Everything You Need to Know About Telemetry Nurses
In every hospital unit, you’re bound to find specialized nurses that devote their training, skills, and time to provide the utmost level of medical care. Monitoring patients remotely after surgeries and other cardiac treatments are at the heart of telemetry nurses’ responsibilities – no pun intended. Whether you’re just starting your journey as a nurse or you’re looking to find a specialization, this is everything you need to know about telemetry nurses.
What is a Telemetry Nurse?
A telemetry nurse works with patients struggling with heart disease, heart failure, and other cardiac conditions. To understand a telemetry nurse, you have to understand the term telemetry, which comes from the words tele meaning “remote” and metron meaning “measure.”
Thus, a telemetry nurse monitors patients using remote electronic signals and specialized equipment. They monitor patients’ progress, provide medical care, and provide specific cardiac interventions in an emergency.
National average salary: $107,536 per year
Job outlook: 7% increase
Where Do Telemetry Nurses Work?
As their name states, telemetry nurses work in the telemetry unit of a hospital. These units provide care for patients leaving the intensive care unit (UCI) that still require consistent monitoring. In the telemetry unit, patients are more stable but even need close monitoring should their situation change.
Sometimes, telemetry nurses also find work in outpatient surgery centers and long-term care facilities. Other medicine areas may also employ a telemetry unit, so nurses may find themselves working with sleep clinics or neurological units.
What Kind of Patients Are On A Telemetry Unit?
The telemetry unit receives a wide range of patients. Most patients need telemetry monitoring, particularly those with a history of high blood pressure, stroke, or a heart attack. Patients in this unit have a high turnout rate because most patients are already stepping down from a more intense level of care.
What Does a Telemetry Nurse Do?
In short, telemetry nurses provide care for patients with cardiovascular issues and related consequences. They perform frequent patient assessments to watch for any changes. This includes measuring blood pressure, levels of consciousness, and breathing patterns.
Telemetry nurses also operate heart monitoring equipment, perform diagnostic tests, and follow protocols to treat chest pain. Most of the time, nurses also assist with procedures like cardioversions and other procedures performed in the telemetry unit. However, their biggest responsibility is recognizing and responding to cardiac emergencies quickly.
The telemetry nurse has a mixture of responsibilities that include registered nurse duties and technical skills to monitor patients’ health.
Most responsibilities include:
- Caring for cardiac patients
- Using electronic equipment like an echocardiogram (EKG) and breathing machines to monitor patients
- Looking for cardiac baseline changes, arrhythmias, and abnormalities
- Responding to irregularities
- Performing stress tests
- Administering IVs and medications
- Monitoring telemetry units of hospitals
- Assisting cardiologists throughout cardiac procedures
- Using diagnostic tests to evaluate patients’ cardiac health
How Do You Become a Telemetry Nurse?
As a baseline, telemetry nurses are registered nurses (RNs). To become an RN, you need to earn either a Professional Nursing Associate’s Degree or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree. You must then pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) and meet your state’s requirements for RN licensure.
After obtaining your RN licensure, you can start transitioning into telemetry. Consider speaking with a supervisor about your interest in telemetry and ask how you can train in this specialty. Unlike other specialties, there’s no central organization that focuses on telemetry certification. The two most common credentialing programs include the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN).
Other certifications:
- The Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certification obtained through the American Heart Association
- The Processive Care Certified (PCCN) certification given by the Association of Critical-Care Nurses
What Skills Do You Need to Be a Telemetry Nurse?
Telemetry nursing is a highly technical environment that requires a more specialized skill set. This career path involves acute care for patients experiencing cardiac problems. The dual nature of telemetry nursing that combines technical and practical skills separates them from other specializations.
Most common skills for telemetry nurses include:
- Understanding of cardiac rhythm monitoring techniques, interpretation, and treatment
- Knowledge of basic and advanced life support procedures
- Knowledge of drug dosage and continuous monitoring
- Knowledge of standard interventions to stabilize patients should an emergency arise
- Understanding of monitoring machinery
Starting Your Telemetry Nursing Career
If the above responsibilities sound like the type of work that interests you, there’s a straightforward path towards becoming a telemetry nurse. With a specialty like this, you could become a coveted travel nurse. At Stability Healthcare, we place nurses in hospitals across the United States in specialties like telemetry. Browse open jobs today!
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Tips For Your New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year! Now that we’re officially getting settled into 2021, we wanted to share some tips and ideas for journaling and setting goals. While this isn’t necessary and people can have mixed feelings on resolutions, the new year presents a great time to reflect and reset (especially after 2020). Check out our recruiter reflections on 2020 and scroll down to get started on your own!
2020
It’s helpful to start off with a self-reflection. Last year was a year like any other – ESPECIALLY for nurses and healthcare workers. One big feat we can all be proud of? Surviving a pandemic AND working through it on the frontlines.
Questions to ask yourself
How have I grown?
What have I learned about myself?
What is one thing I gained? One thing I let go of?
What is an obstacle I overcame?
What were my highs and lows of 2020?
Creative prompt
Draw, paint, write out, or print your top 3 moments of the year!
2021
Now let’s take our learnings and reflections and put 2020 in the past. 2021 will continue to prove challenging, but there is one thing is different – there is hope.
Questions to ask yourself
What brings me the most happiness?
What can I do this year to bring me closer to my ideal life? In what ways can I start living that life right now?
What goals can I set to help me have the kind of year I want?
How can I take those year-long goals and break them down into manageable pieces? What can I do this month? This week? Today?
Creative prompt
Draw, paint, or write out your top 3 goals for 2021. These can be anything from something tangible like taking a travel placement you’ve been dreaming about to being more positive at work.
Pick a word
If you’ve read through all of this and don’t feel like setting out goals and reflecting, this one is for you. Pick one word and then throughout your year when you are in moments of uncertainty remember that word. For us that word is optimism!
Is exploring new places or excelling in your career a 2021 goal? Check out all open travel nursing jobs at Stability Healthcare.
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Tips For Travel Nurses Working Long Hours
Travel nurses often work long hours in unfamiliar regions and often have little downtime between shifts. This can not only cause significant stress but also, can contribute to long-term burnout for nurses that don’t find work-life balance. Here are some tips for travel nurses working long hours.
Prioritize Self-Care Outside of Work
Travel nursing is demanding, which makes self-care that much more important. Outside of working hours, it is important to eat well, exercise, and engage in personal pastimes that bring you joy. Anything that you can do to relax and have fun can ease the stress of working long hours. Cultivate hobbies outside of the workplace and spend time exploring your new surroundings. This is one of the benefits of travel nursing.
Take Breaks When Possible
You might be tempted to forgo breaks when you’re trying to prove yourself in a new healthcare environment or are still trying to master a new system. When working long hours, however, breaks are important to ensuring quality care. Breaks afford options to hydrate, get in a quick bite, and rest your feet. Working long hours can contribute to extreme physical and mental fatigue, so if you have a chance for a break, take it. Check out our article on knowing when to take a mental health day to take care of yourself.
Get Extra Sleep
Travel nurse jobs are draining in part because of the long hours and in part because of the unfamiliar surroundings and distance from family and friends. When you are working long hours, the fatigue can make it harder to do your job more effectively. Get extra sleep when you can. Take naps before your shift if you can and try to stick to a regular sleep schedule on the days you don’t work. This can be tricky when you are working as a travel nurse and sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings, so maintain a healthy sleep environment as well.
Get Organized On Your Days Off
One of the ways that you can ease the strain of working long hours as a travel nurse is by staying organized. Wash and iron your scrubs on your days off so that you don’t have to try to manage this task while working long hours. Plan meals in advance if possible, so that you can also grocery shop and perhaps cook in advance between nursing shifts. The more organized you get between shifts, the easier it will be while you are in the midst of it.
Work With a Company That Cares About Your Placement
Work with a travel nursing agency that focuses on helping you to find an ideal match for your next placement. One of the best ways to avoid burnout when working long hours as a travel nurse is to receive a placement match that aligns with your ability to find balance between work and your personal life. Stability Healthcare provides a support team to make sure you’re being taken care of, find your next placement today!
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Holiday Treats for the Unit
The holiday season is the perfect time to treat yourself and your coworkers. With things looking a little different in hospitals this holiday season, we wanted to put together some tips on how to bring treats into the break room and a few recipes to boost holiday spirit for yourself and for your fellow nurses.
Etiquette for Bringing Treats into the Break Room
- See if your hospital has any rules or regulations regarding bringing in shared food. This is applicable to any place of work, beyond travel nurses. If your boss says to not pass out treats, abide by those rules.
- Respect everyone’s religions and traditions. Try to not focus your treats on one particular holiday, like Christmas, for example. It’s fine to bring in cookies but refrain from baking them in the shape of a Christmas tree.
- Perhaps the most important question you can ask your coworkers before bringing in treats is if anyone has any allergies. A nut allergy is one of the most common, so a good rule of thumb is to generally avoid recipes that use nuts while bringing food into a common area. Use your best judgment, and if you have the ability to ask coworkers about any allergies, do so before bringing in any food to share. Label what you are bringing in, so coworkers know what they’re biting into.
- Don’t bring anything smelly. Although tuna finger sandwiches may sound like a good idea, particularly potent smelling fish is more likely to cause aromatic issues than anything.
- Consider how messy your treat is. Individually wrapped bags of chocolate may be a better idea than bringing in a cake that everyone has to slice. The easier to grab and consume, the better.
- Clean up afterward (and yes, you can accept help from your coworkers!). Nobody likes a messy breakroom. Make sure to clean up after your shift, and if applicable, store the treats in a safe area if people would like to eat them later on.
Easy Treat Example
Pretzels and rolos are a great, low-budget treat option that can be made in large batches. If you’d like to personalize them, throw them in a small treat bag with a tag with the person’s name on it. Or, a small bag with a tag that boasts a motivational phrase to cheer up your fellow travel nurses would work just as well.
- Purchase your choice of pretzels, like Snyder’s snap pretzels, and a bag of rolos.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, place a row of pretzels. You don’t need much space in between them.
- Then, place one rolo in the center of each pretzel. Bake for roughly 2-3 minutes, or until you see the rolo start to slightly melt on top of the pretzel.
- Voila! Package as you please.
Extra Recipes
Basic Sugar Cookies (recipe from TheNew York Times)
Homemade Rice Krispy Treats (recipe from Shugary Sweets)
Gluten-Free Snowball Cookies (recipe from Allergylicious)
Vegan Peppermint Black Bean Brownies (recipe from Minimalist Baker)
2 Ingredient Dark Chocolate Truffles (recipe from Minimalist Baker)
Coconut Macaroons (recipe from the Huffington Post)
Holiday Popcorn Tins (from the Popcorn Factory)
Ready to get in on the holiday hospital treats? Find your next travel nursing placement at Stability Healthcare!
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COVID Updates: Precautions Are More Important Than Ever
Although it’s been roughly nine months since countries across the world have been in various states of lockdown, COVID numbers continue to rise, and precautions are more important than ever. However, it’s still a great time to be a travel nurse. View updated stats relating to COVID and the latest suggested steps to COVID prevention below:
Pay Benefits of Being a Travel Nurse Right Now
- Despite the pandemic, right now is a good time to be a travel nurse. Hospital and the medical field needs plenty of help, a good role for a travel nurse to fill.
- As stated on Nurse.org, the pay for a travel nurse has skyrocketed since the beginning of the pandemic. Typically, travel nurses earn around $3000 per week, but as an incentive to work during the pandemic, that pay rate has increased in some places to over $10,000 per week.
- If you have additional questions on how to become a travel nurse, the Stability Healthcare blog has plenty of information to offer.
COVID Cases are the Highest They’ve Been
- On December 2nd alone, The New York Times reported 2,885 new coronavirus deaths and 199,988 cases across the United States. Currently, in the US, there have been over 14 million reported cases and over 257,000 deaths. Keep in mind these are only reported cases, not including those who may have been asymptomatic and went untested or those unable to get tested due to limited testing capability.
- Rising COVID numbers vary by state. Although numbers are high across the USA, there are a few states where numbers are slowly decreasing, such as Maine, Vermont, and Hawaii. Texas has now surpassed California and leads with the highest number of reported COVID cases.
- COVID numbers outside of the United States vary between countries. According to CNN, the US leads the world in the highest number of cases and death, with India following behind with 9.5 million cases and 138,000+ deaths.
Worry Surrounding the Upcoming Holidays
- Multiple government officials and healthcare leaders, including Dr. Fauci, have expressed concern that COVID numbers will aggressively rise due to the holidays. Dr. Fauci has called on self mitigation to help prevent the spread of COVID, however, without any official mandates in place, increasing numbers are still expected.
CNBC stated that “while the CDC warned people against traveling for Thanksgiving, more than 9 million people traveled in airports running up to and after the holiday.”
- As seen during Thanksgiving, families and friends tend to gather during holidays, which poses an elevated risk for contracting and infecting others with COVID. Not only are people more likely to interact maskless with others they do not live or work with, but the longer the time people are together, the higher the probability of contracting COVID from an infected person is.
- If you do plan on gathering with family or friends for the holidays, the CDC encourages wearing masks, being six feet apart from others, and frequently washing hands. There is less risk of congregating outdoors while still wearing a mask while not eating or having a drink. Guests should remain on the quieter side, since taking and singing loudly have proven to pose a higher risk of passing COVID. View the full list of prevention methods here.
New Vaccine Developments and Who Will Get it First
- Multiple companies have announced developed vaccines that are reliable and effective, but none are yet officially approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. According to the CDC, in late November there were five different COVID vaccines that were in large-scale clinicals trails: AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, Janssen’s COVID-19 vaccine, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. It’s expected that some versions of the vaccine will be approved by mid-December, which will spur a roll-out amongst several states.
- As reported by NPR, the general consensus is that the vaccine “should go to health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, including nursing homes and assisted living.” Due to its expected limited availability, people within those groups might also be parsed through to determine who is in greatest need for a vaccine. NPR points out that the primary goal of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is to “reduce severe illness and death from the disease and to lessen disruptions to society and the economy from the pandemic.” The CDC released a loose plan for vaccine roll-outs which can be viewed here.
- When the vaccine will be made to the general public is hard to say. Those who don’t work in a healthcare position and who aren’t considered high risk might be waiting until spring or summer 2020
Other COVID-related News
- Surprising many, the CDC has revised its quarantine guidelines. Originally, people were encouraged to quarantine for 14 days following a known exposure. Now, the CDC says that a seven-day quarantine will suffice if said person gets a negative test result after being tested no earlier than the seventh day. Additionally, quarantine can end if the exposed person isolates for 10 days with no symptoms.
COVID statistics are continuously updated. Suggested sources are The New York Times, CNN, and any other reputable publications and sites. The CDC is the best source regarding information on how to keep yourself and others safe from COVID.
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Tips for Making Your Temporary Housing Feel More Like Home
As a travel nurse, you’re used to being on the road. While everyone goes about it a little differently when it comes to moving and packing, there is one thing that most travel nurses have in common: you have to pack light. You may have seen our tips for finding housing or how to pack, but with the cold months approaching we want to talk about feeling cozy and comfortable in your temporary housing.
Making your temporary housing feel cozy is so important, especially in the midst of a pandemic when we’re spending a lot of time at home. Home should be a place where you feel most comfortable. With these simple tips, you’ll be snuggling up in a homey environment in no time.
Plants
Who can deny that a plant suddenly transforms a space. They naturally filter air pollutants, they’re calming, stress-relieving, and overall provide a wonderful mood boost. Plants can absorb harmful gases through the pores in their leaves, filtering the air in your room. Keep an eye on our blog later this month for a guide to which plants are the best, but for now to keep it simple here are some of the easiest plants to keep alive while traveling from place to place: succulents, snake plant, and aloe vera.
Blankets
As children, everyone had their favorite blanky. It brought comfort, safety, and familiarity. It doesn’t hurt adults to have a favorite blanket that you keep with you to snuggle up with. A nice blanket, whether it be a fun fleece print that you love, something your grandma handknitted for you, or just something so soft you can’t resist, is a guaranteed way to cozy up a space and make it feel more like home.
Candles
Did you know candles can increase focus, improve your mood, and even help you remember positive memoreis? Finding a scent that is familiar and reminds you of home is the perfect way to transform any sort of temporary housing you may be staying in into your home. Plus, there’s no better way to set the mood for an evening of relaxation after a long shift.
Photos
We can’t forget photos! Nothing beats a photo of a pleasant memory to boost your mood. Print up a handful of your most favorite moments that have been captured and bring them with you on all of your placements. You can hang them on a wall, spread them out on a dresser, or even just have them sitting in a stack on your bed side table. These physical momentos will bring you joy when you need it most. 
Art
While some people may find it a bit extreme to travel with art, it can actually be the key to transforming a space. Find one or two pieces of art that you love – a print by your favorite illustrator, an old movie poster you found at a flea market, something that used to hang in your childhood home. When you go from place to place, find a new spot for your art and it will feel right at home and provide a sense of consistency and familiarity.
Ready to embark on your next adventure? Vist Stability Healthcare to book a travel nursing placement today!
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A Fall Day Off in NYC
Are you currently working in or around NYC? Do you want some inspiration for your next placement? If the answer is yes to either of those questions, then this article is for you! Here are our top November activities in and around NYC:
Wander Around a Museum
Just in time for fall, most museums are reopening with additional COVID guidelines and limited capacity. Don’t miss some of our favorite exhibits, “The Nature of Color” at the American Museum of Natural History and “Studio 54: Night Magic” at the Brooklyn Museum. Tip: make you book a reservation ahead of time!
Visit Storm King Art Center
Hop on the Metro-North or drive a car about an hour north of NYC to visit Storm King Art Center – an outdoor sculpture museum sprawled across several acres of land. Take a look at one of their current featured exhibits, “Outlooks” by Martha Tuttle, which “comprises a series of human-made stone stacks or cairns, built of boulders gathered at Storm King, and molded glass and carved marble stones, which the artist created by hand during the winter and spring of 2020.”
Explore Central Park
The iconic Central Park is at it’s prime in the fall. With the leaves changing, the park is a glorious fall escape from city life. Pack a picnic and make it a day-long excursion or spend multiple trips exploring the 840 acres that make up the park.
Take A Drive
Once you get out of the city, New York is filled with scenic tree-filled routes. Make your best fall playlist, hop in the car, and go explore upstate New York. While apple picking season has mostly come to an end, there are still lots of farms and shops you can stop at along the way.
Scope Out Vintage Finds
With the cold just around the corner, you’ll want to cozy up your space. Spend the day browsing vintage shops to find little pieces that make your place feel warm and comforting. Take a look at Mother of Junk in Williamsburg and Dobbin St. Vintage Co-op in Greenpoint. Keep an eye on our blog later this month for some tips on how to cozy up your space!
See a Drive-In Movie
While not many good things came from COVID, one positive is the increase in outdoor movies. Cuddling up with your favorite blanket and a surplus of snacks to watch a movie under the stars has never sounded so good. Check out Skyline Drive-In in Greenpoint or the Belair in Astoria. If neither of those work, there are locations across all of 5 boroughs.
Discover the Botanical Gardens
Head to the Bronx’s for The New York Botanical Gardens. You’ll see a collection of roses, daylilies, hydrangeas, water lilies, and lotuses, and more. If you can’t make it, you can explore their online exhibits like “Black Botany: The Nature of Black Experience, which seeks to acknowledge the complex relationship between enslaved Black people, nature, and the colonial environment and reconsider the conscious omission of Black knowledge of the natural world.”
Nurses Guide to Properly Preparing for Retirement
Travel nursing is a rewarding career and many individuals choose it for a variety of reasons. Like most health professionals, nurses spend the majority of their time taking care of others and not themselves.
However, if you are a travel nurse, it’s essential to start retirement planning as soon as possible. At the end of your time in the workforce, you want to make sure that you have enough funds to enjoy your retirement after many years of hard work and dedication to patients.
With that said, if you’re looking for retirement resources, this article is for you. Continue reading to learn more about nurse retirement and what you can do to secure your future finances.
Understand Your 401k Options
When it comes to retirement planning, one of the primary problems that travel nurses face is setting up a 401k. As you know, travel nursing usually involves working for various employers, which makes setting up a 401k difficult.
Since travel nursing isn’t a conventional job, some companies may not offer investment plans. Thankfully, nurses who work through Stability Healthcare don’t have to worry about that.
Once you’ve worked with us for one year, we’ll provide you with the details on our 401k plan and how you can enroll through our partner ADP. We have an incredible selection for you to choose from and we want all of our employees to secure their monetary future.
Retirement Planning for Travel Nurses
Now that you know that we offer 401K plan options to our employees, you can take the proper steps towards implementing your retirement financial planning.
Although we require one year of work before you can enroll into our 401k, there are other things you can do to ensure that you are protected financially. Below are a few suggestions:
Save 15% of Your Income
Even without a 401k, there are ways that you can jump-start your retirement planning. One of the smartest things to do as an employee is to pay yourself. Saving 15% of your income ensures that you’re putting away a nice nest egg.
In addition to a 401k, using a Roth IRA allows you to invest money that grows tax-free. The good news is, you won’t be taxed once you take the money out for retirement either.
Your objective should be to continually invest for retirement, even while you concentrate on other financial obligations— like paying off your mortgage. By implementing financial strategies that work in conjunction with one other, you can create a stress-free life after nurse retirement. Therefore, after 20 to 30 years of working, you could have a home that is paid for and a hefty retirement savings.
Tax-Deferred Retirement Plan: Yes or No?
When starting your nurse retirement plan, one of the primary decisions you’ll have to make is whether or not you want a tax-deferred benefit. Basically, Tax-deferred means that you won’t pay taxes on your income right now.
However, you will have to pay them on the funds once you withdraw it. It’s a big decision to make, but it’s one that you’ll have to choose carefully. If you believe you are in a position to pay taxes right now, then do so. That way you won’t have to pay the money after retirement.
On the other hand, if you have lots of financial obligations, you might benefit from saving money on paying taxes and waiting until you have a larger lump sum after retirement.
Retirement Financial Planning: Invest Long-Term
Retirement planning takes a lot of patience and willpower. One of the biggest challenges individuals face when trying to secure their financial future is the impulse to withdraw money from their 401k.
Things happen in life, and when they do most people panic and become riddled with fear and anxiety. In this state of mind, you might decide to pull all the money out of your 401k, which interrupts the consistency of your retirement planning.
It’s important to remember that investing is a marathon, not a sprint. So before you go tampering with your retirement money, make sure you have other savings funds set aside to help you in case of a financial emergency occurs.
Monetary difficulties are examples of situations when saving 15% of your income comes in handy.
Use Professionals to Help With Nurse Retirement
Sometimes it helps to have an expert financial advisor to assist you with your retirement planning. One of the biggest misconceptions is that financial professionals are only helpful to individuals with large salaries. However, people of all tax brackets can benefit greatly from a monetary advisor.
If investing and retirement planning is too big of a task, let an expert assist you. By doing so, you can ensure that you’re set at the end of your working years. Plus, it’ll provide you with someone who holds you accountable.
A financial professional can also offer tips on what you can do in the event of a monetary setback.
Travel Nursing Made Easy
Retirement planning is essential for securing your financial future. But if you’re at a crossroads in your career and need to find your next nursing job, Stability Healthcare can help.
Our free job search platform allows you to view jobs that pay your preferred rate. You’ll get interviews quicker through our platform and begin a rewarding travel nursing assignment in no time.
For questions about our services, feel free to call 855-742 4767. Also, check out our nursing reviews to learn more about how we’ve helped other travel nurses.
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6 Face Masks Every Nurse Should Know About
Wearing a face mask at work all day long has become a glum, dreaded reality for everyone, but especially for nurses. While some ERs and ICUs might require you to wear the masks they give you, a lot of hospitals and clinics are loosening to allow staff to bring in their own masks. So as we’re finally getting used to breathing through fabric all day, it’s time to invest in a mask like you would a good stethoscope or a good set of scrubs. You want a mask that’s breathable and that stays in place while you’re talking to patients (if you’re having to pull it up all day, what’s the point, right?). You want your mask to offer you the greatest level of protection, both for yourself and the people around you, because it’s unlikely you’ll be able to remain social distanced with all of your patients. And finally, you want your mask to be comfortable and as attractive as a mask can be. Like most things, if you can make it cute, you can make it work.
That’s a lot of requirements for a small piece of fabric, but here are five mask companies up to the challenge.
Mandala Scrubs
Maybe it’s because Mandala is already used to making practical items for those who work in the healthcare industry, but these masks rock! They come in lots of different solid colors, two different sizes and two different styles. They have adjustable ear straps, a wire to fit to your nose, and a pocket insert where you can put filters. Each mask comes with a pack of three replaceable PM2.5 filters, which is a six layered activated carbon filter, designed to effectively block airborne contaminants.
The masks are made with the same anti-microbial fabric that Mandala makes their scrubs with, so they’re sanitary and easy to breath in. And with the adjustable straps, they offer a nice clean look. You can talk all day in them and they won’t fall down your face. We recommend the pleated cloth style, as it offers a little more breathing room than the other style.
Price: $9.99 each
Figs
There’s no hiding how much we love Figs and to no surprise at all, they have launched a fantastic mask. Simple with pops of fun color, these masks are comfortable, breathable, and sleek. Made with both safety and comfort in mind, these masks boast features like a bendable nose wire for a close fit, a slot for replaceable filters, and soft elastic ear loops for all day comfort. Made with Figs signature FIONx fabric with Silvadur™ antimicrobial technology, four-way stretch, moisture-wicking, anti-wrinkle, and ridiculously soft properties, this mask is sure to check all of the boxes. The Medium/Large mask can even be worn over an N95 mask for extra coverage!
Price: $12.99 each
ililily Cotton Double Layer Patterned Face Mask
The Mandala masks have everything….except fun patterns. If florals are really your thing, these double-cotton face masks come highly recommended by stylish doctors. They come in six different floral patterns and each comes built with two cotton layers and a washable filter in between, as well as adjustable ear straps. Reviews all say they’re cute and comfy.
Price: $14.99 each
Casetify Cotton Mask
If you’re looking for a more casual, athletic look in a mask, these Casetify cotton masks look simple and light, but still offer you all the protection you need. Just like Mandala masks, these come with two filter inserts. They don’t have the wire at the top of the nose, but they fit snugly enough for it not to matter.
Price: $12 each
Buck Mason Antimicrobial Facemask
These are made with three layers of thick cotton t-shirt material, but they’ve also been treated with an anti-microbial layer, giving even more protection from bacteria. The Buck Mason masks are unique because they tie around your head, like a real surgical mask. It gives you the freedom to tie them comfortably so they stay in place all day.
Price: $30 for a five pack
Old Navy Facemasks
For an everyday selection of face masks, you really can’t go wrong with Old Navy. They offer limitless bundles of different patterns, and all of them are three layer cloth. They have ear adjustable straps, and they’re SO affordable. You can buy a 10 pack for $25. You could wear a different mask every day of the week without having to wash. Amazing!
Price: $25 for a 10 pack
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What Flu Season Means for Nurses in 2020
For most people, fall means orange leaves, pumpkin-spiced lattes, cute knit scarves, and scary movies, but for nurses, this is the season of crowded emergency rooms and clinics filled with folks running fevers and coughing. That’s right: it’s the dreaded flu season. And this year will invariably be worse than most flu and cold seasons we’ve experienced in the past. With the drier air comes a faster spread of both the regular seasonal flu and COVID-19. It will undoubtedly be a busy season for travel nurses, who are already in high demand around flu season.
Here’s what nurses should be prepared for as we head into the colder weather.
First, a little bit of hope: If COVID-19 restrictions stay in place (or tighten) it’s possible we’ll see fewer cases of the flu.
Considering how well the U.S. is doing with containing the spread of COVID-19 (not great, considering we have 4 percent of the world’s population and 21 percent of its coronavirus deaths), this might be a little optimistic. However, countries in the Southern Hemisphere who are already well into their flu season have reported fewer flu cases because of travel restrictions, social distancing, and wearing masks.
But as the weather gets colder, outside gathering options will be limited, and likely more people will be inside together. So the latter could cancel out the former. It remains to be seen.
Get your placements in order now.
Hospitals are already working to bulk up their staff in anticipation of a hectic cold and flu season. If you specialize in ICU or the Emergency Department, you’re in extremely high demand. Now is the time to figure out where you really want to be right now as a travel nurse, because it’s likely that there are spots open almost anywhere. That might not be the case a month or even a few weeks from now as spots fill up, so start putting in for the placements you want now.
Your patients can be infected with both the flu and COVID-19 at the same time.
The CDC has confirmed that, yes, it is possible to contract two viruses at once. This will mean patients will need careful treatment from healthcare professionals who can diagnose symptoms of both viruses. It also means that several people will likely have to be hospitalized more than once, making emergency rooms and ICUs even more crowded.
Don’t forget to vaccinate!
While we might not have a vaccine for COVID-19 yet, we certainly have one for the flu this season. If you haven’t already, get yours now! According to the CDC, everyone should get their annual flu vaccine by the end of October. And keep in mind that it takes about two weeks after getting your shot for antibodies to develop. So don’t go thinking you’re immune right after getting vaccinated.
Want to secure your dream placement as flu season begins? Check out Stability’s list of high-paying placements here.
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