When nurse authors meet, they swap autographed copies of their books. Epstein LaRue (Epi also known as Kay in the real world) and I recently met for lunch to celebrate our half birthday. We share July 27 as our real birthday. Epi is now working in So CA as a travel nurse and we just had to find time to meet face to face finally and celebrate! And to swap books and have a photo op.
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| photo (c)Tim Quan : nurse authors Epstein LaRue and Kathy Quan |
The Highway Hypodermics series is the premier guide for travel nurses in my mind, and Epi is the guru. I never had a need or reason to travel professionally, but in writing about the many aspects of nursing for About.com and now my own sites, I had to reach beyond my comfort zone of home health and hospice and discover all I could about other options and roles. Travel nursing really caught my interest.
In 2007, Epi sent me a copy of Highway Hypodermics Travel Nursing 2007 to review for the now defunct nursing site at About.com and I fell in love with the field all the while knowing I would probably never try it myself. Based on what I learned, I’ve written many travel articles for my sites as well as others such as UlitmateNurse.com (when it was still owned by Aaron Cooper).
The book she gave me recently is Highway Hypodermics: Travel Nursing 2012
There are many options for travel nurses from housing to transportation to traveling with a family and pets. What does it take to become a travel nurse? It’s clearly not an option for everyone.
Then you need to figure out other issues. Where do you want to live? What type of accommodations do you need? How do you manage to travel with school aged children? What happens if the assignment is a disaster? How do you decide which travel company/recruiter to use?How to deal with the politics.
Epstein LaRue takes you through the process step-by-step and prepares you for your next life as a travel nurse. You’ll step into the role with ease and comfort because you know what to expect and how to handle almost every conceivable situation and then some. For anyone considering travel nursing, or even a seasoned traveler, this book is a must have!
There are profiles of travel companies written by the companies themselves and blurbs from a number of travelers about their own experiences on the road. As the world of travel nursing changes due to things such as new laws, regs, and demands from employers, Epi is right on top of them to bring you the latest information.
There’s also a lot of information in her book that can be helpful to visiting nurses and health professionals who make home health and hospice visits to patient’s home. Any tips that can make it easy to handle being on the road all day and facing obstacles such as the Polar Vortex of a winter we’ve had across the country are always welcome!
Epi is active on social media sites so follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Find her blog and website online. Stay up to date with travel nursing.
