A Week of Firsts
Life is full of “firsts”. However, in my first week at my first travel assignment, I couldn’t help but fixate on all the firsts that occurred. Growing up in Pennsylvania, and traveling all over the state for road trips, college, moving, etc, Philadelphia wasn’t really that big a jump for my first travel assignment. Or so I had rationalized.
Sure, I’d visited the city numerous times for the nightlife as well as typical touristy things, but never have I actually lived IN a city before. I grew up in a very rural area, where we would drive 30 miles for groceries. Where even school was a long bus ride over the mountains. And when I went to college, I was still in a pretty small town, where the nearest city was still a 30 minute drive away. Fast forward to my first apartment, and I am once again in the middle of farmland, 20 minutes from the nearest city.
All this and more, it’s not wonder I was feeling a little out of place in Philly. Some agencies help with finding temporary housing for their travelers, I decided to do it myself in the hopes of saving money. Live and learn, eh? The Airbnb is definitely livable, but not nearly as cozy as I would like, nor in a very safe area. This was going to be a difficult transition to say the least.
The first two days I was in Philly, I was feeling very stressed and uncomfortable. Generally, I try to remain calm and manage stress through exercise, meditation, writing… you get the idea. But now as I prepared to start a new job, in a new city, where I knew no one and was living in a less than ideal environment, my heart was pounding. Somehow, I still managed to sleep well enough and make it through my orientation shift.
I decided to only stay in the area when working, as the 2.5 hour drive home really wasn’t that bad. Plus, it gave me an excuse to start listening to audiobooks and podcasts again. As the week went on, I realized I was feeling much less stressed. My coworkers were pleasant, and I was starting to feel more comfortable being flexible and open-minded. I would sleep at the Airbnb between shifts, and head home to follow some of my usual routines (exercise, meal prep, etc) on my off days.
During my first week, I was floated not once, but twice to other units. This was, in fact, also the first time I had ever been floated. I wasn’t upset by it, however, and I looked at it as a great opportunity to continue developing flexibility and see how other units there operated. I think those two float shifts really helped me understand that nurses can perform their jobs (and well at that), anywhere. The patients, acuity and intricacies of the unit may differ - all things that should be understood and acknowledged - but we don’t need to feel like a fish out of water just because we find ourselves in a unit that isn’t our own. In hindsight, a pretty obvious conclusion and one that float nurses learn early on I’m sure, but it was nice to finally shed that fear.
The unit I traveled to for my first assignment was a telemetry unit, similar to the one I was coming from. Unlike the one I was coming from, the acuity and ratios differed significantly. In my first week, I (with the training and supervision of the other staff nurses) had my first experience monitoring CVP and running peritoneal dialysis, as well as managing several drips I had not yet experienced up till that point. As someone who has struggled at times to feel driven to pursue further education/skills, I was happy to be gaining these experiences. My hope now is that these new experiences keep me on my toes and from settling into a professional slump.
It’s only been a week, and while some of the nerves still remain, I am feeling much better about my decision to start travel nursing. Hopefully, those feelings will carry through the remainder of the assignment and into future ones as well. Fingers crossed!
