MedPro

If you’re a radiologist, radiology tech or imaging professional, have you ever considered working as a healthcare traveler?

The benefits of doing so are many. Read below for five reasons why.

1. Travel! As a healthcare traveler, you’ll go to different hospitals and medical facilities in your city, your state or even around the country (you can choose where you’d like to work) that need your skills for assignments that last an average of 13 weeks.
2. Paid-for housing. Healthcare travel services typically put their travelers in well-equipped apartments close to the medical facility at which they’ll be working. Many of these apartments have pools, gyms and other amenities. Travelers who prefer to find their own housing arrangements will receive a housing stipend from the travel service to help pay for accommodations.
3. The chance to hone your people skills. As a traveler, you’ll be working with a vast variety of colleagues who live – and grew up in – areas of the country possibly quite different from your own. Their backgrounds and experiences will help you see the “way the world works” in a different light, encouraging you to expand your communication and people skills in ways you never before thought possible.
4. The opportunity to learn new techniques. Just as you’ll learn how to get along with all manner of colleagues and patients, so you’ll get the chance to learn new radiology/imaging techniques – or relearn old ones. The wealth of training you’ll receive on the job, no matter how experienced you are, is breathtaking. You may think you know it all, but working as a traveler will show you that there are always new ways of doing things.
5. You’ll work with new technologies. As a traveler, you’ll have the opportunity to work in large urban hospitals with the latest imaging software and equipment. You’ll also work in small suburban clinics and even tiny country healthcare offices. All will come equipped with a wide range of tools and technologies. You’ll relearn how to work with older equipment and you’ll learn how to manipulate and use the new.
   

Working as a travel healthcare professional will give you the chance to work with a wide variety of colleagues, patients and even equipment. If you’re a radiologist, radiology tech or imaging professional with at least one or two years’ professional experience, and you’d like to learn more about how working as a traveler can help your career, contact the recruiters at MedPro Healthcare Staffing. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you are looking for a healthcare staffing firm to work with, using one with a national reach can offer unique advantages.

The most obvious advantage is the choice of assignments that it can offer. Because a national firm works with hospitals, clinics and healthcare facilities throughout the country, it has access to many more jobs, and many more types of jobs than a smaller firm might have. As a result, you are much more likely to find a job that fits you and at a facility that is to your liking than if you are dealing with smaller firm.

If you are looking for a medical center that offers certain specialties of care or types of treatment, a national staffing agency will be better able to find what you are looking for. So, the range of choices is greater.

Not only that, a national firm can provide you the opportunity to work in a location that appeals to you. If you dislike cold weather, you can get a position at a hospital in a southern state. If you enjoy skiing, you can take a job at a facility in one of the Rocky Mountain states. If you like the beach, you can look for something in Florida or California – or even Hawaii!

Working with a national firm gives you the opportunity for travel that would be unavailable otherwise. You can take a job on the East Coast and then move to the West Coast.

Working in such varied geographical areas also provides you with the opportunity to see how different healthcare organizations operate. It gives you a much greater chance to learn best practices. You also have occasion to work with a varied group of people.

And, while all staffing agencies are familiar with the healthcare providers they work with, national agencies, because of their reach, are able to develop a much deeper and broader knowledge of how different providers operate, and what those providers need. This is knowledge that could be invaluable to a traveling healthcare professional.

National agencies also offer a range of benefits you may not find elsewhere, such as travel reimbursement, health insurance, life insurance, short-and long-term disability insurance, 401(k), continuing education, and referral bonuses.

MedPro Healthcare Staffing is a traveling healthcare staffing firm with a national reach. We have opportunities from Hawaii to Maine, Oregon to Florida (and also in Kansas and Missouri!).

Take a look through our job board, and then contact a recruiter to learn more about being placed in an exciting travel employment opportunity.

The job outlook for allied health professionals such as physical, occupational, speech therapists, pharm techs, phlebotomists, etc., continues to shine.

Let’s talk about pharmacy technicians first. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that projected job growth for these workers will grow 32 percent between 2010 and 2020, which is considered to be “much faster than average” compared to all occupations. The median hourly wage for pharm techs was $13.65 in 2010, providing an annual income (supposing a 40-hour work week with no overtime) of $28,392.

Physical therapy assistants made a median hourly wage of $18.13, according to the BLS, with a subsequent median annual salary of $37,710. PT assistants will enjoy a job growth of 52 percent between 2010 and 2020, a growth much greater than just about any occupation, according to the BLS. Physical therapists’ median salary in 2010 was more than $76K, with a job growth prediction of 39 percent.

Pharmacists made the big bucks as far as median salaries went: more than $111K in 2010, according to the BLS. These well-paid allied health professionals can expect a projected 25 percent growth in job opportunities from now through 2020.

Registered nurses also can look forward to healthy job growth: 26 percent between 2010 and 2020, according to the BLS. With an annual median salary of almost $65,000 a year, nurses are sitting pretty when it comes to their income outlook.

Are you a speech therapist/speech language pathologist? Then you can expect a projected job growth of 23 percent (still faster than average) and a median salary (at least in 2010) of $67,000 a year.

Do you have experience as a respiratory therapist? Then your job growth outlook between 2010 and 2020 is 28 percent. The median salary in 2010 for your profession was $54,000 a year.

Occupational therapists also should see great job growth in the coming years. The BLS projects a handsome 33 percent growth (which it deems “much faster than average”). At a median hourly wage of $34.77, the median salary in 2010 was a bit more than $72,000.

But OT assistants and aides have a massively healthy projected job growth of 41 percent, and a quite-respectful median annual salary of just short of $47,500.

Please note that these are median salaries and don’t include overtime.

Also note that traveling allied healthcare professionals can make considerably more than their stay-in-one-place colleagues due to the fact that they can receive per-diem hourly wages, referral and longevity bonuses, and more. If you’ve ever considered working as a healthcare traveler, contact MedPro Healthcare Staffing today!

Traveling far from home (or at least at a location that’s too far to go home after your shift) is one of negatives of working as a traveling healthcare professional.

Aside from taking your family with you (which is hard), going home on weekends (costly and time intensive) or just accepting assignments that will bring you home at night (you may not be able to go on many assignments), read below for some ideas on how to stay connected to your friends and family while on a travel assignment.

• If you don’t have an account already, sign up for Facebook and ask your friends and family members to “friend” you. This will allow you to read all their updates and post your own. This is a great way to stay aware of the goings on in their lives and staying involved. Facebook has an app for smartphones, in case you don’t take a laptop with you.
• You’ll probably want to know what the weather’s like back home (especially if you live in Michigan and have an assignment in Florida in February; all the better to gloat). The Weather Channel has an app for your smartphone so that you can check the weather anywhere at any time.
• If you’re not a fan of Facebook, consider joining Google+. The app for the social media platform allows you to use what it calls Huddle to send quick group messages to everyone who is in your “circle.”
• Skype allows you to chat face to face for free with anyone who also has the Skype app on their smartphone. You also can call or text anyone with Skype’s low rates using Skype credit.
• Love Twitter. TweetDeck recently updated its mobile app. You can customize your news feed for updates from all of your Twitter, MySpace or Facebook contacts in one location.
• Want to schedule all your tweets and Facebook postings? You can using HootSuite’s mobile app.
• Take pictures with your smartphone and then instantly download them to your Facebook or other social media feeds with the Instagram app. This allows your family and friends to see what you’re up to pretty much just as you’re up to it.
• If you’d like to send instant messages to your family and friends, download the LiveProfile app. LiveProfile allows you to share updates in real time to your family and friends.
• Want to know what’s going on in your neck of the woods? Check your local newspaper’s website to see if it has an app for smartphones. If not, check out Patch.com’s mobile app, a site that provides news coverage and other information for more than 800 cities and towns across the country. If your town isn’t covered yet, just wait; Patch is growing.

If you’re an experienced traveler, what apps do you use to stay in touch with the folks back home? What other tips could you offer to help new travelers stay connected?

Whether you’re an experienced healthcare traveler or you’re looking to explore this exciting career, if you’re an OT, RN, PT, speech therapist, pharmacist or other allied health professional, send your resume/CV to MedPro Healthcare Staffing. We look forward to hearing from you.

If one or more of your PT travel assignments has you working with the elderly, read below for some tips on how to work successfully with this cohort of individuals.

You may think that all aging bodies are the same. And you’d be right – to some extent. For example, many PT experts believe that everyone older than age 65 will have some form of arthritis in their spines.

Yet everyone’s body is different. And each of your patients will have a musculature as unique and individual as they are.

For example, some of your patients may be former (or even current) athletes. Any injuries they may have suffered as a youth or young adult now may be coming back at them in a big way as joints stiffen. Other patients may be recovering from minor or major strokes and will be working with you to recover the best range of motion they can. Still others well into their 70s or 80s were doing just dandy until a fall and now must regain balance and their strength. Other seniors may simply want to enjoy the simple things in life, such as kneeling for prayer or working in a beloved garden.

So the foremost thing to remember is that older patients are as individual as your younger patients. Yet another important thing to remember is that the main goal for most of your senior patients is to keep or re-establish their independence. It’s the rare individual who automatically accepts – or resigns himself to – a life of physical dependency. Instead, seniors, just like the rest of us, want to keep moving and functioning under their own steam.

Many seniors will seek out a physical therapist in order to keep or restore flexibility as well as retain – or restore – the endurance necessary to complete the day-to-day tasks of living.

It’s therefore critical that you and your senior patients together set goals that are realistic and will also give them the wherewithal to live independent lives as much as possible.

Some of the things your patients may be dealing with when they come to you could include one or more of the following:

• Incontinence
• Osteoporosis
• Cancer
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Parkinson’s Disease

You’re also going to want to keep your patient’s family and/or caregivers in mind during the course of treatment. Family members or caregivers are critical to ensuring that the patient follows the treatment plan at home. A family member who encourages and supports the patient in doing any at-home exercises you prescribe can go a long way to ensuring that the exercises get done. In contrast, a family member or caregiver who doesn’t understand the importance of doing the exercises at home, or even pooh-poohs them, can go a long way to ensuring that your patient fails to perform the exercises without you.

So it’s important that you meet with at least one person who either lives with your patient or cares for him or her to discuss any at-home treatment you may prescribe in order to get the family member’s/caregiver’s buy-in.

Are you a physical therapist with at least one or two years of professional experience who is thinking about a career as a traveler? If so, don’t hesitate to contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing. Send us your resume/CV today!

In a perfect world, you could sign up with a traveling healthcare staffing service and then just pick and choose where you want to work, pack your bags and head on out to assignments across the country.

We don’t have to tell you that the world isn’t perfect.

The truth is that licensing requirements within your profession in different states can make the process of accepting and working in different states a tad problematic. Notice we didn’t say impossible. But receiving licensure in different states can take a few weeks to a few months.

Your staffing manager at a traveling healthcare staffing service such as MedPro Healthcare Staffing often can help you with the application process, so don’t be afraid to ask.

Below are some very brief overviews of the licensure requirements for three healthcare professions.

Nursing. The licensure timeline (from application to acceptance) for states can vary from 2 weeks to 6-9 weeks, so it’s best to get that paperwork started quite early if you’re interested in a position in, for example, New York (6-8 weeks). Some states also require special fingerprints or background checks. Find the licensure requirements and contact information for the state(s) you’re interested in here.

Therapy. The timeline in some states is just seven business days (Kentucky), but some (such as California) have a timeline of 6-8 weeks. Some states also require fingerprint/background checks. Here’s the link to our licensure contact information for different states.

Allied Health. Respiratory therapists can expect the licensure process to take anywhere from 1-2 to 6-8 weeks, depending on a state’s requirements. At least one state (California) requires that you have a two-year degree. Learn more here.

Here at MedPro Healthcare Staffing, your recruiter will help you through the licensure process. You must understand, however, that acquiring the necessary licensure(s) is your responsibility, not ours. If you have any questions at all, please let us know. We’re here to help you in any way we can so that you may join the ranks of healthcare professionals who are enjoying the exciting career of the traveler. Contact us today.

If you’re trained as a laboratory technician/technologist, good for you! Your job prospects, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, are expected to grow by about 13 percent between 2010 and 2020.

Considering that entry-level requirements for the position as a technicians usually only require an associates degree or certificate (although technologist usually need a bachelor’s degree), an individual could enter this in-demand career in just two years.

Some states do require licensing in addition to a degree and/or certificate.

The BLS reports that the job growth rate for technologists between 2010 and 2020 should be about 11 percent. The growth rate for technicians, however, is expected to be greater, with a 15 percent growth rate within the decade.

While there is a wide range for salaries, it will naturally depend on the competitive wages of where you work. Metropolitan areas tend to pay more for all types of jobs than do suburban or rural areas.

Traveling lab technicians and technologists can expect to earn more per hour than those who work for one hospital or lab. How much more? When all is said and done, when you factor in the tax benefits, extra per diem pay, and more, many travelers find that their paychecks are about 15 percent more than their stay-in-one-place counterparts.

Does working as a traveling lab technician or technologist sound appealing to you? If so, and if you have at least one or two years’ professional experience, contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing today so that we can discuss our available openings with you. We look forward to hearing from you.

Some days are great. Some so-so, and some are just downright awful.

No matter how hard you try to help your patients, no matter how positive and pleasant you are, regardless of how well your therapies, skills and knowledge base “work” for your patients, you’re going to have those “difficult” days where nothing seems to go right, where you – or your patients – are in a foul mood, where everything seems to “go wrong.”

We have some tips to help you get through these days. Read below for our suggestions.

Most of the things that happen to us in our lives are things over which we have no control. A patient is in a foul mood. Your kid forgot his homework and needs you to bring it to him. A co-worker is running late for her shift, causing you to be late for your departure, meaning you won’t get your car to the mechanic before it closes.

But while we can’t control whether or not “stuff happens” (hint: if it hasn’t yet happened, it will), we can control our response to it.

A patient having a bad day doesn’t mean you have to join him (you can and should feel sympathy/empathy, of course). You can stay angry – or even get angry – at your son and let it simmer in your mind until it explodes. Or not. The same goes for your (justified) consternation at your co-worker’s lateness.

Our point? You can fall into a bad mood or choose not to.

Keeping a positive outlook is hard but not impossible. Especially with practice. To help you “keep calm and carry on” we recommend the following:

• Make sure you get plenty of rest. A tired healthcare professional can become a cranky healthcare professional fairly quickly.
• Take at least 30 minutes a day, every day, and turn off the cell phone, the Internet and the television. You don’t have to meditate, or even sit quietly. You could read or take a walk. The point is to turn the constant bombardment of information off and give your brain some peace.
• You’ve heard it before and again and again, and we’re repeating it here: Eat a healthy diet and drink plenty of water.
• When you’re feeling bad, or feeling sorry for yourself, take a few minutes and write down the things for which you’re grateful. These could be anything, from the “biggies” such as people you love and those who love you, to the smallest of pleasures such as a great peanut butter and chocolate truffle. You’ll be amazed how much your mood will lift when you pay attention to all that is good in your life.

Working as a traveling healthcare professional can be a great fact of your life, one that will be added to your grateful list again and again and again. If you’re a nurse, PT, OT, speech therapist, pharmacist, or other allied healthcare professional with a minimum of professional experience, contact a Medpro Healthcare Staffing recruiter today.

We certainly don’t have to tell you about the wealth of resources online for traveling healthcare professionals. Yet it’s easy to feel a victim of information overload because there are so many sites. How do you know which to look at or how to find the better sites?

What Information Are You Looking For?
For hints and help with travel and relocation:	Some links on our own site to sites such as HealthcareTraveler.com, to Moving.com, and more.
Taxes and financial questions:	Links to tax and financial resources we feel are particularly helpful to our traveling healthcare professionals, including IRS.gov, gsaadvantage.gov, Turbo Tax software, and more.
Licensing questions PT, OT and speech therapists:	Links of use to OTs, PTs and speech therapists are here.
Licensing questions for nurses:	Licensing links for nurses.
Licensing questions for pharmacists:	Licensing links for pharmacists
Licensing questions for laboratory or respiratory therapists:	Licensing links for lab and respiratory therapists.
Helping you find friends:	Several blogs may interest you, including: Travel Nurse Aim, a blog by a traveling nurse who writes about her experiences; AllNurses.com, one of the Internet’s largest travel nursing forums MyPhysicalTherapySpace.com, a spot where PTs can talk and learn from one another; MeetUp.com, to help you find people while on assignment who have the same interests and hobbies as you do; and more.
Healthcare resources of value:	Click here for links to several healthcare resources of value, including Nursyz.com, the website for the Department of Health and Human Services; the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and more.
Sites to help you have fun while on assignment:	We’ve put together a compendium of sites we think you’ll enjoy, including WonderHowTo.com, a site that offers free video training on just about anything from knitting, to piano playing, and more; CouponCabin.com, which scours the Web looking for deals; and other entertaining sites.

What online sites do you think would be helpful to healthcare travelers? Send us links!

We also hope you’ll send MedPro Healthcare Staffing your CV/resume. We have dozens of traveling healthcare opportunities at sites all across the country. Contact us today.

An interesting read from one of our association partners – American Association of International Healthcare Recruitment (AAIHR). The article touches on a variety of topics relating to immigration issues regarding foreign-trained healthcare professionals. A snippet of the Executive Summary with a link to the full text are listed below.

The U.S. Congress and the executive branch have failed to establish immigration policies that would allow a
sufficient number of foreign-born doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to work in the United States. At a
time of tremendous need in health care, the United States is saddled with an immigration system designed to
prevent, not facilitate, the entry of highly skilled physicians, nurses, physical therapists and other foreign-born
medical personnel. The aging U.S. population, the demands of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the potential
benefits brought by medical advances and increased specialization mean America must tap the global talent pool
in health care or see its citizens suffer the consequences.

To read more, download the white paper here:

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/22488496/1275517538/name/NFAP_Policy_Brief.Health_Care_and_Immigration.November2012.pdf