LVN & LPN Travel Nurse Careers

Licensed vocational nurses (LVN) and licensed practical nurses (LPN) are necessary to any medical practice and in great demand in the travel nursing field. An LVN or LPN performs most general nursing duties, such as recording the patient's vital signs, giving injections, dressing wounds, and administering medicines. They also help the patient with personal hygiene, getting out of bed and moving around, getting dressed, eating and other common daily tasks. They may be required to clean and monitor medical equipment and assist doctors and registered nurses perform screening, tests and procedures.



LVNs and LPNs who choose a travel career work through an agency to select temporary assignments. Each assingment typically lasts from 13 to 15 weeks. Travel and housing are paid, and travel nurses generally earn more than the average permanent employee. When the contract is up, a travel LVN or LPN has several choices. He may be invited to stay for an additional contract term, she may move on to another assignment, or he may take a break and return home. Travel LVNs and LPNs can expect to perform the same duties they are accustomed to from the required six years of previous experience.

Obstetrics

• Some travel LVNs and LPNs are assigned to obstetrics and use their skills to help obstetricians deliver and care for newborn babies. They may be in the delivery room to accept the baby and clean it up immediately after birth, and later feed, soothe, change and monitor the baby during the hospital stay. LPNs and LPNs also take care of new mothers, providing care and education, helping with hygiene and monitoring the health of the patients.

  Travel LPNs and LVNs are expected to walk into the job and start working with very little instruction or orientation. Since they often enter a working environment that has been operating short-handed, they must accept responsibility, know what needs to be done, and be familiar with the equipment and procedures.

Nursing Homes

• Travel nurses assigned to nursing homes address the needs of elderly patients. They dispense medications, help residents with routine tasks, and ask for information about how they are feeling. They watch for signs of mental or physical deterioration. Daily monitoring and record-keeping keeps the doctor up-to-date on the condition of the residents. Traveling LPNs and LVNs may also be called upon to help the doctor develop a care regimen for each patient and supervise nursing aides and orderlies.

  Some of the most difficult issues faced by travel LPNs and LVNs are the emotional attachments they form with patients. Elderly patients require intimate relationships and personal care. It may prove difficult to leave at the end of the assignment.

Doctor's Office

• Sometimes a travel LVN or LPN will be offered a position at a private practice. Since a doctor's office is usually a small business with a limited staff, travel LVNs and LPNs may expected to perform additional duties, like answering phones, calling in prescriptions, making appointments, filing and other office work. In an office setting, there is little patient assistance, but the LVN or LPN will take vital signs like blood pressure, height and weight, and sometimes draw blood or request and process a urine sample for testing.

  In a private practice, a travel nurse may face opposition or resentment from the staff of a small office. Travel nurses generally are paid better and collect large bonuses for short-term work, and this can lead to strained relationships on the job. The best approach is to meet bad attitudes with cheerful competence and a winning smile.