Wide open spaces, clear starry nights, deer in my back yard on a daily basis and an extremely low cost of living are reasons why I’ve chosen to work in rural California. My friends often ask “Do you really live in the country in California?” Yes I tell them and I love it!
I’ve been a nurse practitioner since 2011 and love what I do. It’s a second career for me My former career had me working as a corporate executive for large pharmaceutical companies. I got tired of flying coast to coast on private Gulfstream jets, dining at 5 star Michelin restaurants and staying at swanky hotels while working way into the evening to meet the next quarter’s numbers for Wall Street. Some ask how could you get tired of that. I say, do it for 5 years and tell me how you feel. You really have no life beyond “the job”. I sold my soul to corporate American while in my 30s and never will again.
Being a nurse practitioner in rural Southern California is not bad at all. My patients are happy to see me and for the most part I enjoy going to work every day. I’m close enough to the big cities to enjoy what most people consider So Cal. It takes me an hour to get to LA and an hour and a half to get to Ventura so I can enjoy my boat.
I’ve chosen to work in locations that are within an hour or two from the ocean as on the weekends I spend my time on my yacht.
Rural medical clinics generally have to pay their locums a higher hourly rate as not many providers want to live in the country. The higher rates are great as the cost of living around the rural clinics is usually 1/2 to 2/3 less than living in the city. There are drawbacks to living in the country. My water gets trucked in as I have no city water service. I have to use satellite internet as the cable providers don’t come out here . The closest real grocery store is 45 minutes away and any type of city dweller dining/entertainment is also an hour’s drive away.
You can get used to it quickly when you see the $ piling up in your bank account from the low cost of living and the higher rates of pay you get as a locum. I would never do this job as a full time clinic employee. The clinics will always ask you to join full time but my experience has been you can make an extra $100,000 a year as a locum. Of course you have to buy your own benefits, plan your own retirement and pay self employment taxes but in the end it works out for me. I wouldn’t do anything else for a NP job and plan on staying a rural NP for as long as I can.
-Ben
