I was doing some research on nursing last night and I came across an interesting trend.  Nurses today in the present-day are finding in taking temporary positions that enable them to travel across the United States to work as a nurse in multiple locations, or should say in different locations.  So for example if you are a nurse and you wanted to spend the winter in Miami, you could accept a position as a travel nurse and work in Miami for two or three months during the middle of winter.  These positions seem to be available all around the United States, and they offer outstanding pay rates and even benefits that are normally associated with full-time work such as a 401(k) plan.

This concept of travel nursing seems to have evolved and changed over the years quite a bit.  As we continue to dig within the book of medicine, we are repeatedly reminded that the book was written 90 years ago for an audience primarily consisting of mothers caring for their families and nurses in remote locations where other medical care was unavailable.  A single doctor might cover a single town or even a county or territory back then.  A traveling nurse back then might have to go by horseback to take care of an ailing patient, or they might work in a hospice or alms house typically for very low pay if they were paid anything at all.  Room and board were actually the standard pay of the time.

Fast-forward 90 years and the situation has changed dramatically.  Nursing is very high in demand to the extent that people will actually pay a nurse to travel across the country and work for a few months at a time.  Part of this is probably driven by the shortage of nurses and a number of different areas and part of it probably relates to the fact that elderly and ailing patients are much more mobile these days.  It has been very common for a couple decades now for people to travel south for the winter to Florida or Phoenix or even Southern California.  This influx of people that need medical attention seems to be matched by nurses that are willing to go to those locations and work.  Furthermore, were not necessarily talking about a live-in nurse that works 24 hours a day taking care of an elderly patient, were talking about a nurse that works a shift sometimes in a home sometimes a hospital or other medical facility.  That leaves pony of time for a real life after hours and many opportunities to explore the location that they're visiting. 

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Machinery of Digestion
  
  

  Machinery of Digestion.-From the number and differently formed structures which constitute the digestive organs, it will be observed that the function is a very highly complex process.  If the food were thrown directly into the circulating fluid, it could not be used for the purpose of nutrition.  It requires for its transformation into blood, bone and muscle, a series of complex machinery, each part of which is specially designed for the particular part it plays in this wonderful and complicated process.

   

  Use of Mouth and Teeth.- the mechanical part, which, although not shown in this chart, may be carefully studied in the chart giving the different views of the head, is performed by the mouth and teeth, and pulverized food is subject to the action of the saliva.  The lubricated morsel of food is now gathered into a ball and conveyed to the back of the mouth by the muscles of the cheek and tongue.  On its arrival here, the soft palate lifts upward and closes the posterior nasal openings; the epiglottis shuts down over the trachea or windpipe, forming a bridge over which the food passes, thus preventing it from falling into the respiratory tract.

   

  For this section I don’t really know to anything extraordinary, and I’m just going to move on to the next sections from here as we do have some interesting segments coming up shortly.

• Why is it that Disease Spreads?
  
  

  Why is it that disease spreads?-It has been found by scientists that certain definitive living bodies (germs) are the cause of certain diseases, such as tuberculosis, smallpox, typhoid fever, diphtheria, etc.; and other diseases must be caused by other undiscovered bodies, which will some day be known.  These minute living bodies are active and give off poisonous material which destroys the tissues, organs, etc. of the body.  When a person is ill, these germs are being continually thrown off in the waste materials of the body, in the spittle, bowel movements, sweat, saliva, urine, et cetera.  If these products of disease are allowed to remain in a vessel, the carpets, floor, soil, etc., they dry and in the form of dust are blown about in here at the house, street or country road.  If they come in contact with clothing or household furniture, they can be carried.  Should a nurse or attendant upon a case be careless about disinfecting the hands are closing during or after the management of a contagious disease, he or she can become a common carrier by touching food, dishes, clothing, etc., used by other members of the family.

  Water is a common carrier of disease, particularly typhoid fever, cholera, etc.  Therefore to prevent the spread of disease every farmer, dairy man, occupant of a dwelling, factory, citizens of villages, cities and states, should see that they have a clean water supply free from germs and not contaminated by dirty water or refuse from a toilet, a pen, stable, etc.., which might contain germs carry from a patient or animal suffering from any of the contagious disease is.  One case of typhoid fever along the edge of a mountain stream, carelessly managed, thus permitting bowel movements to be thrown into or washed into the stream by rain, pelting snow, etc., could cause an epidemic in every village which received its water supply from that stream or the reverence which it empty.

  Milk can be a common carrier of disease, such as tuberculosis, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, measles, diphtheria, etc.  Most states however, have protected the supply of milk by the enactment of laws covering the inspection of cattle, the erection of well lighted, clean and ventilated dairies, boiling and sterilization of all utensils used in its handling, even the wearing of sterile grounds by the milkers and attendants, cleansing of the cows utters before and after milking incurring and brushing the cattle and covering them with light blanket.  Milk should be kept it even temperatures after being placed in sterile can prevent the formation of germs which will develop even in transit to the consumer in the country or by train or in the milk bottles prior to delivery.  Railroads are compelled in some states, and should be in all states, to furnish refrigerator cans with highs and the dealers in the city should particularly during the warm weather, have a refrigerator or eyes in the delivery wagons to maintain an even temperature for all milk delivered.

  There are some interesting concepts within the section some of these actually seem somewhat practical and you can get a sense of the evolution of thought and care that was starting to go into the maintenance of water supplies and especially the concept of moving milk producing milk and transmitting or delivering it logistically across long distances as people lived more in cities and away from the country away from the source of the actual cattle delivering the milk.

  Its also somewhat surprising that as early as one hundred years ago they were concerned with milkers wearing sterile clothing.  I have a mental image in my head of kids going out to milk the cow each morning for milk and parents that had little regard for the sterility of children’s clothes as long as they did not spoil their Sunday clothes.

• Bones of the Spinal Column
  
  

  Bones of the Spinal Column. — The twenty-four bones of which it consists are so stiffly locked together as to form a chain that will bear and support the heaviest burdens, yet so flexible that it will bend like India rubber; within this wondrous column heights of delicate error that would thrill at the gentlest touch, yet so securely does it rests in its bony couch that it feels not the slightest jar or shock; and resting upon this remarkable pillar of bones is born the brain, without a tremor or a fear of danger; to it are found clinging to vital organs of the chest and abdomen, secure in the protection it affords.

  In this section they author makes a remark that either the brain or the other organs of the body should fear the danger incumbent upon them for having attached themselves to the spinal column. This statement just seems rather bizarre to me and I can’t make heads or tails of it.

  I think its some vague reference to the altitude of the brain suspended above the body and held up by the spinal column, but its just a strange thing to say. I bet the author would truly be hysterical if they new how incumbent their physical existence was upon the DNA of their parents let alone the design and synthesis of peptides!