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:

• BONES OF THE HEAD, BASE AND NECK.
  
  

  
  

  Bones of the Skull — this illustration gives an accurate and faithful representation of the head, face and neck, surrounded by an outline of the fleshy parts as they appear in the human frame. The bones of the head, eight in number, constitute the skull, and those of the face, 14 and number, compose a strong, hard bony case, which encloses and affords a suitable protection for the brain and the four organs a special sense, viz.: site, smell, taste and hearing. All of these bones are in movable, except the lower jaw, which moves by means of a hinge-joint, and permits of the opening and closing of the mouth.

  One of the things that struck me as I dictated this last segment (for my readers information I am using Dragon Naturally Speaking to dictate this text as well as my views on the text) was the large number of commas as used in this paragraph. By my count there were 15 used in this paragraph which had three sentences. Now this book in general uses the coma extensively and reminds me of a style of writing that I was taught in grade school shortly before several rules of language were simplified. For example when I was in grade school I was taught that a conjunction that included the word “and” should have a coma in between each item building up to the conjunction including the last word that preceded the word “and.”

  Back then I would’ve drafted this sentence as follows:
  I went to the store, the post office, the car wash, and the bank.

  Later in high school some economy of writing came about and decreased 1 of the commas needed in writing. I don’t know when or why this occurred, but I do recall several grammar teachers remarking on the fact and teach in is the new writing style. Back then I didn’t follow the news quite to the extent that I do today and so I do not recall whether there was a boost in the global economy due to the increased productivity allowed workers especially “knowledge workers” who would not have had to write, type or dictate quite as many commas. In fact they would have one less coma to write. Can you imagine what everyone did with all that extra time saved him from writing?

  Now honestly one coma probably to make that big of a difference. But now as I read the library of health I realize that over the last 82 a hundred years the world hasn’t saved just one coma; they have saved close to a dozen per paragraph. Computers may have brought a significant amount of productivity to the workforce, but just imagine how much we’ve saved over the last hundred years writing fewer comas.

  I wonder when the majority of the comas as were lost. Maybe it was the result of World War I or World War II or the combination of both wars. It’s possible that to expedite communications Society had to adapt and reduce the number of dits in das used in a telegraph. The war to end all wars may have failed in Indian all wars, but it may have succeeded in putting an end to a few extra comas.

• Evaporation
  
  

  These days our drinking water is so contaminated with drugs, antibiotics, chemical wastes and supplements of every different size and color that you never know if you might be getting a cocktail of Amoxycillin or Fenphedra when you take a sip.

  Evaporation.-Our supplies of drinking water are, of course, derived originally entirely from the rainfall. We need not consider now how the water found its way into the air. Without entering into the details of the process of evaporation, all that the present object requires is, that we clearly recognize the fact that spring, fountain, river and lake are all alike fed from the clouds which float over our heads and send their rain upon the just and upon the unjust. Hence, then, man is wholly dependent for his supply of this vital element upon the rain which comes down from heaven. He may dwell upon the most arid plains, but he drinks from the stream which flows beside or underneath his feet—which stream is itself fed by floods that fell perhaps a thousand miles away—and what-ever mystery attaches to subterranean waters, we may be sure that, by a long enough circuit, we can trace every drop back to the clouds.

• WATER IN ITS HYGENIC RELATIONS – THE USE OF WATER
  
  

  THE USES OF WATER.
  Adaptation of Water to Human Needs. Few people who enjoy the benefits of water think what a wonderful and unanswerable argument is afforded by them in favor of the goodness of an all-wise Creator to his creature, man. Of all the fluids with which we are acquainted water is by far the best adapted to the almost infinite variety of human wants, and it is the one of all others most abundant in nature, constituting as it does about three-fifths of the surface of our globe, and nearly seven-tenths of the bodies of man and of most animals. If the common fluid upon which we had to depend were quicksilver, or oil, its boiling-point would be so high that articles of food which we attempted to cook in it would be seriously injured in the effort to prepare them by its aid; and, on the other hand, nearly all the advantages of ice would fail us, in consequence of the exceedingly low temperature at which these substances remain fluid.

  This is the beginning of a new section book 3 and in this book they extensively cover the uses of water.  Its a resource that we often take for granted but its not as unimportant as say a tv stand or even a second pair of shoes.  Understanding how to protect and keep this resource safe was extremely important for every day life.