August 4, 2024

1185 Views

Managing Shift Work: A Nurse’s Guide to Staying Healthy

Posted on August 4, 2024July 15, 2024 by Medical Edge Recruitment

Medical Edge Recruitment provided this article.

Written by: Taylor Howell, Recruitment Consultant, Medical Edge Recruitment

As frontline providers, nurses play such a crucial role in the healthcare system, often putting the well-being of others before their own. However, maintaining personal health is essential not only for their own sake but also for delivering optimal patient care. Here are some health tips for nurses to help prioritize their health and well-being amidst their demanding profession. As being a travel nurse comes with an unpredictable work-life routine, this guide will ensure that you are treating your health as well as you would your patients’.

Health Tips for Nurses:

1. Prioritize Sleep

Adequate sleep is fundamental for physical and mental health. Despite irregular shifts, nurses should strive for a consistent sleep schedule by creating a calming bedtime routine and optimizing their sleep environment. Ensuring 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep can enhance cognitive function, mood stability, and overall health.

2. Healthy Nutrition

Long shifts and irregular meal breaks can lead to unhealthy eating habits. Nurses should plan and pack nutritious meals and snacks rich in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains. Avoiding excessive caffeine and sugary foods can help maintain steady energy levels throughout demanding shifts. As easy and convenient as it is to grab an unhealthy food option, your body will function much better with the proper nutrition. Planning ahead will be the best way to be on top of this.

3. Stay Hydrated

Dehydration can impair cognitive function and physical performance. Nurses should carry a reusable water bottle and aim to drink water consistently throughout their shifts. Avoiding excessive consumption of caffeinated beverages and sugary drinks is crucial for maintaining hydration.

4. Stay Active and Outside

Despite busy schedules, finding time for physical activity is vital. Incorporating short bursts of exercise, such as stretching or brisk walking during breaks, can improve circulation, reduce stress, and boost energy levels. Taking walks outside on your day off would be so beneficial for your stress levels, as the fresh air and vitamins from the sun will provide you a great reset before your next shift.

5. Manage Stress

Nursing can be emotionally and physically demanding, leading to chronic stress if not managed effectively. Practices such as mindfulness meditation, deep breathing exercises, or yoga can help reduce stress levels. Engaging in hobbies or activities outside of work provides an outlet for relaxation and promotes work-life balance.

6. Promote Work-Life Balance

Balancing professional responsibilities with personal life is essential for overall well-being. Nurses should schedule regular days off, use vacation time to recharge, and set boundaries to prevent work from encroaching on personal time. Maintaining a fulfilling social life and engaging in activities outside of work fosters a sense of fulfillment and reduces stress.

Prioritizing personal health is not only beneficial for nurses themselves but also enhances their ability to deliver high-quality patient care. By incorporating these strategies into their daily routines, nurses can maintain physical fitness, emotional well-being, and professional fulfillment amidst the challenges of their demanding profession. Taking proactive steps to nurture their health ensures they can continue to make a positive impact on the lives of their patients and communities.

Searching for an agency that will support you?

Medical Edge Recruitment is a premier travel nursing recruitment agency specializing in providing top talent to clients in the healthcare industry. We connect clinical and allied providers to their ideal opportunities, focusing on building long-lasting relationships through honesty and transparency. In travel nursing, bigger does not always mean better. While we have an extensive network of job opportunities, our experienced team is dedicated to making a personalized provider experience a priority. There are a lot of moving parts in getting set up for a new assignment, but we take care of all the details along the way. Adventure awaits. Let Medical Edge Recruitment show you where to go next!

We hope you found these 6 health tips for nurses helpful. Do you have any other health tips for nurses? Comment them below.

Find Your Next Travel Healthcare Assignment with Our Job Board!

Are you on the hunt for your next travel healthcare gig? Look no further than our job board! Click here to explore all our current opportunities. We have opportunities for all travel healthcare professionals.

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By Grace Hawkins

June 6, 2024

5267 Views

7 Essential Skincare Tips While Traveling This Summer

Posted on June 6, 2024June 6, 2024 by Grace Hawkins

Have you ever heard that a skincare routine is at the top of any traveler’s to-do list? No, right! That’s because travelers hardly take care of their skin while on a trip. As a result, often, a trip results in tanning, sunburns, dull skin, breakouts, or flare-ups. However, traveling does not always mean frizzy hair, a dizzy face, tired eyeballs, and a limp body.

If it were for you to look face-fresh always on a trip, won’t you take enough care of yourself while traveling this summer? The scorching summers are about to hit your skin hard. So, if you are going on a business trip or you are a traveling nurse, keep reading this piece till the end. It has the seven most essential skincare tips for you to follow while traveling this summer!

7 Essential Skincare Tips While Traveling This Summer:

1. Don’t Forget to Bring Sunscreens and Moisturizers

One of the most important skincare tips is to be sure to pack a moisturizer and a high-SPF sunscreen if you intend to travel in the sun. Putting on a moisturizer provides you with a healthy base so that all the sun products can sit nicely on your skin. You can also pack skin creams that will help nourish your skin, make it look fresh, and add a glimmer to it when outdoors.

2. Take Enough Care of Your Eyes and Lips

Long flights can be particularly exhausting. They can easily tire sensitive skin around the eyes and lips. Therefore you must take care of it a bit! Of course, it’s not easy to be a full-time travel nurse, which requires you to travel from one place to another for different jobs. Therefore, when your eyes get dry, irritated, or strained after traveling this summer, put on some eye drops and relax for a few minutes. You can also put on a little eye cream and wrap ice in a washcloth to use on the outer skin to slim the eye puffiness.

Also, carry lip essentials to protect your lips from getting dry, torn, or dull. Not only will it keep your lips shining, but it will also prevent them from de-moisturizing.

3. Exfoliating is The Key to a Glowy Travel Skin

Although you keep moisturizing your skin regularly, you won’t win the deal unless you exfoliate if you don’t exfoliate your skin while on a trip, the shredded cells can make you feel dry. You look dull. CBD can reduce skin irritation with its anti-inflammatory properties. So what are you waiting for? Grab an excellent CBD body scrub, apply it in circular motions over your body, and turn towards taking a shower. If you do it 2 to 3 times during a trip, you’ll start loving your skin more!

4. Remove Makeup Before You Hit The Bed

No matter if you are at home or on a trip, if you don’t remove makeup at night, you’re in big trouble. Leaving makeup on while you go to bed can cause some severe damage to your skin. Therefore, you should carry an organic makeup removal on every trip. Use detoxifying cotton pads or towelettes with makeup removal to clean your skin while being gentle with it. It’s okay if you want to look all even-toned during the day. But leaving makeup during sleep is a strict no, no!

5. Carry All Your Wellness Products With You

Nothing worse can happen than relying on those chemically loaded hotel soaps while traveling this summer. Do you think that using those soaps and oils is a good idea? Instead, carry all your wellness products with you. To start with, you can pack all your face essentials in mini bottles or look for travel sets. For your body skin, you can carry soap and shampoo that you use daily.

6. Keep Drinking Water Always

The best way to keep skin clean is to detoxify it, and drinking water is the best way to do it. Ask any dermatologist for tips to save your skin, and all will recommend drinking plenty of water. Besides keeping you hydrated during a trip, drinking water will also help you flush out toxic elements. It will keep skin and lips naturally hydrated and won’t let them break. Water ensures a smooth digestive cycle on a trip that keeps skin away from acne and pimples.

7. Carry Other Essential Accessories, Too

Above carrying all the skincare products and drinking water, there’s something important, too. Little accessories like sunglasses and hats do a lot in summers to protect the skin. It is advisable to take a pair of sunglasses to protect your eyes and nearby skin from harmful UV rays. A hat can also save your entire face from the direct contact of sunlight. So, if you’re a travel nurse going on assignment, pack all your summer essentials without fail!

Summary

A summer trip can really damage your skin. It is ideal to be prepared and battle that sun, which can otherwise get on your nerves. Keep these seven excellent and easy-to-follow skincare tips in mind, and you’ll be ready for traveling this summer.

We hope you found this article on skincare tips for summer helpful and maybe you can put some of the skincare tips to use. Do you have any tried and true skincare tips you want to share with your fellow travel nurses? Comment your favorite skincare tips for summer below.

Find Your Next Travel Nurse Assignment with Our Job Board!

Are you on the hunt for your next travel nurse gig? Look no further than our job board! Click here to explore all our current opportunities.

Discover the Perfect Housing for Your Next Assignment

Need somewhere to stay on your next travel nurse assignment? We’ve got you covered. Check out our housing page to find your ideal home away from home. Click here to start your search.

By Miles Oliver

June 10, 2023

2370 Views

Healthy Travel, Happy Nurse: Navigating Healthcare and Medical Visits as a Travel Nurse

Posted on June 10, 2023June 10, 2023 by Miles Oliver

As a traveling nurse, you’re doing a fantastic service for the many patients you see yearly. Still, while you’re helping people worldwide, you also need to keep your health in check. From staying insured to attending your regular check-ups and prioritizing your preventative health, there are many considerations to remember as you travel from place to place.

Keep Up With Regular Check-Ups

As a traveling nurse, you may be on the road a lot. However, when you’re at home, you need to follow the advice that you give to your patients and attend your regular check-ups. It’s essential so you can find any potential life-threatening issues before they get out of hand.

The importance of attending regular check-ups cannot be understated. When you catch potential issues as they happen, you’ll save money by avoiding costly medical services down the road. Most importantly, regular medical care improves your chances of increasing your lifespan, which you’ll need so you can extend your career and continue to care for others for years to come.

There are other routine check-ups that you should add to your calendar. For instance, you need to visit the dentist and attend your six-month dental check-ups. While you’re there, you can get an oral cancer screening so you can ensure you have a clean bill of health. Untreated dental issues can lead to health complications, like infections and even a risk of heart disease and other serious ailments. Being proactive is key to ensuring that all goes well.

Precautions For The Road

In addition to keeping up on your check-ups while you’re at home, you’ll also want to take the necessary precautions to stay healthy while on the road. Start by ensuring that you’re adequately insured. When you look for insurance, prioritize plans that include a complete package that provides vision and dental and offers day-one coverage so you know you’re protected as soon as you sign on.

If you regularly take medication for any issue, make it a point to check your inventory and ensure that your supply will last during your travels. It also helps to research the state where you plan to travel because if you run out, there may be limitations on how to get your refills. Consider avoiding local pharmacies and instead use a popular chain like Walgreens, which will be located in many states, so you don’t have to go through a lot of red tape if you need a refill.

It’s also wise to have a plan of action if you have an unexpected medical emergency while on the road. Before you head to a new city, check out the hospital and urgent care centers in the area. Write down the addresses so you know where to go if needed. Also, keep copies of your ID and health-related documents that may come in handy if you suddenly fall ill.

Stay Active Outside Of Work

The chances are that you recommend that your patients practice preventive care so they can live the healthiest possible lives and avoid issues down the road. Make sure that you follow the same advice.

Forming good health habits early on can also mitigate some of the risks you may have from your family medical history, but having support from a doctor can also help. For example, it’s important to monitor your eye health by going in for check-ups with your optometrist once a year. During these appointments, they’ll check for common issues, like vision degeneration and cataracts. By being proactive about your health, you can avoid higher medical bills, have better long-term health, and live a more active life well into your golden years.

But how can you take charge of your health right now? Like your patients, you need to practice weight management by eating a proper diet that’s free of trans-fats. Instead, focus on smart foods that provide energy to get up and move around so you can burn calories. Foods in this category include:

Oatmeal;
Yogurt;
Spinach;
Lentils;
Fruit.

Once energized, take the time between patients to get out and get active. Take brisk walks around the neighborhood or park further away than necessary from your patient’s home so you can walk and get your heart pumping. If you only have a little time at the start or end of the day, then try a different type of workout. That might be a high-intensity interval training session. This is a way to combine heart-racing and mild activities. As an example, you might:

Run as fast as you can for two minutes;
Then walk for two minutes;
Repeat that routine for 15-20 minutes.

As a travel nurse, your patients depend on you to get through their pain. Take care of your own wellness, and you can help them to reach that goal.

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:

START HERE

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

By LeaderStat

April 4, 2023

2475 Views

6 Tips to Get Better Sleep

Posted on April 4, 2023April 4, 2023 by LeaderStat

LeaderStat provided this article.

Some days are crazy and chaotic, where we feel as if we are being pulled in 20 directions at once. With all of your home and family responsibilities and workplace demands, we may find that we are struggling to get enough good-quality sleep. Sleep that is poor quality and on an erratic schedule can be detrimental to our mental and physical health.

To be considered healthy sleep, it must encompass these three components:

Quantity – how much sleep we get
Quality – sleep that is uninterrupted and refreshing
Consistency – made challenging by irregular or night shift work and chaotic lives

With so many people and responsibilities making demands on our time, something must give, right? So, we make what seems like the necessary decision to sacrifice quality sleep. But attention to these straightforward tips can bring about positive changes that will impact the “health” of your sleep.

1. Stick to a consistent sleep schedule:

Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends. This helps regulate your body’s internal clock and improve the quality of your sleep.

2. Create a sleep-conducive environment:

Make sure your bedroom is dark, cool, and quiet. Use blackout curtains, earplugs, or a white noise machine if necessary. Also, invest in a comfortable mattress, pillows, and bedding.

3. Limit exposure to screens before bed:

The blue light emitted by electronic devices can interfere with your body’s production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep. Avoid using your smartphone, tablet, or computer for at least an hour before bedtime.

4. Practice relaxation techniques:

Activities such as reading, taking a warm bath, or practicing yoga can help you unwind and prepare for sleep. Avoid stimulating activities like watching TV, working on your computer, or exercising right before bed.

5. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and heavy meals before bedtime:

These can interfere with your sleep and cause restless nights. Try to avoid consuming them for at least a few hours before bed. Instead, opt for a light snack or a cup of herbal tea to help you relax.

6. Don’t toss and turn:

If after 20 minutes you can’t fall asleep, don’t allow yourself to become frustrated and begin tossing and turning. Sometimes the harder you try to get some shut-eye, the more stubbornly sleep evades you. Instead, do something calming, such as reading or listening to soft music, until you feel sleepy.

Consistently getting adequate, quality sleep will enhance every aspect of your life. Make it a priority!

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:

START HERE

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

By Miles Oliver

January 19, 2023

2753 Views

Tips for Managing Chronic Illness While Travel Nursing

Posted on January 19, 2023 by Miles Oliver

Travel nurses deserve all the praise in the world. Considering the physically and mentally demanding nature of the work, it’s incredible how they can care for others the way they do.

Those managing a chronic illness while navigating a travel nursing career are even more deserving of praise. Chronic diseases are complicated to deal with on their own. Add a demanding job like nursing and the difficulty multiplies. Still, it’s doable.

First, know what’s available to you through your health insurance. Understand the resources available, how much they’ll cost, and the medical help you can get as you travel to different cities, states, or countries. Then, implement these three tips.

Create a Physical Health Routine

Travel nurses are always on the go. Because of this, it can be hard to maintain a routine that caters to your physical health. But by neglecting your physical health, your chronic illness can worsen.

Creating and sticking to a physical health routine will help. First, prioritize your nutrition. It’s easy to get sucked into the fast food, junk food diet while on assignment. But a diet like this can exacerbate symptoms if you’re living with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, or GERD.

Instead, adopt a low-residue diet or one with limited fiber intake to help reduce symptoms.

Whatever diet you decide to embrace, meal prepping can help ensure you stick to it and aren’t enticed by unhealthy food choices.

Next, get some exercise. Exercise not only helps keep your physical body healthy, but it can relieve stress and keep you sharp mentally, both of which are critical in travel nursing. It’s not so much about what you do. It’s how consistent you are with it.

So, whether it’s a 10-minute workout per day, a walk every other day, or the gym twice a week, choose something you enjoy and can remain consistent with, despite your hectic schedule as a travel nurse.

Finally, get on a regular sleep schedule. One of the worst things you can do for a chronic illness is not getting the rest you need. Healing and recovery happen during sleep. Allow your body the opportunity to experience this so that you can better work and live with your chronic illness.

Embrace Mental Health Care

Nurse.org recently prepared a State of Nursing report that revealed: “87% of nurses feel burnt out, and 83% feel their mental health has suffered.” Poor mental health and burnout can make managing a chronic illness even more challenging. It can also make it hard to be consistent with treatment.

So, embrace mental health care as you manage your chronic illness. Take note of how you are mentally throughout your journey with your chronic disease. Get firm diagnoses from a mental health care professional, if you can, to ensure you’re treating symptoms adequately.

If you don’t want to go the therapy or counseling route, you can tend to your mental health in these ways:

Take a vacation
Recite daily affirmations
Implement a self-care routine
Discover new hobbies and passions
Take mental breaks whenever needed
Read books related to mental health
Adopt an inherently positive mindset

Develop a Better Relationship With Yourself

“Listen to your body.” How often have you heard or read this advice when seeking guidance for managing your chronic illness? Better yet, how often have you given this advice in your nursing duties?

As well-intentioned as this suggestion is, it’s not as helpful as one might think for someone managing a chronic illness. This is because aches and pains are often a daily occurrence, and not everyone should be met with worry, panic, or a trip to the emergency room.

That said, listening to your body is still important to ensure you seek more serious help when warranted. So what do you do? Develop a better relationship with yourself and a more substantial familiarity with your body so that you can trust what you’re “listening” to and your decisions after that.

To help you cope with how hard it can be to “listen to your body” and develop this robust relationship with yourself, try the following:

Attend therapy regularly
Practice self-compassion and mindfulness activities
Join a community of travel nurses navigating a chronic illness
Refer to how things have fared in the past when difficult symptoms flare
Focus on positive outcomes and what you can control in your day-to-day
Journal about your symptoms, what triggers them, how you feel in certain situations, and your overall journey with your chronic illness

Travel nursing is physically and mentally demanding without a chronic illness. But with one, it can be even more taxing. Put the tips above to work to manage your chronic disease healthily and ensure it doesn’t disrupt your duties as a traveling nurse.

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:

START HERE

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

By AMN Healthcare

January 10, 2023

1496 Views

Make 2023 Your Healthiest Year Yet: Tips and Advice for Travel Nurses

Posted on January 10, 2023January 10, 2023 by AMN Healthcare

AMN Healthcare provided this article.

As you ring in the new year, you may make some New Year’s resolutions. This year, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) is embracing a “Start Now” theme to help nurses live healthy lives in 2023.

Learn how to take control of your health and put yourself first this year.

Healthy Habits for Travel Nurses

Maintain a Healthy Diet

As a travel nurse, you probably often remind patients of the importance of a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables, grains, and lean protein. If you’re not taking professional advice, though, now is a great time to recommit to healthier eating habits.

Pressed for time, like many nurses are?

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, these strategies may help you:

Use a meal kit or meal delivery service. These are convenient when you don’t have the time or energy to prepare a meal. All you have to do is follow the instructions.
Order lighter fare at restaurants and fast food restaurants. Vegetable-based entrees, as well as grilled chicken or baked or broiled fish, can be good options.
Watch your portion sizes. You can still indulge. Just do it in smaller amounts.

Don’t Discount Your Own Needs

If you’re suffering from nurse burnout, you’re not alone. And it may have come from prioritizing everyone else before yourself. Many nurses have internalized a mindset that they must “be a good, nice, acceptable person,” says Ann Becks, MSN, a nurse practitioner who retired so she could spend some time reconnecting with herself and mentoring others.

“When people learn the skills and tools to unhook from this conditioned way of responding and feel the groundedness of their truth, everything changes.”

So, don’t discount your own needs, physical and emotional. You’ll also do a better job caring for others if you’re taking care of yourself.

Even the small stuff counts. “It sounds cliche to say, ‘go take a walk’ or ‘build a Lego tower with your children’ or ‘read something you enjoy’ or ‘find a few minutes to gather with friends,’ but these small things truly make a big difference in your overall well-being,” says Sisk.

Get up and move more

Yes, you are on your feet a lot at work. But it would be best if you made some time to exercise to experience the many benefits that will improve your life. Research suggests that regular exercise will help you lose weight or maintain weight loss, sleep better at night, decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease, build bone and muscle strength, and improve your mood.

The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderately-intense exercise to get your heart pumping per week. And yes, you can break it up into manageable chunks of time to make it fit better into your busy schedule.

Somethings to Try

Brisk walking
Water aerobics
Dancing
Gardening
Biking

Check with your employer to see if you get any relevant benefits. Sisk noted that Memorial Hermann offers on-site gym facilities and organizes competitive activities, such as weight loss and walking competitions, to motivate employees to incorporate more exercise into their lives.

Be intentional in all you do

Whatever you choose to do to improve your health, be intentional about it. You might even replace your New Year’s resolutions with intentions to help you maintain a positive attitude and make positive changes to your life.

“An intention focuses on your core values rather than some hard-to-attain goal,” says Teri Dreher, RN, founder of NShore Patient Advocates, based in Chicago. “It can be a powerful tool for change because it is forgiving and gives you room to explore and grow.”

2023 can be your healthiest yet! You can set out to make healthier choices. We hope that this list of tips helps get you started. Have you made any changes in your life to be your healthiest? Comment them below.

Are you looking for your next travel nurse assignment? Click here to view our job board. Do you need housing for an upcoming assignment? Click here to search our housing page.

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

START HERE

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

By Kevin Devoto

December 2, 2022

2736 Views

Why Nutrition Is Essential for Travel Nurses

Posted on December 2, 2022November 29, 2022 by Kevin Devoto

When you ask people if they have a healthy lifestyle, most will assume you’re asking if they have any vices that impact their health and well-being. If they don’t drink excessively, they think they’re automatically being healthy. Others assume that health is about their body shape. If they’re skinny, they will say they have a healthy lifestyle, even if they eat pizza for dinner every night.

Achieving a healthy lifestyle is about giving your body what it needs, not just avoiding negative influences or focusing on its shape. A big part of that is nutrition.

It Gives You Lasting Energy

While the box of doughnuts at the nurse’s station might seem like an easy, high-energy breakfast, the saturated fats actually take extra energy to digest, and the energy you gain from the simple carbohydrates gets all used up immediately. When you’re on your feet for twelve hours or more, you need dense nutrition, or else you’re going to get caught in a cycle of burnout.

Why Nutrition Is Essential for Travel Nurses

Companies like Le-Vel offer multi-faceted nutritional systems that make getting all your nutrients in the morning amazingly easy. According to Thrive reviews, it’s simply three steps: two multivitamins when you wake up, a breakfast shake, and a dermal patch that lets you slowly absorb supplements through the day.

If you are looking for a food overhaul, healthier eating choices you can make include cutting out fruit juices, sodas, and other sweetened drinks and sticking to lightly sweetened tea, coffee, or water. Switch out snacks made with refined white flour with whole grain or greasy fried food with baked options. You can skip processed snacks entirely and go nuts (literally) by replacing crackers and chips with things like almonds or cashews.

It Improves Your Mood

Sometimes nurses get so focused on their patients’ health that they forget to look after their own! If you’re feeling foggy or grumpy, you might want to order up your own blood panel to see if you’re low on B vitamins, magnesium, or other nutrients, as they can directly affect mood.

You can increase these nutrients by finding out what foods they come from. For instance, if you’re low on B12, you might want to increase your meat intake or add nutritional yeast to your diet, and if you’re low on magnesium, eating some types of beans can help with that. You can also get these nutrients from supplements, such as the Thrive capsules and breakfast mix.

By increasing your energy levels with good nutrition, you can rely less on caffeine to give you a boost, reducing agitation and jitteriness. Having less caffeine in your system may also help you get to sleep quicker, increasing restfulness and improving overall stability.

It Makes You More Resilient

Adequate nutrition gives your immune system gets a boost. This doesn’t always prevent you from getting sick in the first place. However, it does mean your body is better able to fight off disease and that you’re likely to recover sooner.

Your body is constantly renewing itself from wear, and what you put into it matters. When you eat a nutritionally dense diet or take supplements such as Thrive, you are ensuring that your body has the best building blocks available to it. You can actually see the immediate benefits of good nutrition in things like the density of new fingernail growth and the lustrousness of your complexion.

A person’s genetics play a large part in the development of conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and bone loss. However, while there are people that will experience those things no matter what, there are also people that get them because they aren’t making healthy choices. By focusing on nutrition now, you may be preventing issues later in life.

Proper nutrition isn’t a cure-all, and for maximum effect, it should accompany other lifestyle changes, such as cardio and flexibility-focused exercises. Systems such as yoga and pilates can also increase strength and require little to no equipment beyond your own body! Both are great choices for the nurse on the go.

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:

START HERE

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

By Kevin Devoto

September 29, 2022

1692 Views

4 Ways to Improve Your Health While Working Nonstop

Posted on September 29, 2022September 21, 2022 by Kevin Devoto

In an age where everyone seems to be constantly working, there does not seem to be any time for someone to take a rest and recharge truly. As you can probably imagine, this severely impacts everyone’s health. Keep reading for four ways to improve your health while working nonstop.

Get a Good Night’s Sleep

While it is generally said that adults should get an average of eight hours of sleep a night, it is not realistically possible for everyone to get that amount of sleep. By this time, you should be able to tell how much sleep leaves you feeling the most recharged. If you cannot get the prescribed amount of sleep, getting some is better than getting none. Even if it is just twenty minutes, you need to take the time to rest. Remember that sitting on the couch while answering emails is not considered resting. Resting is defined as anything that relaxes you, helps you refresh, or helps you recover your strength. If you say that whatever you are doing achieves any of those three things, you are resting.

Take Care of Your Skin

The skin is the largest organ you have and the first line of defense against the elements and any bacteria that want to enter your body. It does a lot of work and is worth investing in to continue to do that vital work of protecting you so you do not get sick and have to take time off when you cannot afford to. Depending on your skin type, there are a lot of things that you will need to do to make your skin healthy and glowing. While you may be asking what Thrive is, if you investigate what you need, you will have no problem finding a skincare routine that works for you.

Take Advantage of Lunches and Breaks

Your employer is required to give you a certain number of breaks and a lunch, but many people will work through their breaks and lunches anyway. While the temptation must be very great, and you might be the kind of person that works through your lunches and breaks without even realizing it, you do need to take advantage of your breaks. This gives you time to step away from whatever project you are working on and take a moment to cater to your needs instead of the needs of your workplace. Take these breaks for the checkpoints they are meant to be, and take a breather before you go back into the chaos, especially if the breaks and lunches are paid.

Maintain a Healthy Diet

You need fuel to do the work that needs to be done, and it is important that you get the right fuel in you. This involves staying hydrated by drinking water. Anything like soda, tea, or coffee actually dehydrates you, and though caffeine and sugar are sometimes needed to get you through the day, pure water is needed to counteract the effects of those dehydrating beverages. You also need to eat fresh fruit, meat, and vegetables. You can take supplements all day long, but you will not get nearly as many vitamins or minerals as you would from a diet that consists mainly of fresh ingredients.

There are a lot of ways you can improve your life and health while working nonstop. Keep this article in mind the next time you feel like you need to make a change to your lifestyle to feel better or healthier, and you will be amazed at what a few minor changes can do.

We hope you found this article on how to improve your health while working nonstop helpful. Do you have any health tips to share with fellow travel nurses? 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:

START HERE

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

By Medical Edge Recruitment

September 21, 2022

2893 Views

How To Avoid Weight Gain While Traveling On Night Shift

Posted on September 21, 2022August 10, 2022 by Medical Edge Recruitment

Medical Edge Recruitment provided this article.

Written by: Christine Purviance, BSN, RN, Director of Clinical Services at Medical Edge Recruitment

It is no secret that working night shift can cause weight gain. We have all been there—it is 02:00 in the morning, and you have hit the wall where you struggle to keep your eyes open. You find yourself ordering delivery from the nearest fast-food restaurant, or you are at the vending machine getting a candy bar. You might grab a soda for a sugar rush or sneak an ice cream from the nutrition room. Next thing you know, it is a few months later, and your scrubs start to feel tight. You are screaming on the inside while reflecting back on all the poor eating choices you made over the past weeks, thinking to yourself that if you were on days, you wouldn’t have made those choices. You know that you are in a contract and start to feel like you will never get out of this cycle.

As a former travel nurse, I promise you that most of us have been there. After a year on nightshift in the ICU, I found myself needing larger scrubs and constantly craving sugary snacks to keep me awake. I consumed a ridiculous amount of candy, leading to recurrent binges every night that I worked. I finally committed to creating better habits for myself, losing the night shift fifteen, and improving my energy levels. These habits are for anyone who may be struggling on nightshift and wants to make healthier choices, drop a few pounds, and prevent weight gain! It may not be easy, but it will be worth it!

How To Avoid Weight Gain While Traveling On Night Shift

Get Moving!

Exercising regularly can be challenging while working travel assignments and working night shift. Finding ways to move your body that you enjoy is crucial to staying committed. There are many ways to exercise while on assignment, including:

Weightlifting
Running
Yoga and Pilates
Walking
Fitness classes (F45 and Orange Theory)
Spin

No matter who you are, there is a type of exercise for anyone and everyone. If you are worried that you do not have time to exercise on the nights that you work, invest an hour of time on your off days to get moving! Once you start exercising regularly, you may find that exercise before your night shift will increase your energy levels like it did mine!

Finding places to exercise while on a travel assignment is challenging, especially if you are not near a big city. If you do not have access to your preferred means of exercise, or if your hotel does not have a fitness center, increasing movement can be done from the comfort of wherever you are staying. Grab yourself a pair of dumbbells and find a YouTube workout you enjoy! There are dozens, if not hundreds, of apps and videos you can access for free to increase your activity level at your temporary home! A little bit goes a long way, and your body will thank you later!

Fuel Your Body

Eating a balanced diet as a night shifter is hard enough, but when you add in travel, it is a whole different ballgame. Fortunately, there are many ways to eat healthy-ish while on the road! Whether it be meal prep delivery services or bringing your own meals to work, there is always a way to improve our habits! Meal prep companies are great if you do not mind spending up to $10 a meal. For this former travel nurse, I prefer to make my own healthy recipes that are convenient, wallet-friendly, and easy to make with minimal equipment.

Selecting pre-cooked protein for lunches and dinner is not as hard as most of us may think. Rotisserie chicken, turkey sausage, frozen fajita beef, and lunch meat are some of my favorites! Make it a meal by microwaving frozen veggies, frozen rice, or even making a baked potato in the microwave (it is super easy—just google it)! For even simpler meals, make wraps or sandwiches for your shift with your favorite lunchmeat and toppings!

Are your shifts so absolutely nuts that even sitting down for a sandwich is unlikely? Try packing fast, easy snacks that will keep you full and can be consumed while you are walking to the med room or even hiding in the supply room! A few of my favorite snacks for busy shifts are:

Oatmeal bars or dried fruit bars
Bananas
Protein shakes
Peanut butter packs
Hardboiled eggs
String cheese

Remember, the way we feel internally is strongly related to the foods we consume. Fueling your body with healthy foods is key to feeling your best.

Don’t Drink Your Calories.

One of the easiest ways to drop a few pounds is to avoid drinking your calories! Did you know that drinking a 20-ounce Coke daily can result in a 2-pound per month weight gain? A Grande Caramel Frappuccino from Starbucks has almost 350 calories, even more than a soda! Although we may not realize it, these sugary drinks we have for energy on nightshifts contribute to unwanted weight gain! Being mindful and selecting low-calorie, or calorie-free, swaps can help you prevent unwanted weight gain, avoid a sugar crash, and even shed a few pounds! My favorite swaps for high-calorie drinks are:

Diet-soda
Flavored water (sparkling, Mio, Crystal Light)
Coffee with sugar-free coffee creamer
Stevia, instead of sugar
A splash of a protein shake instead of cream and sugar in coffee (Premier Protein is my favorite)
Light Body armor or Gatorade Zero
Iced tea with stevia

Prioritize Sleep

Have you ever noticed that when we are running on little sleep before a night shift, our cravings for carbs, candy, and sugar exponentially increases? It feels like our bodies are running on E, and we need a pick-me-up to improve our energy levels. We grab a candy bar or soda, and that sugar high perks us up for an hour, but then we feel even worse. The cycle continues; before we know it, we have consumed a very unhealthy amount of sugar.

It is no secret that sleep is essential, and the amount we need varies by person. However, the choices we make are significantly be impacted on the amount of sleep that we get! Improving your sleep schedule can result in better habits. If you are a new night shifter, finding a routine that works for you can be a process when you are training your body to sleep during the day. Blackout curtains, white noise, an eye mask, and melatonin are a few ways that work for most of us!

Find What Works for You

We are all so unique, from the foods we enjoy to the hours of sleep we need. These tips are what worked for me, and hope that they work for you! Finding balance in your life while you are traveling will be a learning process. Just because you are working away from home and working nightshift does not mean that your health must suffer. Remember, you can’t pour from an empty cup. Taking care of yourself means you are better equipped to care for others!

We hope you found this article on ways to avoid weight gain while working night shift as a travel nurse. Do you have any tips to help fellow travel nurses avoid weight gain while working night shift? Comment below any tips you have to avoid weight gain.

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.

Looking For an Agency Who Understands Your Needs?

Medical Edge Recruitment is the premier travel nursing recruitment agency specializing in providing top talent to clients in the healthcare industry. We connect clinical and allied providers to their ideal opportunities, focusing on building long-lasting relationships through honesty and transparency. In travel nursing, bigger does not always mean better. While we have an extensive network of job opportunities, our experienced team is dedicated to making your personalized provider experience a priority. There are a lot of moving parts in getting set up for a new assignment, but we take care of all the details along the way. Adventure awaits; let Medical Edge Recruitment show you where to go next!

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

START HERE

Health Tips for Nurses:

1. Prioritize Sleep

2. Healthy Nutrition

3. Stay Hydrated

4. Stay Active and Outside

5. Manage Stress

6. Promote Work-Life Balance

Searching for an agency that will support you?

Find Your Next Travel Healthcare Assignment with Our Job Board!

Discover the Perfect Housing for Your Next Assignment

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1. Stick to a consistent sleep schedule:

2. Create a sleep-conducive environment:

3. Limit exposure to screens before bed:

4. Practice relaxation techniques:

5. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and heavy meals before bedtime:

6. Don’t toss and turn:

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!)

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Healthy Habits for Travel Nurses

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Get up and move more

Be intentional in all you do

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