By Medely

August 21, 2023

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Top Travel Gadgets for Travel Nurses

Medely provided this article.

As a travel nurse, you never know where the next contract will take you. However, you should ensure you arrive organized with a bit of style. We have the list of the top travel gadgets for you, whether you’re trying to keep things in order, focused on safety, or comfort on your next trip to your travel contract destination.

Packing cubes

cubes

Whether rolling, folding, or just throwing things together, packing cubes can save you time and headaches when packing for your next trip. We use these to organize our clothes and belongings into neat boxes that are easy to unpack into your destination’s chest or drawers. These might not be your style, but there are many patterns, colors, and sizes to choose from online. Whatever you choose, packing cubes are a must-have.

Travel Gadgets

Compressor bags

Is space at a premium? Compressor bags help you make the most of the space in your suitcase or car. All you have to do is place your clothes flatly into the bags and roll them up. Many bags have special hookups for vacuums that remove all the air from the bags to make them easier to roll up.

Tech kit

Travel Gadgets

No matter how much we try to keep our cables and chargers in one place, they’re rarely where they should be. A tech kit helps keep those pesky accessories organized in one place and removes the stress of tracking where your tech lives.

Jewelry case

Travel Gadgets

Losing an earring or necklace, you love is a day-ruining event. A functional and great-looking jewelry case for when you’re on the go can help protect some of your most valuable and sentimental items. Hard or soft exteriors are a matter of preference. Whatever you choose, it’s important to keep your items safe and protected.

Portable car jumpers

Travel Gadgets

When traveling alone or long distances in cars, it’s key that you prepare for anything that might go wrong. A car losing juice overnight or a dead battery can put a damper on your travel plans. A portable car jumper can help restart your car and get you somewhere to get your vehicle checked. Portable car jumpers often have ports for charging devices or even tire inflating.

Power charger

Travel Gadgets

So many things we use throughout the day have a battery. Bringing along an excellent power charger with enough charge to supply several devices is crucial, especially for long flights or trips. There are even options for solar-powered chargers, just in case you don’t have a plug handy.

Travel Gadgets

Snack containers

Stopping along a road trip for snacks and drinks can literally and figuratively eat into your arrival time. Snack containers are clutch during a road trip because they’re a great way to bring your favorite snacks while saving money and time. You can also pack healthier snacks that you might not find on your travels.

Trackers

Travel Gadgets

Keep track of your items and avoid the lost and found with trackers. Trackers use Bluetooth technology to provide the approximate location of your items. Trackers paired with your mobile device can send you alerts when you’ve left something behind, or you can see where your items are in a matter of seconds.

We hope you found this article on the top travel gadgets for travel nurses helpful. Are there any travel gadgets you use as a travel nurse that we didn’t list? Comment them below.

Traveling with Medely

Wherever your next travel adventure may take you, Medely can get you there with one of the thousands of travel contracts available on our platform. Getting started with Medely is quick and easy. A real person walks you through credentialing, onboarding, and finding your next travel contract. Click here to sign up and get started!

Medely is going to TravCon! Visit Booth 221 to speak with Medely staff, play games, and enter to win prizes!

Our job board is a great place to search for your next travel nurse assignment. If housing is an issue, we have you covered with our housing page. You can search for what you are looking for.

By Leslie Catalano

July 3, 2023

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Journaling with Purpose: Journaling Tips for Travel Nurses

As everyone knows, healthcare can be a difficult environment to work in. Long hours, being short-staffed, and taking care of sick patients make nursing and other healthcare jobs hard. Many nurses find journaling a good way to de-stress in between shifts. 

journaling

Benefits of Journaling.

Journaling has been shown to have several benefits, including:

  • Reduces symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression
  • Improves mood and overall mental health.
  • Improves sleep.
  • Enhances the immune system.
  • Decreases compassion fatigue and burnout among nurses.
  • Helps a person understand and manage their emotions.

If you are new to journaling, you may find it difficult to get started. You sit down with your notebook. Open it to the first page with the intent to write something great, but your mind goes blank. You have no idea what to write about. So, you start off just writing about your day but then find that journaling is not really helping you with your mental health and is just a log of all the things you have done throughout the week. It can even be hard for people who have journaled for years to figure out what to write about. This is when journal prompts can be helpful. 

What is a Journal Prompt?

A journal prompt is a question, sentence, or quote that helps you jump-start your thoughts. For example, the question, “Was today a good day?” might be a prompt. From here, you would just write about whether you felt like you had a good day. These easy questions help you focus your thoughts, and depending on what you write, it can help you figure out your feelings about your day. 

Journal prompts can also help give your journaling a purpose. 

If you are turning to a journal to help you through a situation you are struggling with or to move forward from a difficult experience, it is important not to just write about your feelings but how to change your perspective about a situation. 

journaling

In nursing, we are exposed to many traumatic experiences and challenging issues, but we don’t always give ourselves the time and space to process those emotions. Or we get stuck in a mental loop where we might feel sad or guilty about a situation and are not able to move past the experience. 

It can be life-changing

I have personally experienced this several times in my nursing career. The first time, one of my patients died. An emergency gone wrong. A medication error. All these things can make us feel terrible about ourselves. Journaling about this situation can be beneficial, but if done correctly, journaling can be life-changing. 

The difference between just journaling and changing your life all has to do with the way you journal. If you just focus on your negative feelings, you can exacerbate those feelings and feel worse. What you want to do is change your perspective about your experience. Change the way you think and feel about the event. This can be achieved by using the right type of prompts. Ones that will help you dive deeper into why you are feeling the way you do and help you find a different way to view your struggle or your issues. 

Types of prompt books

There are several different types of journal prompt books you can use. For example, a gratitude journal will have prompts that help you look at the positive parts of your life. Wellness journals may have prompts to help you focus on your health. 

As nurses, we are exposed to unique experiences that not everyone understands. The following journal prompt books were written by a nurse and designed to focus your journaling. The questions are designed to help you explore all your feelings, good and bad, while at the same time helping you build skills to improve your daily health and wellness

Whatever type of journal prompts you choose to use, every nurse should start the habit of journaling. It does not have to be with just a pen and paper either.

journaling

There are several different types of journaling, such as:

  • Reflective- This is when you write about what has happened in your day and what you think about it. 
  • Mindfulness- This is when you focus on what is going on in the moment and write about your surroundings. 
  • Gratitude- This is when you focus and write about things you are grateful for. 

So, whether you are new to journaling or have been journaling for a while, journal prompts can increase the benefits you get from writing. They can help you figure out what to write and change your perspective on things, which in turn, can change your life. 

Do you journal as a travel nurse or travel healthcare worker? Do you find that it helps you? If you would like to share your story or any tips you may have, comment below.

Our job board is a great place to search for your next travel nurse assignment. We have you covered with our housing page if housing is an issue. You can search for what you are looking for.

If you are a new travel nurse or looking into becoming a travel nurse:

Travel Nurse Guide: Step-by-Step (now offered in a PDF Downloadable version!)