Egypt, China, Southeast Asia and other exotic places. Yet, many travel clinic nurses haven't visited these foreign lands themselves. They experience world travel through the journeys of their patients.
"People always bring us photographs of their trips," said Beth Cassady, RN, travel nurse with the Hall County Department of Public Health in Gainesville. "We love to hear about where they've been, and many of them come back to see us just to bring photos."
Some travel clinic nurses work for the Georgia Department of Human Resources in county health departments; others are employed in private practice. Mainly, they provide medical information for foreign travel and necessary immunizations for diseases, including yellow fever, polio, hepatitis A and B, malaria and typhoid. "We do much more than give shots," Cassady said.
"You'd be surprised how detailed it is and the number of people in this area who are traveling internationally. We have to know all the immunizations necessary for every country and the latest disease information. It requires a lot of reading."
Travel nurses must be in tune with regular travel bulletins issued by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We have to multitask all the time," Cassady said. "Often, we'll ask travelers to send their itineraries ahead of time so that we can do the research before their appointment."
Typically, Cassady spends about two hours with each patient, taking a detailed health history and finding out about details of the trip. Patients also complete questionnaires that list current medications and drug allergies. "For malaria, for instance, we have several choices of medication, depending on the patient's health history and drugs," she said.
Travel nurses know about disease threats in other countries, but they also provide a wealth of information about travel safety. Cassady often gives information about staying germ-free.
"Other countries aren't as clean as we are here," she said. "Take straws to drink with, especially out of cans and bottles, and pack plenty of sanitary hand wipes. It's better to be overly cautious than to get sick." The majority of patients Cassady sees are about to travel on mission trips.
"About 70 percent are church groups going to other countries for several weeks at a time," she said. "Then there are the business and pleasure travelers."
The most popular destinations for patients who visit a travel clinic are South America and the heartland of Africa. "We call that part of Africa the meningitis belt," she said. "We are also seeing people visit India, Thailand, Vietnam and China. A number of people have traveled to the tsunami area to help with relief there."
Many clinics provided immunizations for those helping with Hurricane Katrina relief as well.
Before coming to the travel clinic, Cassady worked as a nurse at an adult psychiatric facility.
"I wanted to stop working weekends and holidays, and a friend knew about a job giving shots," she said. "I applied here, and look what a prize I got." Cassady plans to travel overseas within the next several years.
"Right now, I'm too busy getting other people ready to go," she said. "But I plan to visit the Holy Land and maybe go to Africa to see the game parks."