12-hour shifts are often the ideal schedule for health care professionals but working those long hours can take a toll on our health and well-being. With COVID Crisis assignments being upwards of 48-72 hours, here are some pro-tips for staying healthy at work and in everyday life.
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Meal prepping/planning
Meal prepping is a great way to make healthy choices for your work week.  My hospital has a cafeteria and on night shift they are open until 1am but they don’t have the healthiest options.  A lot of night shift workers like to snack and gorge out on the fried foods from the cafeteria. I buy groceries and meal prep the day before my stretch so that everything is ready to go! Preparing and dividing up your food into three days so that it is easy to grab and go relieves you of the stress of preparing meals daily.  If you don’t already have a healthy grocery list, don’t be afraid to look up recipes.  Pinterest, Instagram, food magazines and a general internet search will give you several healthy recipe options. Don’t forget to shop around the perimeter of a grocery store (fruits, veggies, meat etc.) and stay away from the inner snack aisles (food with a lot of preservatives and sugar).  Also, to stay satiated at..........

​One of the biggest things that sets travel therapists apart from travel nurses is that, while nurses require at least 1-2 years of experience prior to traveling, therapists can start right out of school as new grads! As travel therapists, you can have freedom and flexibility right out of school to explore the country, try out different settings (inpatient, acute, outpatient, pediatrics, SNF, home health), earn more money, have the option to pay off student loans quicker, etc. But there’s also varying opinions about starting out this way, with many professors and other practicing therapists cautioning against it - things said like: “You won’t have enough experience yet,” or “You won’t get any mentorship”. So, which path should you take?