November LOM Nychole

I might argue that travel nursing is one part inspiration and three parts decision. The inspiration came early in my career when I befriended a long-time travel nurse. We quickly became close friends, and over the course of a decade, I picked her brain about the industry and mulled over the prospects of traveling. Then one day about eight years ago I just woke up out of this trance that had been my career. I was painfully aware I was unhappy, but the true epiphany was that my unhappiness wasn’t necessary. I needed to make a decision – which in this case was THE decision. I decided to trade comfort and security for freedom and control. I would love to be able to say I never looked back, but I did. My family wasn’t adapting well to this new life, so I took a staff position. It didn’t take long for the misery to creep back in. I wanted a week off for my birthday, but I didn’t have enough PTO and they wouldn’t let me take it unpaid. Then I got scheduled for a major holiday that wasn’t my rotation. The list went on and on, and they were all things I could’ve avoided or scheduled around in the travel world…or at least been very well compensated for. Just like that I had lost my freedom and control, and once again found myself slapped back in the manacles of staffdom with no foreseeable end in sight. I think it was the longest six months of my life because that time I knew what was on the other side. When I made the decision for the second time I have never looked back.

My biggest piece of advice for a new traveling healthcare professional is to understand that travel is its own industry with different rules (particularly with the IRS). I think the single best way I educated myself on this was a book leant to me by a seasoned traveler entitled “The Truth About Travel Nursing.” I don’t know if this particular book is better than others because it’s the only one I’ve ever read, but it really laid out the framework of how the industry works as well as the rules the traveler must follow. It’s rather astounding how many seasoned travelers out there will give you bad information because they don’t know the correct rules themselves. Arm yourself with the correct information, and you’ll be just fine.

My second biggest piece of advice is always to have at least six months of living expenses on hand. If you don’t have that before you travel, then you need to make sure you use your first one or two contracts to accumulate it. Traveling is a supply and demand industry, so sometimes times can be lean. But if you have some money in the bank then you just turned lean times into a vacation. I cannot emphasize enough how psychologically life-changing it is to be able to take two months off of work and not worry about it!

My favorite part about working in the area I’m in right now is, hands down, that I’ve been able to reconnect with a dear friend who lives in the same town as the assignment. We haven’t seen each other in over 20 years! That isn’t something I would’ve been able to easily do had I been staffed.

There are so many memorable experiences about travel nursing, but if I could only pick one then it would be the amazing people I’ve met in my travels. I have befriended some of the most wonderful people I could ever hope to know.

This is my first assignment with Mader MedX, but it’s definitely been the most impressive experience I’ve had with an agency to date. To put that in context, I’ve been traveling since 2018. I’ve lost count of how many agencies I’m actually onboarded with, but I have my solid favorites that I consistently work with. Mader has not only quickly positioned itself onto that shortlist, but I’d go as far as to say they’re at the top of the shortlist. My recruiter is fantastic because he meets all three of my most important qualities in a recruiter: he’s transparent, he actually listens to what I want, and he’s easily accessible.