Monday, March 12, 2007

Taking Care on the Road

You're a healthcare traveler because you enjoy new places, faces and experiences. But at times it's still tough to maintain a positive attitude and keep your energy level high. After all, you're always the new kid on the block who has to prove yourself, and you're far from your support network of family and friends. Lynn Blissard, an ICU nurse and veteran healthcare traveler, and John-Henry Pfifferling, an expert on the well-being of healthcare professionals, offer tips on how you can take care of yourself emotionally and physically despite the rigors of your profession.


Make Yourself Comfortable
You can't create a permanent "nest" when you're on a temporary assignment, but you can carry items or symbols with you that make you feel at home anywhere. A concrete item, like your favorite bathrobe, could address your nest-building needs while you're away from home. So could colors, tastes or smells, says Pfifferling, director of the Center for Professional Well-Being, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to promoting well-being among healthcare professionals.

Make Connections
Don't be a hermit outside of work. On one of Blissard's assignments, she made friends immediately by visiting the same coffee shop every day her first week. "Because you're in an isolating situation, you have to reach out more," Pfifferling says. Visiting a church, hooking up with your college's alumni association or meeting fellow fans of your favorite sports team will bind you with an "extended family," according to Pfifferling.

Take Advantage of Your Free Time
Don't lose sight of the reason you chose to travel. During her years as a traveler, Blissard has explored South Carolina, Arizona, California and Illinois. Your days off can also be used to cultivate your hobbies. Blissard scuba dives and takes piloting lessons.

Stay Active and Eat Right
The more fit you are, the better able you'll be to handle the stress of your job, Pfifferling says. Exercise regularly, avoid too much caffeine and eat nutritiously. Shift workers should take special care to prepare healthy meals rather than indulge in readily available junk food. Try to eat with others, as people who eat alone are more vulnerable to overeating, Pfifferling says.

Say No
It's easy for healthcare travelers to become run down from overworking. "People want you to overwork -- you don't have to go home to your family so it's expected that you can work a double or triple shift," Pfifferling says. "Be very careful. Sometimes saying 'no' means saying 'yes' to your own health." You should also have realistic expectations -- you won't always be received warmly at new facilities. You must realize that "you are a guest in someone else's home," Blissard says.

Stay in Touch
Call and email your family and friends regularly. Plan to visit or host your loved ones, even if only for a few days. The holidays could be an especially rough time for novice travelers, so plan ahead for them. Pfifferling recommends sending cards, letters and emails well in advance of the holidays, guaranteeing you'll receive more correspondence the week of the actual event. If rituals are important to you, make sure you observe them by decorating or building a shrine, for example. If all else fails to ease your loneliness on a holiday, count your blessings the way Blissard does. "It's been very easy for me to get through it," she explains. "I just think as long as I'm on this side of the critical-care bed I'm OK. What can I complain about?"


by Megan Malugani
Source: Monster.com

Gadgets for Your Commute

Just board a train or bus or look in the cars next to you during rush hour, and you’ll undoubtedly witness commuters’ addiction to gadgets of every type. “I certainly fill my dead commuter time more efficiently than I used to,” says Katie Lee, editor-in-chief of online gadget guide Shiny Shiny. “I've got a tiny laptop, a smartphone and a music player so I can catch up on work, check my emails and listen to gadget podcasts, which are all things I'd have to wait to do if I didn’t have all those gadgets.” Companies continue to fuel our gadget fix with commuter-friendly wizardry. “A lot of time is wasted in traffic and on the road, and people are very busy,” says Kevin Massy, associate editor of CNET Car Tech. “There is a great deal of willingness on the part of the business world to turn that traffic time into productive time.” One group of investors says it will spend $5 million for a car computer with a keyboard in the steering wheel and a windshield that doubles as a screen, Massy notes.

Seven Hot Commuter Gadgets
If you’re looking for the hottest commuter-friendly gadgets, you’ve come to the right place. Consider these picks:

Treo 700p Smartphone: Wireless email, a Web browser and even the ability to work on Excel spreadsheets or PDF documents -- the latest Treo smartphone includes it all. With its EvDO connectivity, you’ll connect with broadband-like speed. “You can download large attachments and surf the Web with almost laptop-like performance,” says Mia Kim, editor-in-chief of personal technology hub Popgadget.

iPod 80 GB Portable Media Device: “Get yourself a music player, such as an iPod, download some podcasts, and while away your commuting time listening to some quality chat,” suggests Lee. With companies as diverse as Monster, IBM, Purina and Whirlpool offering podcasts, you will likely be able to catch up on industry news and views. The latest iPod has video capabilities that will prepare you for the next trend -- video podcasts -- and has enough room for your music library and maybe a few movies.

Olympus WS-310M Digital Voice Recorder: “If you worry about losing your million-dollar idea -- and how many of those have you really had? -- buy yourself a very high-quality, but very portable, digital voice recorder,” says Merlin Mann, editor of 43 Folders, who uses the WS-310M, which can record up to 138 hours of audio. “Just grab enough information to remind yourself of the thought later on, then stop.”

Parrot 3400 LS-GPS Bluetooth Car Kit: Need access to your phone’s features in your car? Then think about a full-featured Bluetooth car kit, like the Parrot 3400 LS-GPS, to connect to your Bluetooth-capable phone without endangering yourself. With its LCD color screen, voice recognition and address book synchronization, you’ll be able to keep your eye on the road even as you talk to your colleagues.

Sony Vaio G1 Notebook Computer: The Vaio G1 (also recommended by Kim), breaks the two-pound barrier for PCs. Weighing just 1.97 pounds, this computer won’t weigh down your backpack -- or give you back problems. Dual Wi-Fi antennas will help you get top-notch wireless reception when you need to pop into a cafe to check your email.

Bose QuietComfort 3 Noise-Canceling Headphones: Now you can hear podcasts, phone conversations -- and, yes, your tunes -- whether you’re in a noisy jet or a crowded bus. Tune out your fellow commuters, and tune into your work.

BlackBerry 7303e Handheld Device: If you want the uber-commuting device, consider a BlackBerry. The device automatically adjusts LCD and keyboard lighting levels, letting you use it whether you’re walking down the street in the sunlight or sitting in a dark limo.

A Final Word on Gadgets
Today’s gadgetry presents plenty of choices. “Try getting by with as little technology as you can tolerate, then slowly add tools only as you really need them -- and only as you have mastered the previous tool,” advises Mann, who favors a Fisher Space Pen and index cards. “Everybody respects a guy with a pad of paper.”



by Allan Hoffman
Source: Monster.com

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Dual Nationality: boon or bane for America?

The enactment of the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003 (also known as Philippine Dual Citizenship Law) that allows former Filipino citizens to reacquire their Philippine citizenship, which they renounced when they became citizens of their adopted countries, has been a welcome development among Filipino expatriates here in the United States and elsewhere.

With this new law, the Philippines joined the group of major immigrant-sending nations to the United States that have enacted laws that allow expatriates to reacquire their rights as nationals despite taking citizenship status in the United States or elsewhere. The law paves the way for Filipino expatriates from all over the world, especially from the United States, to renew their kinship and reestablish ties to their motherland. For years now, many naturalized Americans have claimed full citizenship of the countries where they were born, including Canada, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ireland and France. A recent survey published in the immigration journal “Interpreter Releases” found that 66 out of 128 countries now permit some form of dual nationality.

Why do naturalized American citizens become dual nationals? There are myriad reasons. Some naturalized Americans maintain a sentimental attachment to their country of birth. Some like to preserve the option of retiring and spending the remaining days of their lives in their native countries. Others simply want convenience- to avoid the hassle and the bureaucratic red tape in obtaining visas when traveling and doing business abroad. In fact, the convenience of visa exemption has become attractive to many American business professionals who frequently travel abroad. For some wealthy and enterprising Americans seeking “tax havens”, dual nationality provides economic and tax advantage. This scheme is within the easy reach of certain affluent Americans who have substantial investments in other countries. Simply put, they “buy” their second nationality as an expedient way to escape tax obligations to Uncle Sam.

Unbeknownst to expatriates who embraced dual nationality, there is more to raising the right hand, reciting the oath of allegiance and applying for a foreign passport. Embracing dual nationality presents the complicated and intertwine issues of loyalties and allegiances vis-à-vis U.S. immigration and foreign policies. This issue has opened a raging debate among the expatriates themselves, attorneys, scholars, and immigration critics of whether dual nationality undercuts the true meaning of American citizenship. Each group endlessly cites the pros and cons of dual nationality.

Opponents of dual nationality say this issue is tied to the “marriage metaphor.” For example, Columnist Georgie Anne Geyer of Universal Press Syndicate has asserted that dual nationality dilutes patriotic commitments and “makes citizenship akin to bigamy.” John Fonte of the Hudson Institute, in his testimony before a congressional hearing, said that dual nationality is philosophically inconsistent with our liberal democracy. Many opponents anchor their opposition to dual nationality on the issue of loyalty and allegiance- that dual nationality begets dual loyalties and dual allegiances. They contend that an immigrant who becomes a United States citizen renounces all allegiance to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty. Undivided loyalty and allegiance, they say, is one that holds all Americans together and puts a sense of oneness to the United States as a nation. Loyalty and allegiance to this country and the ideals it represents, they contend, are powerful reasons for embracing immigrants from all over the world.

Ideally, loyalty and allegiance don’t pose any problem in time of peace where the United States is at terms with many countries. War with the Philippines, Mexico, Canada, Ireland or France is remote under the present political climate. But what if, say, 100 years from now, arises a political crisis or, worse, a military confrontation between the United States and Canada or Mexico that would force millions of dual nationals to decide where their loyalties and allegiances lie. Such a scenario would put to serious test the loyalties and allegiances of dual nationals.

Others, however, have a benign view of dual nationality. Peter Spiro, a Hofstra University law professor, says, “Dual nationality is something the United States should not only tolerate but embrace. By doing so, we would accomplish two worthy purposes: encouraging the assimilation of immigrants who otherwise would decline to become American citizens and helping to export our political ideals of liberty and democracy to countries around the globe.” Some say that the growing trend of dual nationality is a natural and healthy outgrowth of globalization and economic and cultural integration brought about by the rapid changes in today’s technology.

What does the United States government say on the on-going debate? As early as 1915, the U.S. government has looked askance at dual nationality. President Theodore Roosevelt minced no words to call dual nationality a “self evident absurdity.” Officially, the U.S. government maintains that it does not favor dual nationality because of the complication it presents. The U.S. Supreme Court, speaking through Mr. Justice Douglas, in a 1952 case of Kawakita v. United States, said, “One who has dual nationality will be subject to claims from both nations, claims which may at times be competing or conflicting, and that circumstances may compel one who has a dual nationality to do acts which otherwise would not be compatible with the obligations of American citizenship.”

But the position of the U.S. government on paper is a far cry from what happens in practice. The U.S. Department of State says it recognizes that dual nationality exists. It however does not encourage it as a matter of policy because of the problems it may cause. This notwithstanding, the U.S. Department of State imposes no sanctions on naturalized American citizens who become dual nationals. This leads critics to say that naturalizing American citizens who take the renunciation oath that they have no intention of respecting by becoming dual nationals make a mockery of the U.S. citizenship process. And because the renunciation oath has never been enforced, many believe that dual nationality has become, as a practical matter, almost completely tolerated under U.S. law.

Thus far, no U.S. law exists that strictly bans or limits dual nationality. Until a law is passed banning naturalized American citizens from retaining or reacquiring their original nationality, and sanctions imposed on them for violating their renunciation oaths, the dual nationality trend will continue in an era of growing global migration.

Mandy M. Dornagon, Esq.
*Attorney at LawWebsite- http://www.attydornagon.com
*Author, A Guide to U.S. Visas for Filipino Professionals

Thanks for this article reposting!