Posts by TotalMed Team
What to Do When You’re Travel Nursing and Can’t Get Home for the Holidays
The sights and sounds of the holiday season are all around you — twinkling lights strung high on city buildings. A Salvation Army Santa jingling a bell outside of the grocery store. Pine wreaths on the storefronts. Everywhere you turn, you’re reminded of holiday cheer. Then you remember it: this year, you’re not going to…
Read MoreCaring for the Most Vulnerable Patients During and After Natural Disasters
If you have experience working with a broad range of patients, you know there’s a big difference in resiliency from one patient to the next. While a young adult can almost always bounce back from a broken leg, a broken hip is a life-threatening situation for many geriatric patients. On the other hand, if you’re…
Read MoreCODE SILVER: Responding to an Active Shooter as a Travel Nurse
It’s an all-too-frequent event in America: we turn on the TV or look at our phones and see that another mass shooting has happened. We see the photos of victims and watch footage of family members grieving. We learn the details: how it started, what happened, and how it ended. It’s inevitable that we begin…
Read MoreHandling Personal Emergencies as a Travel Nurse: How to Be Prepared When Life Throws You a Curveball
As a travel nurse, you’re used to thinking on your feet and adjusting to new circumstances. Still, even the most flexible people can be totally uprooted when experiencing a personal crisis or emergency. So how can you handle the next curveball life throws your way? While we can never know exactly what’s coming, we can…
Read MoreTriage in a Disaster or Mass Casualty Scenario: What to Do Differently
As a nurse, you’re familiar with triage, the process of examining patients, assessing how urgently they need care, and determining who will get treated first. Triage procedures can vary from one facility to another. Most typically, triage aims to treat those who have the severest injuries first. Triage is a fairly standard process in normal…
Read MoreHow to Help If a Hurricane Hits While You’re Travel Nursing
Florence and Michael. Katrina and Rita. Ike and Sandy. The names have become synonymous with destruction, displacement, and loss. Despite growing preparation, hurricanes remain a major threat to coastal and inland communities in the U.S. They’re complex and totally unpredictable, shifting in size and direction as they approach landfall. They also carry a lot of…
Read MoreThe Perks of Being a Travel Nurse as a Grandparent
It’s one of life’s golden moments: you’ve become a grandparent. You spent over 18 years doing the difficult (and sometimes thankless!) work of rearing your own children — and now it’s time to bask in the loving glow of your grandchildren. Maybe you’re already a travel nurse and wondering how you’re going to fit grandparenting…
Read MoreHomeschooling Your Children as a Travel Nurse
It’s a major step: you’ve decided to take your kids on the road with you during your travel nursing assignments. Now you’re probably dealing with a big question: how are you going to make sure they get a quality education? For many travel nurses, homeschooling is a convenient and effective option. It can make your…
Read MoreTraveling with Kids as a Travel Nurse: How to Survive (and Thrive!)
Hitting the road for your next assignment — with your kids along for the ride? Traveling with your children can be a really fun experience, and it’s a great opportunity for them to learn about the bigger world. Your kids can be good company, too! Still, traveling is hard work, and it can be even…
Read MoreLong Distance Love as a Travel Nurse: Can it Work?
As a travel nurse, you’re something like a free spirit. You move from one location to another, ready to embrace new places, people, and cultures. Then along comes a new romantic interest — AND an offer for a new 13-week assignment, hundreds of miles away. Is sustaining long distance love possible as a travel nurse?…
Read More