The sweepstakes which started last week is open to any and all traveling healthcare professionals, specifically traveling nurses like yourself and will continue through October 31st. It’s easy to enter and even easier to win! Each week, twenty travelers will be chosen and the winners will receive a Mobile Phone Accessory Kit ($74.99 value) complete with portable battery, car charger and other connection devices made for smartphones like the Android and iPhones. Also, all entrants are eligible to win the Grand Prize of an Apple iPad 2 at the end of the sweepstakes. Enter as often as once per day to increase your chances of winning… If you don’t win this week, you certainly can win in the following weeks.

Visit MedicalSolutions.com on your phone, click the "contest" button and enter for your chance to win!

One important part of the sweepstakes is that you’re only able to participate through your mobile device or smartphone. Medical Solutions recently went through a brand change and has added a mobile friendly website to its arsenal. The sweepstakes was launched to help bring attention to its newest tool, one which will undoubtedly change the way a nurse can seek employment, on the go. So if you like winning and you have an iPhone, Blackberry or any of the Android based phones, take a look at the Room 2 Roam Mobile Sweepstakes and get yourself in the mix. Your chances of winning are great and the possibility of finding your next assignment with Medical Solutions is even greater!

Here’s the link to the page that will help you with how and where to enter Medical Solutions Room 2 Roam Mobile Sweepstakes.

The new site is designed to work on any smart phone, which means whether you have an iPhone, iPad, Andorid, Windows Phone, or Blackberry you have easy access to the site. You don’t have to download an app for it to work, just go to your browser bookmark it and your set.

The mobile site is however built to function like an app.  With just three easy clicks you can find and apply for a travel nursing job.

1. Click “Jobs”
2. Enter your Title, Specialty and State
3. Hit Submit
4. Choose the job you want to apply for
5. Hit apply now or even better just call

Here are some screenshots:

Medical Solutions actually also has a newly redesigned logo and color scheme as well as a whole new travel nursing company website, which has some cool new features including:

• The ability for travel nurses to build a profile on the Medical Solutions home page (if you make a profile you get a free cool Medical Solutions t-shirt too!)
• A Facebook login for travelers who have built a profile
• A slick new travel nurse job search
• Saveable skills checklists
• Snazzy slide-out shortcuts and quick job search menus
• A “meet our team” page so travelers can see the faces of the Medical Solutions Team Members
• A newsletter sign up form on each page of the site

Medical Solutions partnered with Staffing Robot to build the site and create the new logo and fun color scheme that represent what Medical Solutions is all about. If you’re interested in reading more, here is a post on MedicalSolutions.com about the travel nursing industry’s first fully mobile website.

Yet, when it comes to calming their mind and body, Travel Nurses fail to follow their own advice.

Travel Nurses are great at caring for others, they often fail miserably at caring for themselves. Traveling Nurses push their needs aside and focus their energy on patients and their families, their own spouses and children and their communities to the detriment of their physical, mental and emotional well-being. This is not a good thing.

Simple breathing exercises and stretches through the day can do wonders for your body & soul.

Being a Travel Nurse takes a certain mentality where you often put others ahead of you, it just comes with the territory. But how long can you continue to ignore the needs of your own body before it becomes more of a hazard than help? It’s obvious that in order to be at your best, you have to feel your best and taking time for ones self through the day can do wonders for your mind, body and soul.

One technique in particular can help you stay grounded throughout the day…Have you ever heard of yoga? Well, it’s not like you need to break out the yoga mat in the middle of the ICU unit or anything like that. No, all you need is just a few moments to use certain elements from this practice. Breathing and minor little stretches here and there can and will do wonders for your body and mind.

All you need is to find a little quiet place and in less than five minutes you can recharge yourself and get through the strenuous day of a Travel Nurse, or any Nurse for that matter. If you don’t have five minutes, do yourself a favor and do some neck rolls or stretches right there behind the Nurses station, or just take some deep, deep breaths and collect yourself.

To help Traveling Nurses rein in stress and clear their minds, practice pause breathing. To perform this technique, inhale imagining you’re filling up your whole torso like a balloon. Pause for a few seconds and notice how you are feeling, then exhale pulling your abdomen in toward the spine, pausing again on the out breath. Follow this cycle for about seven breaths. Pause breathing can easily be practiced throughout the day, and, although it’s simple, nurses can reap loads of benefits from this practice.

These simple, daily practices can do a lot for helping you manage your life and get you through the grueling hours at the hospital. The simple act of getting in tune with your body and mind may reap huge rewards. Always remember to listen to your self, your body and take heed to what is going on, doing so is probably the best thing you can do.

For more relaxation tips and other helpful stress reducing practices, visit YogaNurse.com – helping caregivers give sacred service, enlightened health care & make a difference.

The contest is already under way and users may submit as many designs as they’d like using the simple yet powerful Fibers.com design tool, or upload your own using any number of design programs like Adobe Illustrator and so forth. You don’t have to be a graphic designer, you just have to have a good idea! Fibers.com has everything you need to create your own contest entry with over 500 fonts and 10,000 images.

Your t-shirt idea can win you an iPad 2 or one of the other great prizes!

All entrants will receive a $10 gift card towards their next purchase at Scrubadoo.com (Limit one per person). The contest ends May 12, the birthday of the founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale. Three winners will be chosen to win over $1000 in prizes, including an Apple iPad 2. Winners are selected through a panel of judges and a combination of votes and comments. It is encouraged to promote your entry using any number of social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

It’s pretty easy to enter, so get your creative caps on and design the next best Nursing t-shirt, ever!

Visit the following link to view, participate, and vote in the contest: http://www.fibers.com/contests/nurses-week-2011

Medical Solutions invites you to test your cinematic prowess and predict this year’s winners of the 83rd Academy Awards^®. The Academy Awards Prediction Contest is open to all Medical Solutions traveling nurse, techs and therapists as well any other current medical professionals.

It’s simple to play and easy to win…If you know your movies. Pick your favorites in all 20 categories, and if you have the most correct, you win! Don’t worry, a speech won’t be necessary.

Watch the Academy Awards this Sunday, February 27th @ 6 CST

One entry per person. All entrants must “Like” Medical Solutions’ fan page to participate.

Grand Prize:
Blu-Ray Home Theater System ($450 value)

1^st Runner-Up:
FLIP Ultra HD Camera package ($200 value)

2^nd Runner-Up:
One-Year Subscription to NetFlix ($120 value)

The contest begins Monday, February 21 and closes on Friday, February 25^th @ 5:00 p.m. CST.

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to Medical Solutions, Inc. and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for sending subscribers company updates and announcements.

Each and every year as December draws to a close, many of us usually make some sort of New Year’s resolution. It’s pretty easy to spout out the things you’d like to see change in your life, but much more difficult to actually attain them. Year after year we tell ourselves we’re going to do this or stop doing that and after many unsuccessful tries, we may just stop making any sort of resolution all together. Why is that? Because most of the time we never keep to our promises, our resolutions because we have no plan.

Make promises to yourself that you can keep.

If you are really serious about a resolution this year, you can succeed with just a little help and a planned approach. A lot of the time our resolutions are pretty lofty and great in theory, but can be difficult because there usually are changes that must be made in order to achieve what we’ve identified as our goals and personal promises. To ensure that you can attain your goals you must be reasonable and realistic. If your plans involve few, smaller changes rather than large life altering ones you’ll be more likely to follow through because you won’t feel defeated by what may seem to be hopeless.

Besides a plan, you could also enlist a “support system” of friends and family to help you stay on task. For instance, say a group of traveling nurses you’ve worked with wants to improve their physical health and well being. You can all combine your goals and help one another by taking baby steps together and celebrating every small goal that ultimately leads to the bigger picture. By doing so, you will help everyone stay motivated and before you know it you’ll be looking back at 2011 and say, “take that New Year!”

Here is a site with a bunch of fun facts surrounding New Year’s day… It’s full of tips, fun facts, famous birthdays on January 1st and a lot more… Check it out for some fun!

Other tips on how to achieve your New Year’s resolutions.

Fresh food for nurses on the go!

The answer is the nation’s only gourmet home-meal-delivery service offering an all-natural, preservative-free, flash-frozen diet system for even the most discriminating of palates presents a one-of-a-kind program designed to conveniently keep your calorie in-take in check during splurging season.  Freshology, which has been grabbing headlines since the program launched in 2005 as the diet delivery that served up weight loss for Jennifer Lopez, Ricki Lake, Mel B and many others, launches Lifestyle-Grab & Gourmet, allowing for delicious, calorie-controlled à la carte meal purchases from 28 different dishes delivered directly to customers’ doorsteps.

Starting on November 24th, traveling nurses in the U.S. can go to Freshology.com and choose a minimum of six gourmet meals that ensure proper nutrition without sacrificing taste anytime, anywhere. Travel nurses can mix and match – selecting any combination of breakfast, lunch or dinners of your choice.

With the holiday season upon us, many of us will be running from one celebration to the next, mindlessly feasting on guilty pleasures that leave you making unrealistic New Year’s resolutions to lose that inevitable “holiday weight.” Maybe you have everything under control, but know of someone who could use the gift of health and help to maintain a balanced diet during the hectic holiday season or anytime of the year for that matter. Lifestyle-Grab & Gourmet by Freshology is the perfect calorie-controlled, meal solution. Six healthy Freshology meals are priced at $39.95… That’s a better price than six combo meals at any fast-food joint, and far better taste I guarantee!

Info on all of Freshology’s national home-meal-delivery programs, including Get Slim Gold, Get Slim Silver and Fresh Mommy are also available at their website and here is an article from last week’s OK! Weekly featuring Jennifer Lopez’s weight loss via Freshology.

Starting today and running through the end of the year, Dansko, a shoe company that specializes in clogs as well as heels, boots, sandals, wedges and flats, has partnered with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation offering an exclusive Dansko Pink Ribbon Professional Clog. Proceeds from every pair of Pink Ribbon Clogs sold between now and the end of the year (12/31/2010) will go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® up to a maximum donation of $25,000.

Dansko Pink Ribbon Clog is available now from select retailers. Visit Dansko.com to find retailers in your area who are carrying the clog.

In addition to the clog, Dansko will be hosting a series of retail promotions around the country with limited edition gift with purchase giveaways and a special website dedicated to the cause. Most people know someone tested by the disease. Their determination and perseverance is an inspiration to us all. Dansko has set up a forum to share stories and recognize these heroes. These announcements can be made and viewed at Dansko.com/pinkribbon.

So get yourself a pair or two and help support such a worthy cause… I’m sure we all know someone who has been affected by this terrible disease and what better way to help them and others while helping your feet.

Here’s another story on footwear for Nursing professionals… What Nursing Shoe Is Right for You?

If you want to travel with your pets, be it a dog, cat, etc… Make sure you tell your recruiter in advance. You’ll want to give them enough time to find you the proper housing that allows you to have them along. Just because you have a pet, it won’t prohibit you from working at a desired location. It just means, the housing department at the staffing company you’re traveling with has to do a little more research, after all it is there job to accommodate you to the fullest. There too may be added deposits and such, but that usually is included within your pay package and so forth.

It’s a good idea to plan ahead if and when you do decide to hit the road with your pets. There are a number of great resources out there to help you map out a route that welcomes you and your pets. Check out Pets On the Go, here you will find all the places that welcome overnight stays with your pets, everything from bed and breakfasts to major hotel chains. There’s also great travel tips and links to stuff you can buy for you pets to ensure a safe and fun journey and so much more.

Another good place to start if planning to travel great distances with your beloved pets is a site called, SureFit.net. They offer a product called, Auto Friends. It’s a hammock-like slip cover that lays over top of your back seat and prevents your pets from sliding should you hit the brakes quickly. It also protects your upholstery from stains and such and is easy to clean and maintain. The site also released a list of the top 10 destinations for traveling with pets.

We’d like to thank the fellas over at Fibers.com for helping us make this our most successful contest ever! True, it may be our first contest we’ve hosted but without our partners in design, I don’t think it could have gone any smoother.We were so pleased with the results that this will surely not be the last time we work with Fibers.com – keep an open eye for other contests down the road!

Grand Prize Winning Shirt

As I mentioned earlier, we had 138 entries in the design challenge and it was tough to whittle it down to three with so many wonderful designs. Some humorous, some heartfelt and some… Well some. The contest really opened my eyes to what nurses think of themselves and their profession and what the general public feels about nurses. I can’t think of another profession where so many are proud to do the work they do, no matter what. Nurses truly care… And it shows. To take it a step further, the winning shirts are all available for purchase and for every shirt sold, $4 will be given to a very reputable charity – giving you a chance to show that you care too!

All in all, it was a successful celebration of nurses and we can’t wait to do it again next year! Who knows what we’ll do, but rest assured we won’t let our nurses go unnoticed. Here’s to you and all you do!

You decide who wins - Vote for up to three designs.

If you don’t think you have the talent to enter your own design, you can still participate and vote. Once you’ve registered for the contest, you are allotted three votes to use for the shirts you deem the best.

The contest winners will receive some great prizes and more importantly, the winning design will be made available for purchase with half the profits of each sale going to a well-known and respectable charity. (Think of a parade of coins.) With so many wonderful designs out there, that nurses anywhere would be proud to wear, so it’s going to be tough to choose when you’re voting, but don’t forget that there are 4 pages of shirts to look at, so don’t just vote for the first ones you see, take a second and look around.

Pretty simple and so are the design tools at Fibers.com.

There’s nothing to be intimidated about if you want to enter the contest. The design tool at the site allows you to choose any number of  the 1000′s of graphics available, as well as fonts and filters. It really is an amazing technology and it’s really easy to use! Give it a shot!

So, please if you could take a moment to vote, vote, vote on a few shirts, it would really help out the entrants. Again, there are so many great entries, I know it will be hard to choose… But like any contest, there has to be some winners and the only way that can be decided is by you, the voter. Remember, you get 3 votes, use them wisely!!!

As I mentioned, this is the first time we’ve hosted anything like this, along with our partners in crime, Fibers.com. Fibers.com is a fairly new web-based custom clothing company that allows you to buy t-shirts, hoodies, shirts and other clothing. They have quite an extensive catalog featuring all types of designs for any occasion, occupation, subject, etc. Check out their nurse themed shirts here. There are so many unique designs on the site that it would be difficult to find one you didn’t like… But if that truly is the case, that you didn’t see a shirt you liked, well you can make your own custom t-shirt right then and there using their simple yet powerful design tool. It’s super easy!

I’ve seen similar types of design tools on other sites, but nothing that offers as much as Fibers.com. When you first enter the site, you are given two options, shop now or create now. You know how to shop, so let’s tell you how to become a fashion designer and get you on your way to becomming the next Coco Chanel. Again, Fibers has made this process so easy and user friendly, just about anybody with a slight knowledge of how to use the computer can do it. On the lefthand side of the design template you are given six different options. First go to the products section. Here you choose what article of clothing and its color, from onsie’s to sweatshirts. There can be a few choices for each type, so carefully pick the one you’d like best, prices will vary depending on the type of garment it is you’re picking.  Now that you know what you want to make, you can start designing.

Custom Shirt Creator at Fibers.com

Fibers.com design tool has so many templates to choose from in which you can customize to your liking or you could upload your own photos and yourself to use. They have a huge bank of images ranging from simple line drawings to ornate graphics. Place them on the template and make them as big or small as you’d like. There is a boundry that you must be aware of that will limit the placement of your design, but believe me, there’s plenty of space given that you’ll be able to fashion your masterpiece with precision, no problem.

Now that you’ve got your graphics set up, you can now add some text to complete the design. Words on a shirt. After that you can take it another step and polish it off with some distress. Give your garmet of choice that worn look, like all those vintage type shirts you see a lot of today and volia! There you have it, you’re very own custom designed piece of clothing. It’s that easy! Now register yourself, create an account and save your designs for a later date if you’re not ready to print it. Which by the way, Fibers.com uses a specialized technique in printing the shirts called, “direct to garment.” Here’s how they describe it, “To create the highest quality products, Fibers.com digital printing uses an advanced ink and printing method, which allows printing of the design directly onto the garment without using any form of iron-on’s or heat transfers.  Our printers use environmentally-friendly, water-based inks.”

Aren’t you tired of looking like everyone else who shops at the mall or wherever? Wear your custom designed clothing with pride, knowing you’re the only one who has it. Just wait and see, you’ll be getting asked over and over, “Where’d you get that? I must have it!” So there you have it and if you think you’re good enough, don’t forget to enter our Nurses Week T-shirt design contest I mentioned above. We’ll see you on the catwalk!

Over at MartyNemko.com, there is a long list of some of the different personality types and behaviors you may come across. For each he offers a possible solutions or at least something you can try before you may have to get superiors involved.

More specific to nursing there at AllNurses.com there is a forum in which this topic is discussed in depth. How to deal with the lazy charge nurse all the way to dealing with a chatty Cathy.

You never know exactly what’s in store for you during your travel nursing assignment and what your colleagues personalities will be like. You can pick where you go, but unfortunately you cannot pick those with whom you’ll be working alongside with. The best solution is always communication. Take the person in question off to the side, away from any other eyes and ears and try and work on an answer the both of you can agree upon. There’s nothing worse than the feeling of “will it ever end?” so before it goes to far, take a stand. Hopefully this will make your assignment fly by instead of crawl… And who knows, you may end up becoming friends with those who annoyed you because you got to know them instead of avoid them.

 Click here to learn more about this travel nursing job.

So what does it take to work the night shift? Well for some it’s easy and this is exactly what they want to be doing with their lives. The hours work great for them and could be considered their dream job. But what about those who don’t have a choice in the matter like nurses who are new to the hospital or are just desperate to get the work? This transition from day to night can be troublesome to say the least. There are a number of health hazards that can affect your well being, with sleep deficiency being the obvious one. Other problem areas that can arise include weight gain, added stress to relationships and drug and alcohol abuse. So what are some things you can do to prepare yourself for this new schedule and way of life?

There’s a great article on the site, ahealthyme.com that suggests some great methods to get your mind and body acclimated to the new hours. Read about it here.

Another article to help you get through the night as a travel nurse can be found at NursingLink.com.

Finally, one more article at BellaOnline.com, Night Shift Challenges.

If you have any other suggestions or tips for other night shift nurses out there, please share them in the comment section.

Click here to learn more about this travel nursing job.

Click here to learn more about this travel nursing job.

Click here to learn more about this travel nursing job.

Click here to learn more about this travel nursing job.