Traveling NP

My friends have gotten used to me working as a traveling nurse practitioner for over 7 years now. They are always asking me about my next adventure. I have worked only in Florida over this past year, and many of them are surprised. They are surprised I am not traveling to work somewhere new. The reality is that – Life Has Changed. 

My priority isn’t just travel somewhere new and have fun, new experiences. I am more focused on working somewhere I enjoy and being close to home when needed. For example, this fall I had several weddings and baby showers to attend at home so I didn’t want to have to travel from afar often. I also have nieces and nephews now that I want to see frequently. 

Some of my family have asked me why I don’t just work locally in Miami, FL and take an assignment there. The truth is I am spoiled now. I don’t like to commute to work in traffic, and since I wouldn’t be “traveling” to work in Miami, additional housing or a rental car wouldn’t be covered for me. 

For winter, I considered going back to my favorite place – San Diego, CA. However, since my time in Europe, I am in a long-distance relationship with someone that lives in Europe. So, it’s easier for my relationship to stay on the East Coast instead of having an even more challenging time difference. My partner plans on moving to the USA eventually, and he is open to traveling with me for work when I want to. So, life changes, and I just adapt. I still want to be a traveling nurse practitioner but it’s going to look a bit different each year. 

I recently wrote a blog post for CompHealth on how you can take advantage of working in locum tenens to take a sabbatical. Take a look here:

https://comphealth.com/resources/locum-tenens-during-sabbatical

Check out this article I wrote for NPSchools.com on how to crush an NP job interview:

https://www.npschools.com/blog/np-job-interview-tips

It surprises me how many healthcare professionals are clueless when it comes to finances and investing. We often spend too much time studying medicine that we fail to study finances and what to do with our income. 

Most of the books below talk about some form of saving, spending, and investing. Here are the top finance books I enjoyed reading and recommend depending on your interests.

1. The White Coat Investor by Dr. James Dahle

Financial book targeted towards healthcare professionals on saving and investing.

2. I Will Teach You to be Rich by Ramit Sethi

I like this book because it doesn’t only talk about the obvious things like save save save. It talks about automating your finances so that you do not have to think about it too much, and how to spend on things that are most important to you. 

3. The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins

Great book for someone that wants to invest in the stock market but doesn’t know where to begin. He talks about how you can easily invest in index funds and why index funds will always increase in value.

4. Set for Life by Scott Trench

This is a good read for young professionals because it shows you the power of saving your first $25k and how that provides you with options. 

5. Retire Early with Real Estate by Coach Carson

For those that are looking into investing in real estate, this is an easy read in how to get started. 

6. Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung

This is about a young Canadian couple that retired early at 30 years old. They are now spending less than $40k a year traveling full time. Great read for someone that wants to be nomadic and how to get there. 

7. Die with Zero by Bill Perkins

Great read for those closer to retirement. It talks about how you need less money to retire than you think and why you should take multiple mini retirements while you are young and your body is able to do things you wouldn’t able to do when you are older. Such as hiking, adventure sports, and traveling.

8. Taking Stock by Jordan Grumet

Written by a hospice doctor that helps you figure out your purpose in life and how your finances can shape that. 

9. Cashing Out by Julien and Kiersten Saunders

Written by an African-American couple on how everyone should have a 15-year career and then begin another chapter in their life as an entrepreneur or retired person. 

10. Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier

This book is geared towards millennials and an example of how one can reach financial freedom early in life. 

Feel free to email me once you’ve read some of these books to let me know your thoughts!

Check out this article I wrote for Comp Health about some fun things I got to do because I travel as a nurse practitioner!

I used furnishedfinder.com to find my apartment in Bradenton, Florida. This is a website for travel nurses looking to book a room or apartment for at least 3 months. I chose an apartment 10 minutes from work. I didn’t choose a place on the beach since there would only be one month left where the water would be warm enough for me to swim in. However, my place is only 10 minutes from the beach as well.

I chose a 2-bedroom apartment because I had some friends that planned to stay with me for labor-day weekend. It has a washer and dryer in the unit which is convenient, and a clubhouse with a pool. The furnishings are nice, and coming from Europe, the place feels quite big. 

I always use National to book my car rental which is provided by my agency/job. They didn’t have any sedans left so I just chose this Acura SUV. It’s a bit bigger than I wanted but it drives comfortably and is spacious for my guests. I can’t complain about driving a luxury car for free 🙂

Check out my latest article for NPschools.com, which provides nurse practitioners with career options that do not involve direct patient care:

https://www.npschools.com/blog/guide-to-non-clinical-careers-for-nurse-practitioners

It was a bit strange to return to my job in Bradenton, FL at first. I felt like I had just lived another life and was returning to my old life. It sort of felt like deja-vu. I was initially nervous about how taking 3 months off of work would impact my skills. I have to admit I was a bit rusty once I started working again. But everything came back to me rather quickly.

The staff was used to me working as speedy Gonzalez and fitting walk-ins easily in between patients. But I did need the first couple of weeks to adjust back to working, and wasn’t as fast as I normally am. A couple of things had changed on the EHR and I needed a few extra minutes to contemplate some HCC codes on my Medicare patients. 

The level of complexity of the patients seemed higher than I remembered. But I think it was because since they opened my schedule last minute, they moved up some new patients that needed to be seen ASAP for serious reasons, such as an osteomyelitis patient needing IV antibiotics through infection disease; or a new patient with a decubitus ulcer, colostomy, and foley cath etc. 

Additionally, all of these patients I was now seeing were new to me. Since I am not familiar with them, I do need to utilize the extra time they are allotted on the schedule with me. It only took me 1-2 weeks to transition back to my normal working self. This was good, as it reassured me not to be worried about taking an extended leave again in the future. 

There continues to be some staffing shortages but I suppose it is like this everywhere. I noticed the other PCPs seemed to be burned out. I don’t blame them because they didn’t just come back from a 3-month vacation as I had (haha). So, I tried to do my best to help them in addition to staying on top of my own schedule. I found myself to have a lot of patience which is expected considering my extended leave. 

Ultimately, I decided to return to work in Bradenton, Florida once my 3-month European sabbatical ended. I enjoyed working there in the past and many of my peers were hopeful that I would return once I came back from Europe. It is also just a 3-hour drive to my home in Miami.

This would be convenient since I needed to be in Miami at least once or twice each month for the remainder of the year. I knew the site would be flexible as they have always been in the past, and I asked to have 1 week off each month. In return, I would agree to a 4-month assignment, to make up for all of the time I would be taking off. In addition, I asked for a $10/hour raise. They happily agreed to both of my requests. 

To be honest, I considered taking the remainder of the year off. Just because I have a lot of personal things going on (good things). But I decided against it because I do not want to lose my medical skills since I had already been away from practice for 3 months. 

There was a hiccup with my onboarding during the first week. Since I was gone for over 90 days, HR requested updated titers and a urine drug screen last minute. I completed these the Friday prior to my start date, but the results didn’t come in until the following Thursday. After I showed up to the clinic, HR said they didn’t want me seeing patients until the results were in. 

So, I didn’t end up seeing actual patients until Thursday afternoon. I just went to meetings the other days and caught up with leadership and some coworkers. Fortunately, the site still paid me for the days I didn’t “work” that week, since technically the error was on their end. They have always treated me well and that is why I remain loyal to them. 

It was great to be welcomed back by my co-workers and catch up with them. They reminded me that I bring stability and positivity to the center that impacts the work culture there. It was equally nice to see some of my prior patients who were excited to see that I had returned. 

This month marks me being a Nurse Practitioner for 10 years. When they said time happens quickly as an adult, they were right! I remember graduating Florida State University with my Bachelors of Science in Nursing, and taking my RN license exam one month later. The following day, I went to Haiti volunteer at a clinic there.

I got to see first-hand what nurse practitioners do. How they diagnosed and treated patients. But most importantly how they showed compassion for their patients, and how empowering it felt. I knew in that moment, that I wanted to become a nurse practitioner. 

After I became a family nurse practitioner from the University of Miami (UM), I settled down in Miami and practiced there for 3 years. I self-taught medical Spanish to keep up with my patients there. The first year was a big learning curve – transitioning from a nurse to the one calling the shots. 

Meanwhile, I gave back to my profession. I taught at the RN level in the evenings for a few years. Eventually, I became a preceptor for NP students at UM, and later a clinical professor for NP students as well. 

I had always wanted to do travel nursing, and when I realized I was “bored” in Miami with the same mundane life, I finally decided to pursue locum tenens. At the time, there wasn’t much information about traveling as a nurse practitioner – which is why I created this blog. Over the last 7 years of me traveling as a nurse practitioner, I have grown so much. My skills and medical knowledge has certainly become strong considering my variety of experience. 

I have worked in 9 different states and over 20 different healthcare practices. I have had several mentors of physicians and other nurse practitioners that I’ve followed. I have treated patients of all ages, various cultures and diseases. I have been able to meet up with countless friends and relatives during these adventures. 

I realized that giving up being a locum tenens provider would be hard because wherever you go, everyone is so happy to have you as if you are their “savior”. The staff is happy to have you as they are short-staffed. And the patients are happy to have you as they may have waited even months to get into the clinic to be seen. 

In conclusion, I have had such an amazing experience being a nurse practitioner for the last 10 years. It has truly become part of my identity. I am glad the profession found me and I am looking forward to continue being a part of it for another 10+ years.