Episode 5: Travel Nursing

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

Cara Lunsford

Oh, hey, nurses. Welcome to the Nurse Dot podcast. Giving nurses validation, resources and hope. One episode at a time. Oh. Today on Nurse Dot podcast.

Sarah Gaines

Not the time to me. Travel nursing felt very scary, very unstable. And it felt like I was deviating away from my perfect three year plan. Travel nursing actually isn't losing control of your career. It actually is the best way to take back control of your career.

Cara Lunsford

Joining us today, Sara Gaines, registered nurse and founder of the six figure travel Nurse, a career resource for nurses who are looking to enter travel nursing. As Sara puts it, with 20 plus contracts under her belt, she made all the mistakes so you don't have to. I'm your host, Kara Lunsford, registered nurse and VP of community head nurse, AECOM.

Oh, how are you, Sarah? Sarah Gaines doing so good.

Sarah Gaines

How are you?

Cara Lunsford

I'm good, thank you. I'm excited to interview. You know, we made it. This is awesome. How have you been? Good.

Sarah Gaines

I'm just. I'm super excited. We're prepping for our next trip in Greece, so. Yeah, I'm really, really excited about that. What about you?

Cara Lunsford

I am doing really well. Just got back from Nashville. Oh, how is that? So that was really fun. And just Nashville's a really fun place. Speaking of going places, important for our listeners to know that Sarah gains, you do some of the most awesome events I have ever seen in my life. I want to be like a Sarah Gaines party crasher.

That's what I want to be when I grow up. I just want to show up and they're like, Why is Carol is in the pictures? Like, I just want to be like, you know, just imagine like a picture of all these, like, amazing people doing these awesome things. And then you just see, like, Kerry's head, like, you know, behind all of these people that that's what I want to do with my life.

Sarah Gaines

I'm not going to lie. I love I love our events. There's so much fun there. Just you just never know what you're going to get. But it's always luxury and it's always a good time. And we're always somewhere like warm by the beach, which is always my bag. You cannot go.

Cara Lunsford

What was your favorite like? So tell me one of your fave favorite events you've ever done. Can you think of one?

Sarah Gaines

I would probably say, Oh, that's so hard because I, like every event is so different and it's like hard to compare. But I think so far most one of my favorite events was the ski trip that we did in Lake Tahoe, California, because it was like an entire week. Imagine a week in a mega-mansion with all of your best friends, and I thought we were going to be all about skiing and doing the Snow Adventures.

But no, we spent so much time inside, just like enjoying the amenities of the mansion. They had a theater, they had several Jacuzzis and an indoor pool. They had this huge, like game room and we had bartender and chef there and it was like a week long slumber party with all your best friends. We had so much fun.

And I think it just I think I like that trip the most because I just felt like the connection was so much deeper between everyone involved and like, it's one thing when you're staying at a hotel, you in your separate rooms. We're in one huge house together, and I was afraid we're going to get off each other's nerves.

But we did it. It was so much fun. It was so nice, though. I'm excited to do something like that again. Yeah.

Cara Lunsford

You know, it hurts my heart just a little bit because that was the one that I wanted to go to. I was like, Oh God, I'm like, It has all the things that I love and I really, really want to go to that one.

Sarah Gaines

So nervous because I don't do cold weather. So I was like, Oh no, no. But it turned out to be way more fun than I ever got. And to be honest with you, snowboarding, I don't think I would ever do it again because I fell way too much. But I'm glad I did it with that group because I feel like if I were to work with any other group about it, just been mad because I was just falling.

But we had so much fun. We're all falling together, all laughing at each other, and we just like, made some really great memories, though.

Cara Lunsford

All right, here's my offer. I will come and be everyone's personal snowboarding coach. I have been a snowboarder for oh, my God, 20 years.

Sarah Gaines

Oh, my God.

Cara Lunsford

And, you know, like, I'll pat myself on that. I'm good. I mean, I'm not like, half pipe good, although, like, I probably would try it, but, like, I'm good enough that, like, I would come and give you guys, like, a really good.

Sarah Gaines

I feel like you would.

Cara Lunsford

Private lesson.

Sarah Gaines

Yes. I feel like you'd be an amazing snowboarding instructor. I just see you. I see you on the slopes listening to low fi, like being all cool as you glide down the slopes. Like, you're definitely the of everyone. I thought I was going to school. Definitely fit way too much time on my butt.

Cara Lunsford

I know it's a painful learning curve. It is. It is. Snowboarding is a painful learning curve for sure. So tell everybody like where they can come find you just so before we get into travel and everything and all the all the amazing things, just tell people really quickly, because now we've created all this FOMO and everyone, everyone right now is going, How do I want to go to this?

How do I find this? Like, okay, go ahead, tell them how they find you.

Sarah Gaines

You can find me at six Figure travel News.com is where you're going to find everything about me at my the community that we've built and the programs that I offer. And then you can also follow me on Instagram at Sarah underscore Gaines. And that is where you'll find just daily travel news, tips and resources and just inspiring things for anyone who's a nurse who really just wants to level their career nice.

Cara Lunsford

You delivered that really well. You've said it a few times. That's good. So now that we've told everyone now they're all like migrating out of the podcast, like trying to like pull up Instagram and they're like, Wait a minute, I got to listen to my podcast, but I also need to go find this person. So it's okay. You know, you're allowed to multitask.

You can do it, can do it. All right, So travel nursing, When did you get started in travel? Nursing?

Sarah Gaines

Oh, gosh. So I started in 2015. I jumped in in a very untraditional way. I didn't do it for the traditional reasons of like, oh, I want to travel and have fun and make more money. It actually was pretty like tragic conditions. But to make a long story short, my dad at the time was diagnosed with cancer and it turned out to be a terminal disease.

And so I was taking care of him during the day and, you know, working over night shift. But when we found out that it was going to be terminal, actually became his hospice nurse. So I was taking care of him until he passed away. And after he passed away, I had requested some time off just, you know, grievance time.

And basically they said, you know, we can give you a couple of days, but after that you need to come straight back to work.

Cara Lunsford

So I'm sorry. What I'm I'm going to stop you there really quick. They only gave you your work. Only gave you a couple of days.

Sarah Gaines

Yeah, a few days of grievance. They said due to staffing issues, they could not give me any more time off. So I ended up working the day after my dad's funeral. Honestly, I thought I was okay at the moment. I had convinced myself that I just need to get back into work and, you know, get back into the routine of life.

So I'm not, you know, super sad. I convinced myself I was okay. But when I arrive to work, I normally delivery nurse. So I delivered a beautiful, you know, patient delivery was great. She delivered a beautiful baby boy, and then she called her dad and to say hello to his first grandson. And I lost it. I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm literally on the floor in the fetal position crying and just completely broke down.

And all the coworkers, all of my friends and colleagues were around me. They're just hugging me, telling me it was going to be okay. But my manager actually, you know, she tapped me on the shoulder and she told me to get up. I was making a scene and I have another patient waiting, so I need to hurry up.

And so it was at that moment that I realized that, well, two things. I realized that I was at rock bottom and I was stuck and I had no other choice but to follow directions and say yes, like I got to get up and do what I have to do. So that's what I did. But I also realized at the same time, like it can't get any worse than this.

I got to get out of here. So I ended up, you know, cleaning up my patients, getting the next admission. Later on that day during my lunch break, I was scrolling through job ferociously, trying to find just another place to go to. And I ended up this recruiter random travel nursing recruiter had called me because I had peaked.

I had heard about chaplain nursing, but at the time I felt like it was just way too risky to jump into. And actually the first person to tell me about it was my dad, and he was a world traveler or entrepreneur, did all that fun stuff. And it's crazy because that's all the stuff I do now. But at the time I was like, No, dad, that's crazy.

I would never do that. And so to make a long story short, the recruiter calls me, they're telling me about this job and I'm just like, It's going in one ear and out the other. I'm like, Listen, I don't have time to be jumping in to travel and everything, trying to live my best lives. My dad just passed away.

I'm just trying to get something stable, secure and just get to be honest, get the hell out of this toxic work environment. And so I ended up just and oh, and the recruiter was saying, Oh, it's a great job. It's going to be twice as much pay. You can work day shift. And I was like, That sounds really good, but I think it's a scam.

So I hung up in the recruiter face. Totally thought it was a scam.

Cara Lunsford

It was like too good to be true. You're like, No, there's not stuff like that in nursing. You're like, I'm sorry, there's no that doesn't happen here.

Sarah Gaines

But actually I was like, No, too good to be true. It's definitely a scam. But then so I hang up on the recruiter. I'm finishing up my lunch, scarfing it down, and I check my emails, just see if anyone had emailed me back. And I actually had. I fell upon an email that my dad sent me before he passed away and he ordered me an email to the exact same job that that recruiter was just telling me about the exact same way.

Cara Lunsford

Come on, that's amazing. That's me. I just got chills like I did like that is like, so cool.

Sarah Gaines

Yes. So it was at that moment I was like, you know what? I don't know if this travel nursing thing is a scam. If it's too good to be true, it's too risky. But at that point, it was like all the fear went away. And I was like, I'm just going to jump into it. So I called the recruiter back really quickly.

I was like, My break's about to end, but I'm ready for this job. What do I have to do? And immediately I filled out my profile, did all that good stuff, got submitted, and the recruiter was like, You may hear back from the manager for an interview later, so stay by your phone. Okay, cool. So I go back to work within an hour.

The hiring manager calls me. I run into the supply room and crowds down on my phone, do my job interview. It goes great. They end up offering me the job. I accepted it and by the end of that shift, the same manager that told me to get up and that I was making a scene. I handed her my two weeks notice and I was out.

Like I just jumped into travel nursing without looking back.

Cara Lunsford

What did she say? I was want to know when you go, you know what piece out?

Sarah Gaines

This is pretty juicy because actually I've never said this publicly, but it actually it confirmed how toxic the work environment was. Me quitting was very hard for me as a nurse because that was my only staff job. I started there as a new grad. I was only 20. I really like grew up there. I was very I felt very loyal and connected to that hospital and she just really made me feel bad News is very to be honest with you.

She was very mean. She told me I wasn't ready to be a travel nurse. She said, I'm probably going to fail. I'm not qualified. And she actually said, when you do come crawling back, you know, she will have a job for you. And I left crying. I felt so defeated, but I still was like, you know what? This is what I you know, I have to do.

I want to be closer to my family. And so, yeah, I ended up doing it. But I will say the best revenge is the fact that, you know, it's several years later, I've created an entire program literally designed for nurses to leave those types of work environments. And the best revenge is like half the nurses on that unit.

They put in their two weeks notice too. And they said to the same manager, Yeah, I took Sara's program and I'm jumping in a child nursing now, so please. But I feel like that is just like a silent, quiet revenge that my.

Cara Lunsford

That's amazing. First of all, I want to say and this is going to sound kind of this is where I get kind of spiritual, I guess, like in a way where I feel like there are people that are placed in our lives that are there to create some kind of adversity, some kind of obstacle. And throughout my life, I've kind of started to get to this point where I'm like, I don't know if I believe in like the good and the bad.

I think I just have started to believe in like opportunity where something comes into my life. I'll say, it feels hard. It it feels hard. It's difficult, it's challenging. Is it bad? I don't know if it's bad. Maybe it's just like this incredible opportunity to then that person is fueling you in a way. Because I've had that. I've had that happen like through I grew a company and then I ended up selling that company.

But along the way, I had I had people that were like, Oh, good luck. Startups fail. You're taking a risk. That's not you shouldn't be doing that. Why don't you just go back to the bad side? That's where you've got a reliable paycheck. And why would you take this chances and stuff like that? And then you can like take that and it feels really hard at the time and it can make you cry and you know, things, but then you're like, Boy, am I going to show you.

Sarah Gaines

1,000%. And one thing I say all the time, I have no regrets about that situation. It was very unfortunate how it happened, but it was the reality. The reality check that I needed. And to be honest with you, I'm such a I have such a type A personality. So at the time, to me, travel, nursing felt very scary, very unstable, and it felt like I was deviating away from my perfect career plan that I had planned for myself.

So I don't think I would have ever actually jumped into travel nursing on my own. I tell people all the time, my dad pushed me into, he shoved me into travel nursing. It was like, Here you go, baby girl. Just do it. And I feel like I had to hit that rock bottom situation in order to just build up enough courage to jump in.

And then I jumped in and I'm like, Oh, travel nursing actually isn't losing control of your career. It actually is the best way to take back control of your career. But I would have never discovered that if that situation didn't happen, I would have continued thinking, Oh, it's too risky, it's too scary. I can't do it. And another valuable thing that I've learned from that situation I tell people all the time is don't seek advice from people who are not where you aspire to be.

So many people love to talk about how risky things are because it's unknown to them. And at the end of the day, if you're not doing it yourself, this is just me in particular. I don't take advice from people who are not in the position that I want to be. So if you've never ran a business, don't give me business advice.

I'll pass.

Cara Lunsford

Right? Right now it's true. It's like if you haven't left your comfort zone, don't tell me about what I should and shouldn't be doing.

Sarah Gaines

Yes, 1,000%. Yeah.

Cara Lunsford

Absolutely. Because all those great things happen. All the magic happens outside of that comfort zone. And I 100% agree with you that the people that you admire and want to follow in their footsteps and do you you see their life and you're like, I want to do what they're doing. I don't think you see a lot of people sitting at home like watching Netflix, you know, their whole life and they don't go out, They don't do anything.

You don't see a whole lot of people going, Oh, I want to be them. I want to that person. You know, that doesn't happen, you know, but we can all be them. You know, we look outside and we say, wow, that person looks like they are just joyful, happy, they're working and they're earning a living, but it looks like they're enjoying what they're doing.

And when work doesn't feel like work, that that's pretty awesome. So you last you did that first travel assignment and then when did you decide that you were going to, you know, show other people how to do what you were doing or learn from your mistakes? So how did that happen?

Sarah Gaines

When I was bamboozled over and over again, I was like, I was really excited to jump into travel nursing, but also very naive and I thought I did a good amount of research. I thought the job was super great. But perfect example of that is the very first job that I got as a travel nurse. It was twice as much as what I made as a staff nurse.

So I felt like the top of the world, like, Man, I get to stop working nights. If I could just switch over two days, I'm making twice as much paid. It sounds too good to be true. I accepted the offer and I felt amazing. But then I arrived to my assignment and found out I was the lowest paid traveler on the unit.

On the entire unit. I was the lowest paid traveler. That was the first time that I was burned by a recruiter. I felt like so misled and I was like, Oh my gosh. And that that one mistake literally cost me about 20 K because there is nurses getting paid thousands of dollars more a week than me. And I found this out six months later.

So literally six months later I call my recruiter and I'm like, Hey, why are these other nurses getting paid 500 more than me? $1,000 more than me, 1500 dollars more than me a week. And you want to know what their response was?

Cara Lunsford

Yes, I do.

Sarah Gaines

It was good news and bad news all at the same time. They said, Oh, no problem. Well, you know, I was like, I need you to change the rate. I need you to match it. And they were like, Yeah, no problem. And that actually was not good news to me because that confirms like, wait a minute, so you have been holding this money back for me.

Can thought like you've been talking to this funny? So then I felt like, yeah, it's good news. My rate is being increased, but it's bad news because I can't trust the recruiter that I'm with. You know, like it just scars you because it's like, okay, my next contract that I want to work with you with, can I trust the rate that you're going to give me?

So it just started making me question everything from, from like, well, wait a minute, let me take another look at this contract. And so, yeah, I basically started posting my issues that I was having through travel nursing on my Instagram and just posting what I was learning. And then a couple of you and I went through everything from like failed negotiations to my housing falling apart last minute and being like homeless the day before I'm supposed to start my assignment.

Anything and everything that can happen. And nursing has happened to me and I was just posting about it. But then I started to not only post about what was happening, I started to be more strategic and more proactive. Once I started kind of figuring out what to expect and really how to navigate the industry. And yeah, once I started being more proactive, more strategic, I'm like, Wait a minute.

One thing nurses have to realize is we're absolutely the asset. We're the most valuable asset in the equation at the end of the day, there's three people in the equation when it comes to these travel nursing jobs. It's the facility, the hospital, the company, your recruiter and you you are the most valuable asset. So leverage that. Once I realized that, I realized how to leverage the industry to my advantage.

Oh, that's when travel nursing became great. I feel like I just took it to a whole nother level, and that's when I honestly was able to really position myself to where I truly was working less hours than I'd ever worked before in my career and still traveling, quadrupling my income. And I'm only working six months out of the year.

The other six months, I was on vacation with my best life, and that's when I was like, Oh yeah, I would do this thing forever. Like our careers have a blast. Now you start travel nursing, like, Yeah, I'm going to do a couple contracts, make some money, and then go back to a job that I kind of don't like.

But I was like, No, I'm doing this forever. This is great. So yeah. And then basically a ton of people were messaging me on Instagram and asking for advice, and at first I was doing one on one coaching, but I just didn't have the capacity because it literally turned in from hundreds of questions, so thousands of questions coming in.

So the best way for me to make the biggest impact was to create a curriculum that covers the most common obstacles travel nurses go through and really turning those obstacles into opportunities that they can leverage to their advantage so they can just jump in and travel nursing and immediately just start thriving and not go through the first couple of years of struggling.

No one likes to be bamboozled.

Cara Lunsford

No, exactly. And if you have the ability to go into a situation and then you you learn all of the pitfalls you learn, okay, these are the things you are going to need to know so that you don't have to face the same struggles that I faced. I had a lot of that in my career too, like out of pediatric oncology.

I then transitioned over into like home health and I realized pretty quickly, Oh, there's some stuff you need to know if you if you come into a home health, there's some stuff you need to know. Yeah. Even from if you work for a home health that you know, accepts Medicare patients, you should know that you are going to spend a significant amount of time charting because there's Oasis charting, and Oasis charting is a whole nother beast, you know?

So teaching people how to do those oasis start of cares how to really like use the time that you have efficiently. It's so important. So if there's people out there that can take all of these learnings and then you make them accessible to the masses because what you did was so smart, you created this curriculum and now this is something that can reach so many more people than if you were to just try and one on one consult, you'd never be able to reach that many people.

It's just you wouldn't you wouldn't have enough time in your life, nor is it how you want to spend your life. You know, clearly. So you're just being really intelligent and really efficient with with your time and your knowledge, which is so which is so grades and like. So look at all the people that have now been able to like, benefit from you having to go through this hell.

Sarah Gaines

Now, I only get so crazy to think that all of that happened, but I am thankful and grateful. Like, I'm really grateful that there was some sort of positive entity that came out of all of that adversity that I went through. And that's ultimately why I'm so passionate about the program and the nurses and the community and just everything.

Because travel, it sounds so cheesy, but travel nursing really did. It not only changed my career, but it changed my life. I'm like, you know, y'all don't understand it. Like it changed my life. So that's why I'm always telling everyone in their mom about travel nursing. I'm obsessed. I'll admit it. It's fine.

Cara Lunsford

So then you basically, you, you help people make all this money and save all this time, and then you're like, Well, since you have all this money and all this time, you should come on one of these kick ass retreats with me.

Sarah Gaines

Yes, I love the retreats because it was a perfect way. So really, our community is very like a very, very tight knit community. But we we weren't meeting in person as often as we could. So I really wanted to curate an event that really represented what a six figure travel nurse is and also really celebrated travel nurses specifically because unfortunately on many units were treated like the redheaded stepchild, you know, and travel nurses.

A lot of times I'm a lot of times. But it can happen where we're not treated you know ideally and I specifically do my events every year during nurses week because I remember being a Travelers on Nurses Week and not getting any recognition or any gifts because we weren't quote unquote, staff. And that is just such a slap in the face.

As a travel nurse with you're hired, help fill staffing needs and I can't even get a small gift or just recognition during nurses week. And I will never forget the time that I was on a unit. The nurses were having a pizza party, typical, and I went in the break room starving and I opened the pizza box. I was getting ready to grab a slice and a nurse slammed the box shut on my hand and I was like, This is for stuff like you're travel nurse nurses.

We get we're not allowed to participate in a pizza party. And yeah, I just never get that.

Cara Lunsford

This is so sad. This is the tears, the thing, right? And I apologize like I, I spoke for all week. I was talking at this conference and just talking and talking and talking to people. And now my voice is like, I need some whiskey. I need something that's going to, like, coat my throat. But I think it's so challenging.

And this is where I think we can kind of get into the politics, for lack of a better word. If I look at both sides of the coin, right, I can see the challenge that the staff nurse has. Right. They're not getting treated well. They are getting paid a fraction of what the travel nurse is getting. It's like if you can afford to bring in all these travel nurses, how come you can't afford to pay me a decent salary?

How come I'm getting my benefits cut? How come I'm getting all these things right? And historically so I've been in her 16 years when we would have travel nurses come, it would be maybe like one. We'd have like one travel nurse and but it wasn't in all the time thing for sure. And sometimes they decide to stay with us.

They decide to become a staff nurse. The the pay difference wasn't necessary, Ali. The gap was not as big as it probably is today. This was all pre-pandemic. So the need for travel nurses was not exactly the same as it is today. And we also just never knew what a travel nurse was making six years ago. It wasn't publicized the way it is today, where you just see all these travel companies and all these recruiters and all these people talking about how much money there is to be made, and then the suddenly like there's this explosion of awareness and now these staff nurses are like, wait a minute, like what is happening?

And so we've like created this terrible divide and and nurses have not always been great about being.

Sarah Gaines

Supportive.

Cara Lunsford

Of one another, supportive of one another. That's their that's exactly the words I'm looking for. We have not been great about being supportive of one another. And so, like, now you're experiencing this, somebody's like, you know, slamming your hand. You know, like, I mean, that's just a horrible image to begin with. But like, this is what's happening all across the country.

This is what's happening.

Sarah Gaines

Yeah, 1,000%. And unfortunately, when I'm in those situations, I'm empathetic. I tell people all the time, I'm like, Oh, you're travelers don't understand. I'm like, all travel nurses were staff nurses before we were traveling. So trust me, I absolutely understand the frustration that many nurses are feeling. I dealt with mandatory overtime, working a shift that I did not pay preferred hire nurse patient ratios, having toxic leadership and coworkers.

I dealt with that and but one thing that I am grateful for is I feel like I'm I'm happy that there's more awareness. I think it really works in our favor. And I think well, I think the awareness is like a double edged sword. I'm excited that there's more awareness about travel nursing because of I would have known about it earlier.

I wouldn't have had to hit rock bottom. I could have made a solid plan and made it my career much earlier. So I'm happy that more nurses know about travel nursing and are able to leverage the opportunities that it can give them. But also a lot of times the awareness and stuff you see on social media or the news or whatever can be extremely misleading and a lot of the anger can really be misplaced.

And a very common thing that I hear from staff nurses is like, well, they wouldn't spend so much money on travelers, they'd have more money to pay us. But in reality, even though travel nurses are technically paid more, quote unquote, it actually is cheaper to hire us from the facility standpoint. They don't have to pay for expensive benefits or PTO or, you know, insurance or liability stuff, any of that.

They don't have to pay for any of that. And I won't get too deep into it. But a portion of our pay is tax free and is also a write off for the facility that hires us. So it's actually cheaper to hire a travel nurse. So what the facility decides to do with the funds that they're saving by hiring us, that's the facility's fault.

That is not a reason to be mad at a travel nurse. We have nothing to do that. We're literally there to help you so that you as a staff nurse can get that PTO and it's not denied use. A staff nurse don't have to continue continuously deal with hire nurse patient ratios. We're here to help provide some relief for you.

So it can be frustrating from my perspective as a traveler. So I'm like, Hey, I'm here to help, but I'm empathetic because I know how I was not the nicest person when I was extremely burnt out, taking care of my father, forced to do mandatory overtime, not sleeping as I was working nights. So I get it. I get both perspectives.

Cara Lunsford

And it's a hard time. But the more that we can come together and try to find solutions together, I think is really important. That's why it's necessary to put it all out there. Yeah, you got to see it. You know, you have to have transparency because until you have transparency, people are not going to be making intelligent decisions for themselves or for others.

And they're not going to truly understand where these facilities are saving money. So that if you are a staff nurse that you can go to your facility and say, look, I know that you are you know, you have this many people, I've done the math. You know, I'm a nurse. I've done the math, though, and this math isn't working out.

I need you to explain to me how you're going to keep me here, because this is looking really good over here. I'm ready to go do the travel segment because now people like correct me if I'm wrong, but people can travel within their own state. They don't have to go to another state.

Sarah Gaines

Yeah, you can do local contracts. You can do. But you know what? The craziest thing is? I don't think a lot of people realize. I think many people think of facilities need to do is pay nurses more. But that's not that's not the answer at all. Most nurses did not leave their job because of pay and they did not jump into travel nursing because of pay.

They didn't have to do anything because most of the time of how they were being treated, there was some way that they were being treated that triggered them. And that was the last straw. And I wish these facilities would figure that out. You don't even have to pay nurses $1,000,000 a year. Like that's what people think. The answer is.

It's like, no, actually appreciate in value your nurses for the hard work that they put in and you would be surprised how committed and nurses will be.

Cara Lunsford

Yeah. And give them resources right get them appropriate tools resources to be able to do their job safely. Having those resource nurses on the floor where break nurses having someone who just comes in and that's their job is just to go around and break people or having someone who just does transport, right? Like just a transport, that's their job.

They come in and you know, instead of you having to take your patient off the floor or be away from your patients, having someone who that's, that's only job is just to transport a patient from the ICU down to MRI or and stay with them.

Sarah Gaines

Yeah, let's make it happen. And for president I'm sold rights.

Cara Lunsford

It's like that. That's what they need. They just need the.

Sarah Gaines

And so you need.

Cara Lunsford

The resources, right? It's like instead of cutting all of these other areas, you know, there was a time where we used to really use all the ends. They were great. It was great to have LV ends on the floor when you worked in acute care.

Sarah Gaines

Yeah, thousand percent.

Cara Lunsford

Because then you could focus, you could do the stuff that a registered nurse should be doing. You could round with the doctors, you could see what is the plan, You could sit in rounds. People can even do that anymore because they're like, Well, I have to go pass. Well, what if you had an LV end that was passing meds, then it's like resources.

It's such a huge thing. I mean, that's that's what you were saying is like, it's not all about money. It's never been about money. None of us ever went into nursing thinking, well, this, this is how I'm going to get rich.

Sarah Gaines

This is when I feel like there's a gap between what the public views and knows about nursing and what nurses. And I feel like a lot of conversations that we have are in the nursing community. And I feel like if the public knew more about why so many nurses are leaving the bedside, change would come faster because they would understand the effect that it has on them and their loved ones when they ultimately come into the hospital.

Because at the end of the day, burnout has a negative effect on everyone involved, not just nurses. And oh gosh, I just agree with you 1,000%. It's not just about I mean, of course, a pay raise. Don't be nice. I ain't saying nice, but there is so many more important things that nurses value that would go a long way.

And support is a big, big part of it. Support and resources. And don't even get me started about our mental health as well. I feel like during the pandemic, nurses were taking care of patients, but who was taking care of the nurses? We were very much neglected, used in overworked, used and abused during the pandemic. And now it's kind of trickling off and the after effects are starting to pop up and burnout is is at an all time high.

Cara Lunsford

Yeah, it's it's the PTSD around is really coming up and I think for a while especially in the beginning of the pandemic there adrenaline going there, like I'm going to show up. This is a global disaster that is happening. And that's the thing, is that that adrenaline can only go for so long.

Sarah Gaines

Yes.

Cara Lunsford

Before you are now in adrenal, just I mean, your adrenals are shot.

Sarah Gaines

Yes. 1,000% physically speaking.

Cara Lunsford

People just can not sustain that level of go, go, go, go. You just can't. You cannot. And there isn't any amount of money that you can give people to do it.

Sarah Gaines

Oh, my gosh. Yes. That was that was actually ultimately one of the biggest reasons I jumped into travel nursing and the biggest reasons why I stayed, because for me, it came down to work life balance. And before I jumped into travel nursing, I was so burnt out I felt like I couldn't do nursing as a career. But becoming travel nursing made me realize, okay, I can do this as a career because travel nursing gives me the opportunity to say, Oh, I'm feeling really burnt out.

I need to take some time off. Whether it's two weeks, two months, three months, I need to take some time away from the bedside to refill my cup so that I can be the best nurse that I can be. And I feel like travel, nursing brought my passion back for nursing, and honestly, I don't think any nurse would work full time.

I think every nurse should, at bare minimum, you know, once a quarter take a couple of weeks off. I feel like it's very necessary because our job is so taxing physically and mentally. Spiritually. Nurses need some time away from the bedside. And nursing is not the type of job where you don't take a vacation. But unfortunately, at my staff job, PTO was always denied because of staffing needs and we had mandatory overtime, so I was forced to work overtime for years on and on without any vacation.

And that's just not that's just not healthy. It's going to lead to burnout.

Cara Lunsford

I know I work right now. I work for nurse dot com parent company is religious and it's fascinating to me because as I've kind of made this transition in my my career and they will write you up if you don't take it.

Sarah Gaines

Oh, I love that.

Cara Lunsford

It's the most bizarre thing. I'm like, wait, wait, what? What? And they're like, Wow, we've noticed you haven't taken your PTO and you really need to take your PTO. You didn't take we have mental health days that you can take. You have this and that you haven't taken it you should have. I'm like, I'm sorry, you're speaking a different language.

You're going to have to slow down while you say that. It's not as a nurse, it's not anything. I was ever really accustomed to to what you're saying is that sorry, we can't do it because we don't have enough staff. But that's exactly the reason why there is travel nursing and because they can then go and get staff.

You know, they can staff up if they choose to.

Sarah Gaines

Yeah. And I think I love what you just said. It was just so beautiful to hear you talking about your job, because I think when it especially when it comes to awareness, is another reason why I'm so grateful for social media and all that stuff. I feel like now there is so now more than ever, there's so many opportunities that you can leverage as a nurse.

There's so many different ways that you can leverage your license, whether it's travel, nursing or not. Literally. There's so many different other positions that you can do as a nurse. And I think it just ultimately comes down to like right now, you know, if you're working at a facility that is not ideal and you feel like you're not having that work life balance, figure out what type of role you can leverage your nursing license to use, It can be something online and that'll give you that extra stream of income to say, you know what, I'm taking some time off.

I don't even need PTO. I have this extra stream of income, I'm taking a month off and I'm going to relax and that extra to the stream of income could be something you're passionate about still related to nursing. So it's more money. It's like a hobby that you get paid for. So I think that's really cool. I feel like there's so many nurses that need to hear that.

They need to see what's possible.

Cara Lunsford

And you know, to that, what I'll say is that when I first left the hospital and worked in the hospital for like eight years, and then I kind of tiptoed out a little bit because I was like, okay, I'm going to try some home infusion. I'm going to try some home based type of care and try hospice. I'm going to try.

But out in the community, I want to try community nursing. And I will tell you, I actually had this conversation with Katie Duke as well, that for some reason I felt like I was less of a nurse because I somehow wasn't I wasn't killing myself at the hospital. Like that's where you're real nurse, where you're doing real stuff.

And I had an identity crisis.

Sarah Gaines

Oh, my gosh. This is something that you took the words right out, my left, my mouth. I felt the exact same way. And I nurses are the only we're the only professionals that identify through our job like a nurse. Being a nurse is so deeply ingrained in your identity, your personality, your whole life. And so it was really weird for me when I wasn't constantly working at the bedside and I was transitioning and, you know, doing my business full time.

It's been three years now and I felt almost like I wasn't useful anymore. And I felt very guilty too, because I did one contract during the pandemic, and that was when I realized I had the opportunity to either continue to be treated poorly or just not do it because I had other streams of income and I felt guilty.

But then I actually had to reframe that and think about, Wait a minute, I'm leaving the bedside so I can do my business 100% of the time so that I can help more nurses and make a bigger on nurses. I think that is and this I think, how can I put it, I'm still helping patients. It's just in a completely different way.

But by helping nurses and by them being more happy and then being less burnt out is a better outcome for every single person involved. But going back to that identity crisis, I can relate to that 1,000% so weird feeling because we're just so attached to the nursing.

Cara Lunsford

It is a weird feeling. And one of the things that so and I'll have you do it now is we're like, we're bringing it to a close. I'll have you do the same thing I had Katie do you do? So I said, Tell me who you are without using anything about being a nurse, without any any element of nursing.

Who are you? Who is Sara Gaines?

Sarah Gaines

Who am I with the. Oh, that's such a hard question and so hard to answer. I would say I am an avid traveler and explorer. I love immersing myself and not only love going to other countries, but I really love immersing myself in other cultures and learning about different cultures, different things, and learning new experiences. I'm very adventurous.

I love trying new things and anything adventurous I'm down for what am I without nursing? I'm very curious and intrigued by things that I'm not familiar with. So I'm an avid reader and I love podcasts as well, and I love listening to podcasts on any topic other than nursing, because it's just so intriguing to me. And I mean, as we know, a business owner, I love doing that, but not related to nursing.

One of the best, one of my favorite parts of my business, it's not related to nursing is actually like I do a lot of consulting behind the scenes for other health care companies. I love marketing and anything that gets my creative juices flowing. I love design and things like that. I'm also a teacher and that's a big thing that I've realized about myself, whether it's related to nursing, not I love really teaching and mentoring other individuals because the result of that is just really it's very for me.

So I love teaching and mentoring others. So yeah.

Cara Lunsford

That was perfect. You were so good. You were really good. Katey Like, Katey tripped up like second sentence, second thing. She's like, down, you know? And it was followed by some sort of expletive, I'm sure.

Sarah Gaines

And that sounds about right. We love JT Brooke.

Cara Lunsford

I was like, Oh, boy, we got a lot of bleeping to do in this podcast episode. I left a few in, but there was a ton of bleeps. So Sara, this was an incredible, incredible interview. I just I'm so grateful to know you. I am for sure going to join one of these incredible trips.

Sarah Gaines

I'm going to come.

Cara Lunsford

I am going to I mean, it may be like in the form of some weird party crasher, but like, it's but only because I would feel like it'd be more fun to do it like that. They'd be like, Who says person? Like, how did she end up here? So I, I'm just super grateful because you've been working with Nurse Dot com, We've been talking to you about lots of different things and there's so much more that we're going to do with you and I'm just excited for everyone to see the things that we're doing and together and what and, and just supporting each other.

Sarah Gaines

Yes, it's just been such a pleasure. Like, thank you so much. This is really been a great interview for me as well.

Cara Lunsford

You are so welcome. That is all folks. We're going to end this amazing interview. Thank you again. And stay tuned for more.

Sarah Gaines

Thank you.

Cara Lunsford

Bye, my friend. So if you were a nurse who enjoyed this episode and you have an idea for future episodes, you can connect with me by downloading the nurse dot com app. See you there.