Well, it's official! I'm a traveling nurse! I'm really excited! I've wanted to try out travel nursing since I got my RN license, but have always had one reason or another why it wouldn't work. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my job working as a Same Day Surgery/PACU nurse at Primary Children's hospital, and hope to come back after I'm done, but for a variety of reasons, I felt that this was the right time to pull the trigger and travel!
This has all happened SO fast! I made the decision and told the recruiter on Nov 2 that I was interested in traveling, but I didn't want to travel until February, after the transition of the President, just in case any funny business happened with that. But then she sent me some positions for PACU at Seattle Children's and Phoenix Children's, and for the amount of money they were offering, it seemed too good to pass up! I originally wanted to go to Seattle and interviewed with them, but Phoenix offered me a contract the day after I submitted my application with them, and I decided that I would probably enjoy it better there for my first assignment. The weather in winter is better, it's 3 hours closer to home... it seemed meant to be! So I signed my contract with them today (Nov 16th), I am moving down there on Nov 28th to start on Nov 30th! AHHH!!! My contract will be until Feb 27th, 2021 and then I'll be able to take of a few weeks in between contracts.
So my first assignment is going to be working as a PACU nurse at Phoenix Children's Hospital. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty much the same as what I'm doing now, but I'll be getting paid lots more to do it, and I'll be able to see the area down there. Plus the fact that I'll be able to escape the cold Utah winter/snow, and enjoy the warm winter weather of Arizona (average highs in winter are high 60's, low 70's)! I'll be working M-F, from 0700-1530, no overtime or on-call, and no weekends or holidays. I think it will be nice to get off in the afternoon and have the rest of the evening with my sweet pooch (who is DEFINITELY going with me on this adventure!). I'll be able to come home over Christmas, go hiking/exploring on the weekends... this is going to be AWESOME!
It looks like I have found some housing! I'll be living with another healthcare professional and her dog, so Ivy will have a doggy playmate, and I'll have another human who I can hopefully become fast friends with! I don't have to worry about putting down a deposit or paying rent until I actually get there and see the place, so that's a relief. On the Facebook groups that I'm a part of for traveling nursing, some people have posted about how they were scammed because they put down a deposit, got there, and the address didn't exist, or it wasn't as advertised. So I'm glad that this person isn't going to make me pay until I get there.
So next step..... PACKING! I'm going to be pretty busy this upcoming week and next week figuring out what I'll need to take with me and packing some of my other stuff away/putting it in the attic. I'm hoping to be able to fit what I need into my car, maybe my rooftop carrier, so that I don't have to rent a little trailer to haul stuff. My housing is furnished, and I won't need to bring kitchenware, so hopefully that won't be to hard to accomplish.... but I hate packing! I'm going to get some clear totes that are stackable and label them so I can just pack the same way each time I move.
I think this is going to be great! I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I had to work PACU at Primary Children's. It has really opened a lot of doors for me! I really hope that I like travel nursing, or can even just tolerate it for 2 years... that's my goal. There are many reasons I'm doing this, but the main reason is that I am hoping to save enough money to have a really good down payment for my future home, wherever that may be!
I'm starting off in Arizona, but there's many places I think I would love to travel to and explore while I'm working: Oregon, Washington, Washington D.C., Alaska, Boston, Atlanta..... I'm excited to see where this adventure takes me! I'll be updating this blog as I go, to keep my family and friends updated with my adventures! It's gonna be good! Here I go!......
