No matter your employment capacity (full time, contract traveler, per diem), each facility requires you to keep up with your compliance status. Staying compliant with your license, certifications, CPR, immunizations (TB), skill sheets, annual training and much more, show your strong commitment and integrity towards your profession.

It’s not always easy to keep track of the numerous items to keep current. My suggestion is to set up reminders in your email calendar, in your iPhone, BlackBerry, Android or just the plain old wall calendar / planner.

Most professionals have varying time frames where their documents / certifications come due. Be sure to give yourself enough time to get your items renewed without missing your deadline. For example, continuing education might be one of the most time consuming. For Aureus Medical you may complete up to 27 modules. Each module can run from 3 – 10 questions. For state licenses, it’s going to vary from state to state (possibly 1 to 6 weeks). For immunizations, appointments must be scheduled and completed.

Our commitment to compliance is to be the best. Let’s prove our commitment to quality together.

CPR – Almost every healthcare professional is required to be certified in CPR and some must be certified in advanced life support. To help ensure the safety of patients, it’s essential to maintain your CPR and advanced life support certifications. Most facilities only accept life support certifications from the American Heart Association or American Red Cross. Remember if you take an online test you will also need to complete a skills test in person with a CPR instructor. Visit the American Heart Association to locate a class.

State License – There’s no way around this requirement! Healthcare professionals need to renew their state license as soon as they know of it expiring. Contact the state licensing board and make sure you maintain this important credential!

TB Skin Test – It’s important to be tested each year since healthcare providers can be placed in situations where it’s possible to contract and spread tuberculosis. You cannot let your TB test expire beyond one year! Most times you can update your TB prior to expiration at the facility you are assigned to. If this is not an option, contact your Aureus Account Manager promptly to help you find another location close to you.

Annual Training -Healthcare facilities and professionals take the safety of patients very seriously. To help ensure you stay up-to-date on healthcare policies and Joint Commission requirements, Aureus Medical offers an annual training program to cover various topics including HIPAA, substance abuse recognition, legal issues, and infection control. An email will be sent with instructions when your Annual Training is due. Follow the instructions to login and complete your testing.

Skills Checklist – It’s important for us to be aware of any new skills since the last time your checklist was completed. It’s equally important to know if you’ve become more proficient in any skill over the past year. We forward your checklists to potential employers when you are presented to jobs, so it is critical they are an accurate reflection of your abilities! It’s very easy to update your checklists – just login anytime to www.aureusmedical.com.

• Exercise is key to relieving stress.  “After the initial shock of getting over something new, I was fine.  Working out is my answer to everything…getting a good sweat.”  When starting to travel, the hardest part for him was getting immersed into a completely different environment.  So listening and asking questions help but when the day is over, heading to the gym to burn off stress really did the trick.
• Balancing work, family and relationships when away is difficult, but not impossible.  “It was harder on me because she’s busy…so when I wanted to talk, she couldn’t.  It’s easy to get frustrated when you worry about bills, work, no time with girlfriend…Since I was by myself, I could relieve some of my frustrations by going for a run.”  Fill your time with activities that you enjoy so that you’re not sitting around waiting for the next day to start.  It’s important to be active, whether you are exercising, sightseeing, or simply taking in a movie.  Schedules will differ for you and your family so budget your time to adjust for their schedules and for yours.  Setting a time to call will help reduce the likelihood of becoming upset because you can’t connect. 
• Take advantage of the time to yourself.  “I used the time away from friends to get healthy, eat right…develop good habits.”  While on his first assignment, Matt took it as an opportunity to become focused, including training for his first half marathon.  Not only did Matt complete the half-marathon, he beat the time he had set for himself.  “Finishing the marathon was the coolest sense of accomplishment.”
• Stay mentally balanced. “It’s easy to get frustrated when you don’t have [an assignment] locked up or you thought you had something locked up…talking to you guys helped me out.”  There’s a certain degree of uncertainty with traveling which isn’t for the faint of heart.  Talking regularly with your recruiters so that you are abreast of the situation helps but knowing that the assignment may not work out can take its toll.  Times like these require you to kick it up a notch in the coping skills department. Maintain communication with your recruiter including coming up with a backup plan with a drop dead date in which it takes effect.  Keep up your healthy eating habits, be active and get plenty of rest.
• Eat healthy.  “Cooking for one wasn’t really the problem, it was shopping for one.  I realized quickly that I had to buy in smaller portions.”  Matt made sure to cook more often and eat out considerably less because he could control what went into his food.  He made it a point to try new foods and to look up recipes online to add variety.  When eating out, try researching the nutrition info ahead of time so when you get to the restaurant, you know exactly what you should order.

Developing healthy habits and effective coping skills are important for everyone.  Make sure to take time every day to lessen stress and increase your fitness level.  As always, I would love to hear what works for you so feel free to comment so that we all learn something new!

Sun Hui (Sunny) Snook graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Truman State University and received a Master’s in Human Services from Bellevue University. She has been in the healthcare staffing field for 11 years, first working with nurses before moving to a nationwide work strategies consultant where her key responsibilities were to coach staffers and hospital managers on effective staffing. In 2009, Sunny started with Aureus Medical as an Account Manager in the Rehab Therapy division, working with both clients and prospective employees. In 2011, she moved to Student Outreach Coordinator. Sunny was named the 2011 Employee of the Year for C&A Industries, the parent company of Aureus Medical Group. Prior to working in healthcare staffing, she served as an addictions therapist and residential treatment coordinator for five years.

Sunny Snook / 800.456.5857 ext 6578 / ssnook@aureusmedical.com / Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter

1. Fill out your W-4 correctly.
Even though you may be working outside your state of residency, you may still be obligated to pay state tax in your working and primary state.  Some states have reciprocal agreements with each other and some do not.  The safest approach is to speak with your tax advisor ahead of time.  If you find yourself in a state that does not have an agreement with your home state, he or she may advise you to withhold additional monies for each state, so you are covered come April. 

2.  Track your expenses.
This is an absolute must. Rest assured if the IRS audits your file, they would need documentation of the expenses, when they occurred, and where they occurred.  So, keep your receipts as proof of payment.  Here are some means to achieve that:

• Keep a folder for each assignment and place ALL your receipts in there. Your tax preparer can go through them and let you know what you can and cannot deduct.
• Use a single credit card dedicated solely for expenses on your assignments. You will then have one place you can access all your expenses. Online statements are a click away and you can go back quickly and view a long amount of time and transactions.  
• Keep track using a spreadsheet.  This method requires some time for input, but can be an effective way of tracking all your expenses. Again, keep your receipts; a simple spreadsheet is not documentation of expense, just a helpful tool for organization. 

3. Enjoy your deductions.
As a travel nurse, there are many. That’s the great news. Cell phones, excess mileage costs that exceed what your company reimburses you, uniforms, license fees, and many more may be deductible.  

Although the above are absolutely great strategies to prepare for the tax season, there is one important piecing that ties this altogether, a CPA.  Unless you are a traveling CPA (and yes they do exist), have your taxes prepared by a professional.  We’re not talking turbo tax or another online service. Although those are great tools for lots of people, your situation is not common. Try to find a CPA that has experience working with traveling contractors. The difference may amaze you.

For a few more helpful tax sites, click here. Good luck and happy tax season!

•  Nursing – East Branch devoted time to help the Salvation Army with Toyland, a program to assist qualified parents in selecting toys for their children for Christmas. The team split into two groups and served as personal shoppers for the parents, helping them pick out the perfect gift for each of their children.

• 

  Serving dinner for the Common Table Outreach Program.

  Nursing – California and Southwest Branches combined forces to provide Christmas dinner and act as hospitality volunteers for families through Common Table on December 19. They provided meals for over 125 people. As hospitality volunteers, they welcomed the guests and spent time talking with them during and after the meal. Common Table is an outreach program that supplies a meal for the impoverished and homeless people of Omaha. 

•  Nursing – Mountain West and Central Branches joined together to sort, box and shelve food for the Food Bank for the Heartland. Each of the 15 people from the two branches donated 2.5 hours of their time. Erin Anderson, Central branch manager, said, “Everyone really enjoyed being able to give back.”
• Various Medical (Nursing & Allied) employees stepped in to help when an email was received about a family in need. Five children had been removed from their mother’s care and placed with their 24-year old aunt. Social services informed the aunt that if she could not find appropriate sleeping arrangements for the kids they would be placed in separate foster homes. Employees started organizing how to get them bunk beds as well as donated toys, clothes, and gift cards for the family. The family wanted to pass along how extremely appreciative of everything they were.

One option you might have is to request the time off prior to starting your assignment. Now not every facility will agree to this, but it depends mostly on your approach.

Let’s say you were offered an assignment starting in mid-January. You might be able to say, “Yes, I would like to accept the contract, but I have already planned time off to spend with my family in early February.” It would then be the facility’s job to decide whether or not this was a deal breaker.

Now if you do take this approach, be aware that some facilities will not go for this and might even rescind an offer. However, if it is approached right, it’s rare that you will encounter problems.

The best time to mention that you need specific time off is in the interview before the hospital makes an offer. This way, you can often feel them out about the possibility of having that time off. If you mention it and their response is “that’s no problem at all”, then you are good. If you mention it and they hesitate and say something like, “I don’t know if that would be possible”, then you have to decide how important it is to you.

If you do have an agreement with regard to any time off, always have it written into your contract.

Another option to allow for time off on a holiday is to work a half shift with someone (if the facility permits this). One person will cover from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then go home to spend the holiday with their family, while the other person comes in to cover from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Shifts that are “halved” like this often need to be approved by the manager or staffing office, so plan ahead.

Make sure to speak with your Account Manager if you should have any questions or concerns about requesting time off.

1. Make them realistic. It can be difficult to stick with a resolution if it is something that is very hard to accomplish.  Make sure to keep it reasonable and don’t set too many resolutions at the same time.  No matter how simple it is, if it betters you as a person it’s a step in the right direction.

2.  Write it down. Putting it on paper makes it official and gives you something to look at as a reminder.  Put it on your mirror to look at when you get ready in the morning and at night.  You can also write down a plan of action if it is going to take steps to accomplish.  This will make it easier to follow on a day to day basis.

3. Include your friends and family for encouragement. Make sure to let people know what you are trying to accomplish so they can support and encourage you along the way, it’s a great way to keep yourself accountable.  You can also set a team resolution by including family or friends to do it with so you can support each other.

4. Set goals and reward yourself during the year. Just saying you want to do something for the entire year can be daunting. Try to set goals throughout the year and decide on what you can do to reward yourself along the way.  Shorter term goals may be easier to accomplish and it will be more fun!

5. Don’t let a minor setback derail your resolution. Give yourself a break.  Resolutions can be difficult because you are trying to do something you have previously failed to do.  If you happen to have slip ups along the way don’t let that ruin your resolution.  It’s never too late to start over or begin again anytime during the year.

1.  Turkey – If you stick to white meat and peel the skin off, you’ll save hundreds of calories.

2.  Sweet potatoes – If roasted, sweet potatoes provide fiber, vitamin A, potassium and phytochemicals.

3.  Cranberries – Cranberries are loaded with disease-fighting antioxidants. Their fiber content also helps lower bad cholesterol levels.

4.  Stuffing – While stuffing is generally one of the most fattening dishes, a few changes to the ingredients can make a big difference.  Pack the stuffing with nuts, dried fruits, carrots and celery, and you’ll benefit from fiber and a range of vitamins.

5.  Collard greens – Collards are ultra-healthy except when sabotaged by greasy fat sources.  If you prepare these leafy greens in a steamer, you’ll leave out the unnecessary calories and gain a ton of vitamins and antioxidants. 

Add any of these items to your shopping list and you’ll spend more time with friends and family and less time sleeping on the couch! Happy eating!