The Growing Trend of Home Nursing

By Clyde Lee Dennis

Home Nursing is a discipline of nursing in which trained and highly qualified nurses provide nursing care to a patient in the privacy of his or her own home. Affording greater flexibility for both the patient as well as the nurse. It is supported by providing aid in operations clients can't do without assistance. Tasks such as shopping, cleaning, supplying the meal preparation.

As an industry it is regulated by the Act of health services in the municipalities that prescribes professional nurse services. Home Nursing is also sometimes provided by the patient's family or friends. These individuals are widely known as caregivers, primary caregiver, or voluntary caregivers who give informal care. It has become a very good option for a lot of traveling nurses and is in many cases conducted by specialized medical care staff.

In-home nursing is an environment in which the nurse needs to be willing and able to handle various situations on his or her own. This element of the profession makes it one that is not for everyone.

As many have learned, at home nursing is draining and exhausting to relatives who try to care for loved ones, and there is no alternative, except to pay for part time home health care as best one can. Often, the term home nursing is used to distinguish non-medical care or custodial care, which is care that is provided by persons who are not nurses, doctors, or other licensed medical personnel, whereas the term home health care, refers to care that is provided by such licensed personnel.

The demand for home nursing is increasing as a result of shorter periods of care in the hospitals. In the case of the elderly person, for whom home nursing is needed, cares considering problems at the medical treatment practitioner side, those of the patient and the nursing person, those of the nursing force in the region are necessary. Most commonly, home nursing is used for the postoperative patient who need intravenous hydration or narcotics for a short period of time.
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Registered Nursing - Is it Right for You?

By Karen Rodgers

Nursing is a hard job. A registered nurse has to know everything from the science of starting an IV to the different drug interactions found in patients, to the symptoms of hundreds of diseases. Holistic nursing involves taking care of the whole patient and makes for a very long day. Add to that the fact that the average hospital floor nurse has 6 patients per shift and needs to meet all their needs, and you can see why nurses are always on the move. However, most nurses report great satisfaction with their work. Financially, registered nurses are well compensated.

Average Salaries
According to Salary Wizard, the average median salary of a registered nurse is $59,061 per year. When you think about it: that is an excellent salary for a professional who only has a Bachelor's degree and has passed the state certification test. Many professions (education for one) do not offer that as a median salary for their Masters level professional. A starting salary for an RN depends on the company and type of facility; however the starting salary for a graduate/fresh-out-of-college nurse is $43,000.

Bonuses
Added to the salary are a number of bonuses registered nurses can accrue if they negotiate with their facility. Because of the serious nursing shortage facing our country, hospitals are always trying to get as many nurses as possible. Many hospitals offer signing bonuses of $2,000 - $3,000 for a one year commitment and some offer as much as $5,000 for a three year commitment. Beyond signing bonuses, there are increases in salary if a person takes a weekend shift. It is also common for a nurse to be "called in" and offered "premium pay" (time and a half) if they will work during a scheduled off day.

Certifications
Another way registered nurses can bump up their salary is to add certifications or specialties to their resume. Registered nurses who become Certified Diabetes Educators (CDE), Clinical Care Specialists (CCS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) or any number of certifications can ask for more money at the start of a contract and count on raises that take these certifications into account. The other plus to getting specialty certified is that the hospital will usually pay or reimburse the nurse for taking the course - so it's a win all the way around.

Pick Your Floor
Not all registered nurses do the same thing. Nurses on the Medical/surgical floor make less money than nurses who work on telemetry (who have extra cardiac training), intensive care or the pediatric unit. Each floor has its own special requirements for registered nurses. Of course, RN's that work in doctor's offices, for insurance companies or as school nurses make much less money than a hospital or specialty nurse.

With the added bonuses of insurance, education and compensated career advancement, as well as the fact most nurses work 3 days (3 twelve-hour shifts is the norm), registered nursing is a profession that is as rewarding as it is challenging.

NurseNetOnline.com is one of the leading online nursing communities. We cover everything from nursing employment to the adventures of travel nurses.

Extraordinary Care - Ethics in Nursing

By Karen Rodgers

One of the first things a new nursing student learns, long before they start sticking needles in people, is a nursing code of ethics. Every profession has an ethic, a common morality or overriding philosophy evolving around the profession itself and the acts of the people who are involved it. In the field of nursing where people put their lives in the hands of a total stranger, following a system of ethics is critically important. Nursing ethics takes the form of several categories:

1. Competence - A nurse is responsible at all times to see that they have the proper training and experience for every procedure that they do. When a nurse is issued a license to practice nursing after passing the state board of nursing exam, there is an understanding that the nurse is competent to perform all nursing tasks under the licensure. However, continuing education and experience are the responsibility of the nurse to ensure the proper technique and understanding is present.
2. Compassion - The next set of ethics regards the treatment of patients. A nurse is supposed to be a compassionate caregiver who regards the safety and dignity of each individual with utmost diligence. That means each patient must be treated as a unique individual with a right to privacy and dignity. Each patient or their guardian must consent to nursing care and be treated out of the best experience of the nurse.
3. Quality Care - a nurse is to ensure that they are in a position where they can provide consistent quality care to the patient while they are on shift. That means a nurse who hasn't gotten enough sleep, is overworked to the point of exhaustion, is distracted by professional or personal problems, or is using drugs or alcohol that could impede judgment is breaking the ethic of quality care and could be putting their license in jeopardy. Quality care also means using the required standards for care involving procedures, techniques and hospital policy.
4. Collaboration - The health care system is a multi-connected organism where each person depends on the other to fulfill his or her obligations correctly. Communication and collaboration are essential elements in a nursing code of ethics. Nurses must collaborate honestly with doctors, technicians, specialists, social workers, administration, patients and family members of patients to create a holistic healing environment where all elements of patient care are foremost and efficient.
5. Career Professionalism - A nurse does not just do things for patients or themselves. A nurse must be conscious that they work for and are part of a larger profession of people. Nurses are required to further the profession by their appearance, attitude and consistent representation of the profession as a whole. Nurses must continue as part of that profession to engage in dialogue and documentation that uplifts the nursing profession and provides a consistent body of wisdom and accountability to the career as a whole.

The nursing code of ethics passed by the American Nurses Association encompasses all these categories and provides nurses with guidelines and benchmarks to ensure they are meeting their obligation to the overall ethic of the health care system.

Nurse Net Online is one of the premier nursing information resources online. We have articles on everything from nursing grants to RN travel jobs.

Choosing a Nursing Home Facility

By Todd Going

It can be a very difficult decision to put a family member or loved one in a nursing home. There may be no way to make this decision any easier from an emotional standpoint, but there are several steps you can take to better ensure the safety of those you hold dear.

Look for signs by asking good questions so that you may better prevent any instances of abuse from happening, and identify nursing homes where the well-being of the residents may be compromised by unqualified supervisors and staff.

Ask detailed questions regarding the facilities resources, staff/resident relations and emergency services. This will go a long ways in determining what type of nursing home is best suited for your needs, or the needs of a loved one. Also, setting up a step-by-step process will help in your decision about which nursing home is right for you and can eliminate many of the concerns and fears that come with a life-changing decision like this.

The best way to get rid of many of your concerns and doubts you might have about nursing home care and policies is to do as much research as you can. There is no set-in-stone way to guarantee your loved one's security and safety. Putting trust in someone to care for you or a loved one can be extremely difficult. If you feel that trust has been broken then it is in your best interest to contact qualified, experienced and understanding legal counsel to assist you.

Learn more about choosing a nursing home and nursing home abuse or for a free Nursing home injury case review visit www.resource4nursinghomeabuse.com This article may be freely reprinted as long as this resource box is included and all links stay intact as hyperlinks.

Travel Nursing Jobs in Alaska

By Anirban Bhattacharya

Travel nursing is one of the fastest growing segments of the nursing industry apart from being a major source of employment in the state of Alaska. Travel nursing, a concept, has gained significant popularity throughout this area, because of the overall shortage of registered nurses in these parts of the country and the overall stagnancy of the salary structures for nurses.

Travel nurses are usually registered by various specialized nursing agencies, which send them on contracts to their clients. The nursing agency usually supplies the travel nurses with housing and travel expenses and takes care of the licensing, benefits and payroll services while the hospitals, nursing homes or suitable clients fills the position temporarily and the nurse gets paid above market wages to work and live in a new region.

Most contracts are of shorter duration unlike permanently employed nurses. Moreover, the contracts vary from agency to agency and also the clients for who travel nurses are being sent. Typical assignment for a travel nurse may range anything between 8 weeks and 26 weeks.
These short term assignments may be renewed in many cases and may sometimes extend for longer periods as agreed.

Very often travel nursing agencies make arrangements for travel nursing jobs so that a travel nurse can be permanently positioned in a hospital or nursing home if both the client and the agency agree upon this. However, mostly these vacancies are temporary and anyone desiring to serve as a travel nurse should be mentally prepared to work in this type of agreement. In fact, the very name ‘travel nurse’ signifies a nurse who has to extensively travel to clients’ facility to offer her expertise, and this is the benefit of being a travel nurse…you do get an opportunity to see places and also get paid while visiting the wonderful country.

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