Three Things a Travel Nurse Gives Up

The first thing you realize you are sacrificing when taking on the travel lifestyle is the roots you have placed down. They may be family, friends, or more, but you know everything in your past is changed when you leave them behind.

Not everyone may consider this a sacrifice and short trips home may suffice for a time, but know this; what once held you to stay in a particular location will either lose its hold on you, or draw you back.

Online video calls such as Skype have helped keep in touch, as well as social networks have been a great means of staying in touch, but the presence of being there is just not the same, so consider this strongly before taking to a life on the road.

The second thing you give up is familiarity. This might not seem too important at first but after a while it can be a major stressor, especially in large urban assignments.

Quick, ask me my local address; I couldn't tell you. What is my most recent area code; again no idea. I have learned to keep this info updated on my cell phone ID, otherwise I would have no idea when asked.

Same thing goes for driving, even with a GPS it is not infrequent to miss a turn and find the next exit. How many times have I heard the GPS say "Recalculating"; I couldn't answer.

Working at the hospital is grueling the first week, as nursing practice is mostly the same where ever you go, but charting systems are different, and learning where supplies are can be challenging. Remember back in nursing school the first thing we learned before beginning any procedure was to gather all supplies? Well that isn't so easy when you can't find the supplies.

You might be wondering at this point if I am sharing this to discourage travel. Not at all, rather to prepare you for what the life is really like and to encourage anyone interested in travel to embrace the idea of feeling lost as but a new adventure. After working on so many floors it becomes like a game. You know the dressing cart is some where on the floor, its just a matter of where they might have put it.

Travel may require a third thing to give up as well, and that is a life in pursuit of possessions, a life I am all to willing to give up, but others may not. Moving every thirteen weeks simply doesn't allow for the accumulation of many material goods as the cost of transporting them becomes too prohibitive.

Those who prefer to build a home and lay down roots also choose to accumulate in order to create comfort, convenience, and security, while those living a life of travel value time, experience, and mobility.

Each time Mary and I have stayed for an extended time and then moved we end up giving away items we have collected, sometimes vast amounts of accumulated beach glass, other times a bike, and lots of unused food. Still, before any purchase we always consider if it is something worth exchanging travel space for and how long will it serve our purpose.

Having conversations with those who do not travel will cause me to consider how differently I now view these things; roots, familiarity, and possessions. Not that either one of us is right and the other wrong, but it becomes clear that there is different views to the same subjects and often times those who choose to stay home, just don't "get" my choices.

That is what makes me a travel nurse.

The Paperwork.

Every now and then I receive an email from Christa, a service tech that works at my agency's office. I dread seeing her emails. The reason isn't that I don't like her, she is very sweet on the phone, but its her message. I open the latests; "A new requirement is soon to expire...", it says; just like all of them. This time I need to take a drug screen test, soon my yearly physical will be required as well.

In an attempt to stay JACOH compliant there is a litany of paper work and testing required above and beyond what is also required by the hospital that a traveler is assigned to. For those who choose to work with more than one agency at a time, something quite advisable at times, the same requirements will have to be done for each. I must admit there have been times I stayed with the same agency just to avoid filling out all the paperwork. A move that might have cost me more money in the long run, but that just gives you an idea how much I dislike it.

If you are thinking of working with more than one agency in the near future, it might be wise to start in plenty of advance time before your next move in order to break up the amount of cram time necessary to choosing your next assignment, for surely the facility will require more papers and orientation work as well, and its easy to get burned out with the lot. The week of and following your move can be exhausting, so preparation time in advance will be well spent.

I met a fellow traveler who had most all of his paper work, put in pdf formated files, that way he could easily send them to any interesting agency. If I was that tech savvy I would do the same, but since not, I have all my documents scanned and in a Word file for easy emailing. Going through the process once is difficult enough, making it easier the next time is a mind saver.

I would assume that most travelers keep their documentation in some kind of folder or case, and be sure to keep that in the car trunk the first week of orientation. I remember a woman being told not to return to orientation until she brought her ACLS card with her, which unfortunately was left in another state.

A recent assignment required on line orientation, which I was unable to begin until arriving at the local hotel that same week of orientation, the hotel had advertised wi-fi so I thought everything would go well. Instead I learned that wi-fi and hi-speed internet meant two completely different things, as the carrier was crawled through the video programs at a snails pace and what should have taken six hours turned into a disaster of an all-nighter.

The lesson from this post would be that the transition from one assignment to another has plenty of hidden perils, therefore take care of the easy things well in advance as much as possible in order to deal with what ever may happen.

Hope your travels all go well!