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One of my readers sent me a nice email and told me how they planned on become a traveling nurse practitioner this year once they start semi-retirement. For those unfamiliar with the concept, semi-retirement means that you work just enough to cover your expenses minus was you are getting from passive income. In this case, you wouldn’t need to save any of your income. There is no need to make more than your expenses because you have saved enough in retirement accounts etc., and just need more time for compound interest to grow your net worth.

For instance, someone may have $1000 a month coming from their real estate rental income. They need $2000 per month to cover all of their expenses. Therefore, they only need to work enough shifts per month to cover the remaining $1000/month for their expenses.

After she mentioned this to me, I reflected to see if this would be a good option for me as well – instead of just completely retiring early. I think it would be quite difficult to give up my identity as a nurse practitioner. If I went years without practicing I would lose my skills and wouldn’t be able to return to work competently.

I still like the medical aspect of my job – figuring out what patients have and providing appropriate treatment – such as a puzzle. I like the teaching aspect too. I enjoy forming relationships with patients and seeing their health improve. Of course, there are some aspects of the job I wouldn’t miss such as demanding patients, or being overwhelmed by scheduling. It’s amazing how we can often let one rude patient ruin our day after having 20 other nice patients.

If I were to semi-retire, I could work a mere 3-6 months to cover my expenses. This would be great because I would still have at least 6 months to travel or do whatever it is I wanted. Plus, I would continue to have a sense of purpose through working and could allow my portfolio to compound even more.

When I take off an extended amount of time from work, I always go back refreshed and am even excited to see patients. If I worked 3 months on and 3 months off, my passion for medicine would continue to thrive. 

There is also an option for me to work part-time. In some cases, a part-time job would provide necessary benefits such as health insurance. Once I’ve had enough of travel, this may be a good choice for later on. I just have to make sure I won’t be working “full-time hours” with part-time pay.

Outside of clinic practice, I can potentially work in teaching. I have previously taught at both the RN and NP level when I was living in Miami, and really enjoyed it. I may even consider going back to school for my PhD. I know various Universities that provide free tuition in getting a PhD while working as a teaching assistant for them.

By working less than full-time, I would have the time and energy to become more involved in nurse practitioner advocacy through local and state organizations. I would also have the opportunity to volunteer and continue to mentor youth, which has always been one of my passions.

Anyways, the possibilities are endless and that’s always exciting! Have you thought about what you will be doing when you choose to semi-retire, retire, or just want to change positions?

Check out an article I wrote for Barton Associate’s Blog on all that a DEA license entails:

https://www.bartonassociates.com/blog/what-is-a-dea-license

I’ve spent the past 5 months evaluating my job and trying to figure out the parts I like and the parts I dislike.

I like being able to figure things out medically– sort of like a puzzle. I also like offering patients natural treatment options for their ailments such as probiotics or exercise. I like helping patients and providing accessible care. And I love having the power to prescribe.

I thought my main dislike would be being overscheduled or forced to see walk-in patients without appointments. But I realized these nuisances weren’t often and they were fleeting. Even when I did have extra time to spend with patients, I found myself rushing to end the visit.

There is a reason why I am always exhausted after each shift, and need weekends to recharge. The answer is because I am an introvert. An introvert has a limited battery life to interact with other people, and once that battery is empty, they need alone time to recharge.

Although I like helping people, spending all day every day talking to tons of people is mentally exhausting for me, as an introvert.

This is why when I take 1-2 months off from work, I am mentally recharged and excited to get back to work. That is … until I am depleted again 4-6 weeks later.

I never thought about how being an introvert could accelerate my risk for burnout until I read a similar perspective on a financial forum. The person posting was actually a physical therapist. He said that as much as he loved his job, he wanted to become financially independent so he could work less. He stated that since he is an introvert, talking to different people all day long was overwhelming for him. When I read his post – I was like yessss! I completely identified with that.

I think next year I am going to make some changes professionally and I wanted to evaluate what those changes should be. As an introvert, it may make more sense for me to work part time. That way I am not spending 40+ hours a week giving away all of my energy to other people. I may also consider continuing locums but trying to work shorter assignments or taking a mandatory 1-2 month break in between gigs. That way when I am working, I can give the best version of me instead of a drained version of me.

I know it’s easy to ignore recruiters when they blow up our phones or emails with job options. But I try to send a quick response via text or email letting them know I am not interested or are currently on an assignment. This keeps my relationship with recruiters strong.

If I were to ignore them often and only reach out when I needed them, the recruiters would be less inclined to help. On the other hand, since we are often in close contact, I am one of the first providers they consider for any relative assignment.

I am often asked by peers if there are times that I do not have consistent work as a traveler. My answer is no, in fact I typically have multiple job options at any given time. One of the reasons for this is because I have established strong relationships with multiple recruiters.

In addition, I have built connections with previous work sites. So, when they have a new opportunity (they often do), they will contact me to come back. When I first started traveling as a nurse practitioner, I didn’t expect I would ever return to a previous assignment. My thought was I would only want to go somewhere new. Fast forward to 5-6 years later and my mind has changed.

For example, my options are limited in winter so I don’t mind going back to a previous job in California or Florida. I have also formed relationships with staff and the local community, so I enjoy returning for brief periods to catch up with my new friends.

Even though I only work at each place for 3 months (initially), I always put my best foot forward to give them a good impression of me. This way, I’ll always have a job to return to if needed or can help in their clinics in other places (like I do now for the geriatric company).

If you see locum tenens in your near future or want to work in this field long term, be sure to network and work on your professional relationships. 

When staying at a hotel while working at an assignment, I try to stay at a Marriott hotel. Their Residence Inn chains have a kitchen which I like to have. I like Marriott because they have a large footprint especially since they bought the Starwood preferred group chain (think Sheraton). So whether I am traveling domestically or abroad, I can typically find a Marriott hotel to book. Since I am a Titanium member (their highest elite status), I can request late checkout up to 4pm. This is convenient if I have a late flight or want to store my things before moving into my apartment.

When traveling for leisure I love to stay at Hilton hotels. Since I am a Diamond member (their highest elite status), they often treat me as royalty. Think room upgrades, free breakfast for my guests and me, and lounge access. I especially love staying at Hilton hotels abroad because they are usually very luxurious. When I went to Bali in 2019, they upgraded me (for free) to a huge suite. Instead of just a standard bedroom, I had a dining room and living room too. They also gave me free breakfast at their expansive buffet, and allowed my 3 guests to dine with me for free as well.

Since I stay at Hilton and Marriott chains frequently, I definitely have a credit card of each brand. This allows me to accumulate points to stay there for free. If you are interested in getting either of these cards, check out my referral links below.

Hilton Card

Marriott Card

Check out an article I wrote on Barton Associates blog about beginning your career as a locum tenens provider:

https://www.bartonassociates.com/blog/top-5-questions-for-your-locum-tenens-recruiter

As my Virginia Beach assignment comes to an end I want to focus on the wins of this assignment. After my second month I started having to work 50+ hours a week in order to keep up with my growing patient panel. This left me exhausted and looking forward to the end of my time here. I don’t regret coming here for the following reasons below.

Here are some of my Virginia wins:

-Nice catching up with old friends and making new ones.

-Interesting visiting Thomas Jefferson’s estate after reading his biography.

-Having my parents come to visit.

-A patient made me home baked chocolate chip cookies. This was a thank you for catching a breast mass on her (she hadn’t had a PCP in decades), which ended up being bilateral breast cancer (treatable). So she was grateful.

-Having ~60 days with no patients in the hospital

-Advocating for patients to be placed in long term care that couldn’t take care of themselves anymore or getting their families more involved (had dozens of these patients).

-Meeting grumpy patients and by the end of the visit they had a smile on their face and were very thankful.

-Identifying when it’s time for a patient to go on hospice (non-cancer related) and them passing away shortly after comfortably at home.

-Having patients and staff ask me if I was opening up my own practice so they could follow me there.

The biggest win of all was showing hundreds of elderly patients that a nurse practitioner is just as competent as the physician they are used to seeing.

Feel free to comment with some of your recent wins while on assignment below!

I mentioned before that I wanted to come back to Virginia because I wanted to visit Thomas Jefferson’s estate. I am happy to say that it did not disappoint. It was amazing to get more insight into the life of such a brilliant man. I was also able to see where he is buried – next to his wife and daughter.

His home is in Monticello which is right outside of Charlottesville. Since this is only about 1 hour away from Shenandoah National Park, I went there to spend the weekend with my parents who were visiting. The views were beautiful since it was the peak of spring. I even forced my parents on a 1.5 mile hike which they enjoyed.

We also went to the Lurray Caverns. It ended up being more expansive than I had imagined.

Lastly, Virginia Beach is nice because it has a boardwalk you can walk or bike ride on. People often play music there and you can grab a bite to eat while listening to the waves. Being from Florida, I am biased to our beautiful beaches there, but the beach here is more than enough to relax in on a warm sunny day.

I think I have a little PTSD from working with the same company in Kentucky where the patients were just awful. Since then I am always apprehensive to meet a new patient (to me) and relieved when they are normal and kind.

I find this type of work more rewarding than my job in San Diego. Although working in San Diego was easier and I had more free time, I didn’t find the job to be too rewarding. I didn’t feel like I was making much of a difference. I think it’s because the patients were fairly stable and I didn’t see them more than once or twice.

This is in comparison to my job here, where all of my patients are 65 and older and very sick. I see them once a month or sometimes even weekly depending on how complex they are. I am able to develop relationships with them and their families. I am able to help them improve their health and witness them get better. I love when we get to the point of knowing each other that we can begin to joke around.

At the same time, since the patients are vastly sicker here, I barely have any free time at work. I often have to work through lunch or stay after hours to finish my work flow (medication refills, review lab results etc.). Luckily, I am paid overtime but I would rather have the free time and feel less mentally exhausted by the end of the day.

Unfortunately, the work life balance at this job isn’t good. The physicians often respond to phone messages or do medication refills even on their days off. They are usually still working even after I have left – and like I said I leave late.

Initially, I had a few patients that were upset about not having a “doctor”. The medical assistant would warn me about this and explain why the patient’s blood pressure is high. It didn’t bother me because I knew that they just had no idea what a nurse practitioner is. When I went in the room I introduced myself to them, listened to their concerns about seeing an NP vs MD, and explained the similarities and differences between each profession. By the end of the visit, they calmed down and their blood pressure went back to normal. They had no more concerns about seeing a nurse practitioner since they realized they still got everything they needed medically.

So far, I have had only one hiccup – which sadly happened during my first week. The referrals we place to specialists have to be approved by the medical director of the clinic for cost reasons. I placed a referral to neurology for a patient with a brain mass and swelling, and physical symptoms such as expressive dysphasia and hand tremors. The medical director asked to speak to me about the referral. He said he didn’t have enough information to approve it. He needed to know what I expected the neurologist to do for the patient.

I told him I disagreed as I provided more than enough information, and since I was not a neurologist I didn’t know what they would do. I also told him I wasn’t a new provider and knew what to include in my referral notes. I had never had an issue with my referrals in the past 5 years that I have worked for this company.

He still kept going on and on about what he needed to approve the referral. I was so mad that I just walked away as he continued to talk. I went to see another patient and when I came back his demeanor had changed. He told me that I was doing such a great job and had already noticed an improvement in the patient numbers; and that he was so grateful I was here.

I don’t think I even responded – just stared, because I was dumbfounded. I thought to myself ‘yes you better suck up to me because you need my help’. One of the physicians had retired earlier than expected so the physician that would be taking that panel wouldn’t start until the end of summer. Thus, they were grateful to have me cover the 3-month gap. The funny thing is that medical director had shadowed me when he was a resident my first time working for this company 5 years ago. So, I really didn’t care for his feedback.

He ended up approving the referral – if he hadn’t that would have been a big lawsuit waiting to happen. I just want to do what I enjoy which is seeing patients and not be bothered with trivial things. If he bothers me again I may decide to discuss the matter with the chief medical officer. She told me to let her know if I came across any issues.

For some reason there aren’t many short-term apartments available currently, even though Virginia Beach is a military town. The options the agency sent me were either 30 min each way from the clinic or had wall unit a/c (it gets really hot here in the summer).

So, I was put in a Courtyard Marriott hotel. I thought it would be for only 1-2 weeks until they found me something. I even searched myself and no short-term units were available close to work. After living in a hotel with just a minifridge and a microwave for one month, I was finally transferred to a hotel with a kitchenette. I didn’t complain too much because the hotel was 5 minutes from my job.

I am currently staying at a Hilton Home2Suites 10 minutes from work. It has a full-size kitchen minus an oven. Apparently, the Marriott Residence Inn hotels were out of budget.

It’s funny because I sort of forgot what it was like to live in a hotel for a long period of time. It’s actually not that bad because they offer breakfast and someone cleans my room. I even have an extra bed for guests.

Another bonus is that all of these stays are contributing to my elite status qualification, and I am earning thousands of points that I can use for leisure travel.