Thoughts on my life as a Travel Nurse:

            I’m now onto my second travel assignment and I’m discovering how I respond to the stress of being a travel nurse. Overall, I am still happy that I made this decision, but I’ve realized that the constant change is more stressful and exhausting to me than I thought. 

            For my first assignment I got a contract in Philadelphia. I had to find a place to live without seeing it in person before signing the lease and paying rent. Then I had to find it when I got there and move in all the stuff that I brought with me. Then I had to figure out where the hospital was that I would be working at, and how long it would take me to arrive. 

            I also had to learn my way around the area I was staying in. Where was the grocery store, post office, best places to eat, what’s the easiest way to go sightseeing. What sights did I really want to see? 

            At work, I had to learn my way around a new hospital, learn their policies, learn their charting system and charting requirements. Neither the nurses or the providers knew me or my nursing practice, I didn’t know them so learning to trust each other was a two way street that has to happen somewhat quickly…but I’m also the first to get pulled to another unit making it hard to learn where things are and get to know people. It really made me realize how great it is to know your co-workers and how the team works together in stressful situations. 

            When I finally started to feel like I was getting the hang of it, my contract was done. Time to move onto a new place where I get to start all over again. Since I didn’t stay in the Philadelphia but instead found a contract in Falls Church, VA, I got to start with finding a place to stay online again…only saw pictures of it before I moved in and talked with the landlord on the phone. After moving it, I had to start finding my way around again…

            So far in my 3 weeks here, I’m now able to get to work and home without my GPS, I can go to the grocery store, walk to the farmers market on Saturday, today I found the library (which is where I’m currently writing). I haven’t made it into Washington D.C. yet to do any sightseeing there. My goal is to go into the city one day when I’m not working, but I’m just now starting to feel somewhat settled which means I’m starting to have more energy for going out and exploring.

The house I’m staying in is much more like a community house with multiple people from different backgrounds. We’ve talked about doing some stuff together as housemates (hasn’t happened yet), but I think in the future it will. Having people to do something with occasionally is actually really nice, traveling and never having any friends around is actually very lonely…even for an introvert. Everything you do is alone, and we are created to be social and live in some form of community. 

I knew that constant change would be an unavoidable aspect of travel nursing, what I didn’t know is how well I would respond to the stress. I feel like the second adjustment has been harder than the first one. Is it because I came from a stable place into extreme change and could adapt better? Or am learning how to make constant change a more normal part of my life and therefore it may get worse before better. Or is it just this place is a little more overwhelming with the size of the hospital and the amount of people and traffic in this area. It will be interesting to see how I respond to the third contract I take. 

            When I get super stressed and overwhelmed my introverted tendencies come out and I like to hide in my room and either sleep or stream TV online and not be around people. Sometimes I wonder if I like to hide too much and miss out on seeing more things…but if I’m so overwhelmed that I can’t function it’s not enjoyable and then I’m also not a 100% at work. I’ve come to the conclusion that priorities need to include taking care of myself, but also prioritizing what I really want to do in this area so that when I am going out I have a plan in place. 

            Even though I stay the constant change has been difficult at times, I really do love being able to see other parts of the country! Philadelphia had tons of early American history and great foods!!! Now I’m excited to explore the nation’s capital and see what all D.C. has to offer.