Look Who's Traveling
Healthcare traveling isn't only for the younger set. Empty nesters make ideal travelers, too.
Georgia Scott, RN, worked at the same hospital in Marshall, TX, in the same job for 20 years. At age 52, her kids were grown, she felt in a rut with her job, and she was itching for a change.
She started thinking about becoming a travel nurse and talked two friends, who are also nurses, into taking the journey with her. So, Scott left her job and signed up for a travel assignment in Lubbock, TX, (about a seven-hour drive from Marshall) to test the travel waters.
Betty Martin, RN, is one of Scott's travel companions. Also 52, Martin, who now works in the med/surg unit at University Medical Center, Lubbock, TX, was stagnating in her career and wanted to experience more of the world of nursing. Thanks to the travel, she's getting that chance - seeing more surgical patients and difficult cases. Martin wasn't quite so rooted in her old job, but says she doesn't miss the politics of being a long-term employee in a hospital
Scott's biggest concern with leaving her steady job was getting health insurance, a problem she solved quickly when she went with Onward Healthcare. This a nationwide provider of interim staffing services to healthcare facilities offers first-day insurance.
Scott was most attracted by the higher compensation of travel nursing but says the opportunity to be exposed to other aspects of medicine have been refreshing. She's glad to be traveling in her 50s, she says. "I believe it's an ideal time to travel because you had the time before with your family. My children are grown, so I'm not needed as much as I had been," says Scott. "You see things you haven't seen before. You're not working all the time, so you have the chance to get out and look around."
Kathleen and Harry Capone, both RNs, are "snowbird travelers." They've figured out how to live up North in the summer and in Florida for the winter by traveling on assignment. The Capones, married and both 53 years old, travel with Preferred Healthcare Staffing, a subsidiary of AMN Healthcare, to their Florida assignments, and with Core Medical, a travel company, when they work at hospitals in New York.
Kathleen Capone first got the bug about nine years ago, before Harry was a nurse. She made the decision to travel on Mother's Day after her sons graduated from college, and she hit the road with a friend. Their first assignment was in Virginia, where they could easily drive home. "I loved it," she says. "We tested the waters that way."
She took a few more assignments, including one in her hometown while Harry studied to become a nurse. Then, both made the "big" travel excursion to Miami, FL.
The Capones make travel work for them. Throughout the years, they've made their schedules so that Kathleen could care for her father who lived in the Northeast by flying up frequently from Florida, and they could visit their grandchild. Traveling, she says, also makes it fun for her kids and their families to visit.
Kathleen says they enjoy the Florida lifestyle, playing golf and getting involved in local churches, and they take assignments throughout the state. Now that they've ventured as far as Florida, they're thinking about taking an assignment in Arizona and plan to continuing traveling until they retire.
All in all, the travelers feel they have the freedom to enjoy taking their careers on the road. Scott's advice to others thinking about taking the travel plunge: Take your time and talk to several agencies. Ask for everything you want - all they can do is say yes or no.
Martin suggests that anyone thinking about traveling for assignments try at least one. The experience, she says, has left her feeling "more empowered. Even though we are working under a contract with another company, I am basically in charge of what I am going to do," she says. "This probably is what I will do until I retire. I want to stay in Texas for several more assignments; then, who knows, I might go to Hawaii!"
