The Traveling Kind

Man, oh, man am I so glad to have those night shifts behind me! Ryan and I have finished up our time  in Nashville and are currently on our way to the Lone Star State. We'll be hanging out in Texas visiting friends and family. Then, we're heading out of the country for the first time ever (for me)! Our good friends from college are getting married in Italy and we get to go help celebrate. After our month off we'll the be heading back to Nashvegas for another three month assignment. This time on day shift! I'm super stoked to get to know my day shift coworkers a little better and also start feeling normal again. Our last few weeks in Nashville were a blast. We did more exploring and got to show some Texas friends around town. -Barbara Mandrell's log home- It was the largest log house in the world at the time it was built in 1988. It's now owned by two of the biggest music managers in country music. They are so big I don't remember their names. Ha. ...

Man, this assignment has been rough. I really want to moan and complain about how much I hate night shift and it makes me grumpy and sad and wahwahwahwah. But nobody likes a Negative Nelly especially ones who didn't have to endure a hurricane and a week of rain and flooding. So please excuse me while I.... ***ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT*** Alright! First, let me say how thankful I am that all my family and friends on the Gulf Coast and in Houston are safe. My heart aches with those who have been displaced, lost belongings, houses, vehicles, animals, and everything else that has value whether monetary or emotional. We got a little, tiny taste of Harvey tonight as it rolled through Nashville and the tornado warnings alone were enough to send into an anxious crazy person-and it's only been here a day! I just can't even fathom what it must have felt like to sit and wait and watch and worry day after day after day. And then! while it was still raining some of y'all were alrea...

Wow y'all, what a crazy, stressful, difficult 8 weeks. The whole traveling thing is pretty dang great most of the time, but let me tell ya, it's handed us our hineys (not a word I guess) . We LOVE living in our new home but it has been a HUGE learning curve. That, along with an unplanned month off, car trouble in OKC, a dead smoking car in Little Rock, and then having to trade in said dead car and buy new used car from 5 hours away has completely maxed out my stress-o-meter. We finally arrived in Nashville the day before I was supposed to start. As it would turn out I didn't get the call to start until Thursday at noon and I went in that night for my first shift. I haven't worked nights in about three years and am driving the night shift struggle bus. The shift itself at the hospital is fine. My mind and body just do not deal. I'm surviving (I realize this is a first world problem, yes I'm thankful I have a job) but I'm sure Ryan would appreciate all the p...

Interviewing for a new job every three months can be stressful. After five years of traveling I still get revved up and anxious during an interview.  It's nerve wracking and exciting all at the same time. Here are a few questions I always ask to contribute to the interview and help me get a better feel for the unit I'm interviewing for. What is the nursing chain of command? For example, is there a charge nurse? Is he or she a free charge? Is there or are there resource nurses? What about the manager/director positions? How are they organized? Are you (the manger/director) on the unit frequently or at night? These questions can help get a sense of who you'll have as a resource on the unit and how involved you can expect management to be. Usually you just have to ask that first question and they'll offer all that other info without you having to ask. What is the doctor chain of command? It this a teaching hospital? Are there residents, fellows, nurse practitio...

I've received a lot of emails recently asking about what questions to ask when speaking with a travel company for the first time. Since I've written about four emails that were long enough to be a book I figured I'd post my favorite questions to ask here - since I guess this is a travel nurse blog and all. - - - - Of course the most important question:  "How much am I going to make?"   Like with everything in life it's complicated. I wish travel companies could streamline this process so that it was easier to understand. Simply put, travel companies have a set amount of money they are going to give you and they divide it up into a few different areas. Housing, hourly, meals or per diem, and travel reimbursement are the main ones you'll see. Some companies have more, others may have less, or they may be worded differently. You'll also notice companies present this information to you in different ways. Some will lump it all together and give you a ...

Howdy, howdy! We've finished up our time in Idaho Falls and made our way to Texas. We set up camp at our parents' house and here we've sat for the last 3 weeks, with one more week to go. So back in Idaho I mentioned we had two weeks left and still didn't have an assignment. Well, that didn't change until about 3 days ago. This has been the weirdest few weeks in the travel nurse universe. Apparently there's this lull in the PICU travel world. It's been hard for me and a lot of my friends to find their summer assignment. I don't know why it's happening or how long it'll last but I'm happy to report that it's finally over for me. I've accepted a night (😥) position at The Children's Hospital at TriStar Centennial in  Nashville, Tennessee ! I'm not super excited about the whole nights thing but we're ecstatic to be going back to beautiful Tennessee. We visited Nashville a few times while on assignment in Knoxville. Ryan loved ...

We didn't know this at the time, but as our dreams of RV life were coming true our world as we knew it was about to be shattered. The day we bought the RV we had taken Pearl to our vet for a cluster of seizures she had that morning. We were continually reassured that dogs just sometimes have seizures and that they would watch her for the day and start her on an anti-seizure medication. No big deal, we'd give Pearl her medicine twice a day and I was looking forward to not having to see her seize again. However, Pearl continued to have seizures the rest of the evening and through the night at the ER vets office. After a couple of days of continued seizures despite increases in meds and then eventually immobility our vet had met the extent of his expertise and advised us to take her to Boise to see a specialist. Ryan went down with her first in the RV and I went down the next day because I had to work. Once she had been seen we were given three options: seizures, meningitis, tumor...