The Start of a New Journey
Being my first post, I suppose some introduction is in order. My name is Zach and I have been a RN for little over 3 years at the time of writing this. After graduating with my BSN in 2018, I started working on a telemetry unit near Harrisburg, PA. There I stayed for the first three years of my career. I gained valuable clinical experience on the floor and as charge, and in my last year as clinical coordinator.
Of course, 2020 was also noteworthy for the modern global pandemic known as Covid-19. Our unit underwent numerous back and forth changes to deal with the fluctuating number of cases in the area. Moving “the wall”, a temporary barrier, in order to separate Covid + and non-Covid patients.
The profession of nursing (and all healthcare professions really) has never been easy. Constantly being pushed to do more, often while short-staffed and under-resourced, puts a great deal of stress on a person. Especially when that person carries the responsibility of caring for the lives of numerous patients. Throw in a pandemic, constantly changing policies and concerned (and at times, overbearing and demanding) family members, and we have the perfect recipe for widespread burnout. Understandably so, and yet some crazy people keep holding on and bearing the title of RN.
I am still a relatively new nurse, so I look at the nurses with 20+ years experience with great respect for surviving in this profession for so long. While I am not sure if I will still be practicing at the bedside in five, ten or twenty years, I am still looking forward to gaining more experience in the years to come. As such, this primary motivation has led me to travel nursing.
A benefit to the nursing profession is the many avenues one can take in their practice. There are of course the many acute-care, bedside positions, but there are also numerous other clinical and non-clinical positions. Education, research, management, politics, the list goes on. And for some, the pursuit of further education opens even more doors.
One option that has become very appealing to me recently is travel nursing. For those willing to travel to unfamiliar territory and use their skills to aide a facility with staffing needs (which is almost all of them at some point!), the benefits are plentiful. Of course, the pay is one of those benefits, but for me the experience is just as, if not more, valuable.
Right now in my life, I am trying to decide what I want to do when I grow up, as well as WHERE I want to do it. Do I pursue management? Go back to school? Choose a different career entirely? Before I make any decision, I think a more diverse bed of experience will be crucial for my future successes. Thus, I have decided to embark on a journey as a travel nurse. Here, I will share some of my experiences and any helpful tips that come to mind along the way. Although I am still very new to this travel nursing gig, I hope others may benefit from (or at least find entertainment in) my posts.
