients to the nurses. Nurses are becoming overworked. There's simply not enough time in the day to properly attend to everyone. As a result, people begin getting mad. I mean, wouldn't you? People can't get the care they need because their nurses time and energy is being over stretched. Nurses end up with the blame. Complaints are made, but no real solution is ever offered. Well, it's time we start thinking of a solution. If something isn't done about it soon, the nursing field is going to lose all appeal. "Insufficient staffing is raising the stress level of nurses, impacting job satisfaction, and driving many nurses to leave the profession," states Robert Rosseter in his article "Nursing Shortage". If people start vetoing the nursing field because of this, there's going to be an even bigger problem. A solution needs to happen, and it needs to happen fast. My suggestion is simple: Implement a nurse-to-patient ratio. Give a set number of patients a nurse is allowed to have. If there becomes more patients than each nurse is allowed to handle, then the hospital is required to hire more nurses. This should not be an option. In California, it's now a law that a nurse-to-patient ratio be in place. In the article, "National Campaign for Safe RN-to-Patient Staffing Ratios" they say that, "Safe RN ratios have been proven to improve the quality of care and nurse recruitment and retention in California hospitals." Why, then, are hospitals everywhere not following in California's foot steps if it obviously works? Hospitals everywhere need to make this a rule. Some argue that hospitals have a shortage of nurses because they don't have enough money to pay more. But have they considered this; if people get upset with their nurses for not giving them enough attention, won't they start going to a different hospital for care? This is going to lose them much more money than hiring a couple nurses would. In the long run, a nurse-to-patient ratio would raise the hospitals standards and bring in more patients. To conclude, hospitals everywhere need to start thinking of a way to fix the shortages of nurses. If this is not fixed, college students will begin straying away from the nursing field. And who can blame them? Nobody wants to deal with the stress of being blamed for something they can't control. Almost everyone has said at least once in their life that they want to travel the world. Most likely they happen to be a rebellious teenager or an old retired person. People, most likely middle aged, give them condescending looks and tell them that they need to get their heads out of the clouds. "But how will you survive!" they say. What if someone could travel for a living, though? What if that someone also happened to be very interested in the medical field? Travel nursing allows you to work in hospitals all over the country, sometimes even the world. You can pursue a "real" career in the medical field, and at the same time have the possibility of travelling anywhere in the world. The options are endless! A travel nurse not only gets to pursue a career in the medical field, they get to travel the country, maybe even the world, while doing so. For about a year now, I've been pretty positive I wanted to be in the medical field. The inner workings of the human body fascinate me. Not only the body, but the disease aspect of it all. I've always loved watching medical shows that explain different diseases and how they affect people's bodies, even when I was younger. These things have always interested me, so I'm not sure why it took me so long to decide on the medical field. But here I am now. When I told my parents my plan, my dad said I should be a doctor, or a PA. "They make the most money," he said. This particular conversation frustrated me. I tried explaining to him that I didn't actually care about how much money my profession made, I just wanted to enjoy what I was doing, which is exactly why I've decided on nurse. Doctor type people deal more with the paperwork end of things. They look at a chart and make a decision. That is not at all what I want to do. I want to interact with patients; make them feel better and whatnot. Nurses do that and so much more. In the article, "The Difference Between Doctors and Nurses," author Eric Hebert talks about how very different doctors and nurses are. He states that, "Because of the differences in education, an obvious conclusion can be drawn regarding the duties of doctors versus nursing." Really, I think many nurses are under appreciated. Specifically, I want to work in a children's hospital. I love little kids and it absolutely breaks my heart that they have to ever get sick. I feel like I would be very happy knowing that I was a part of the team that helped save a kid's life. Don't worry, I'm well aware that not all of them will end well, but I believe that the times I get to help a kid will make up for the bad times. The medical field is definitely where I belong. There's always been a part of me that would like to see the entire world. The rebel in me would like to say "screw you" to school and college, and just travel anywhere my little heart desires. The realist in me, though, knows that this is a silly fantasy. Very few people have made it this way and chances are I'd end up a bum. Worry not, though, because I found a solution; get a job that pays you to travel! In the article, "What Is A Travel Nurse?" the author states "If you’ve ever wondered how you could make the most of your nursing experience while also seeing the country then travel nursing is for you." This is absolutely perfect for me. A travel nurse can get a job anywhere in the country. They sign a contract to stay with a hospital for a few weeks/months, and that's where they live for the time. When the contract is over they go on to the next place. Just think of the possibilities! You could be in Hawaii one week, and then Colorado the next. Nurses gain an immeasurable amount of experience doing this. They get to act as nurses in all types of situations. It never gets monotonous because no two places are exactly the same. In the article, "Why Start Travel Nursing?" the author talks about how simple it is to become a travel nurse. They state that, "To become a traveling nurse, agencies typically require at least one year of experience in your specialty, preferably in a hospital setting." Basically, you only have to work for a year to have the option of pursuing this amazing career choice. How much easier could it get? Travel nurses are amazing people. They are working in a job one day, and then packing up their entire life to go somewhere new the next. What doesn't sound perfect about this? I would get to work in the medical field, which has always been the field I've gravitated toward, and I would get to travel all over the country while doing so. How many people get to say that they have found a way to combine work with something they've always dreamed of doing? Not many, but with this job, I sure do plan on being one of them. |