Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter allow travel nurses to connect to family and friends while on assignment.
When you embark on a travel nursing job, being on assignment away from home is a great way to vacation and work at the same time, but unlike a normal vacation, free time is hard to come by. With the excitement of a new city, the unfamiliarity of a new work environment, interesting people to meet, and famous attractions to see, keeping in touch with friends and family can be a recurring entry on your laundry list of chores – right above ‘do laundry’.
In lieu of sending cryptic emails (“Hi mom, Taking good care of myself. Enjoying my new job. Will call soon.” “Hi dad, Doing fine. Talk to mom for details), photo prints by snail mail, or DVDs of trip highlights for every member of the family, travel nurses have alternatives. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and LiveJournal allow their users to correspond with friends and family through text, photos, videos, and voice recordings from their own homes or mobile devices while on the go.
In recent years, the popularity of such sites has skyrocketed, forcing them to add new applications and features in order to stay popular. According to Rubicon Consulting, sixty-five percent of web users agreed that they are very satisfied with the social media site(s) that they belong to, yet the same percentage strongly agreed with the statement ‘I ignore invitations to a new site.’ Some of these “ignored” sites actually have beneficial features for a busy travel nurse; keep these advantages in mind before rejecting the next invitation to one of the following sites:
Facebook
With over 250 million users and a 700 % increase in total minutes spent on the site from April 2008 to April 2009, Facebook is the world’s fastest growing social media site. Many companies, such as Onward Healthcare, have Travel Nursing Facebook sites to stay connected with their travel nurses.
Facebook Features:
• ‘Tag’ photos of new friends, exciting places, and view family members’ and friends’ comments.
• ‘Friend lists’ to filter which friends have access to certain photos, wall posts, and personal information.
• ‘Message threads’ allow you to send a single message or update to a group of people. Their responses and later messages will be sent to the whole group to keep everyone informed.
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