1 2 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 6
A
s a traveling OR nurse, you go where
they send you. But there's not always
a welcome mat when you get there,
or at any point in your 13-week contract.
Here are some signs that your new travel
assignment is going to pile on extra baggage
before you leave town.
• When you arrive at the hospital for your
first day on the job, someone's waiting in the
lobby for you … with a pager. You're on call tonight.
• Instead of "Hello," your new co-workers say, "So you're the traveler,
coming to make all that money?" Then, any conversation you have with
them eventually comes around to, "If they paid us what they paid you, peo-
ple would stay and we wouldn't have to spend all that money on travelers."
• The surgeons will tell you to your face: "Travelers travel because they
aren't any good and can't hold a permanent job anywhere."
• Two (yes, 2) surgeons are on leave. One is out for medical reasons. His
foot somehow made contact with a cabinet door in an OR. The other was
advised to take a vacation due to stress. Something about someone's hands
getting in the way of the needle holder. As a traveler, you don't ask for
details.
• You have to buy and launder your own scrubs, since the hospital can't
afford to hire a service.
• The house you're renting is a bit on the small side. The living room is
the bedroom. You have to rent a storage closet for things you don't have
room for at the storage closet you're sleeping in. Never trust a staffing
agency to book your living quarters.
The Lonely Life of a Travel Nurse
Some 13-week assignments are all guts and no glamour (or living room).
Behind Closed Doors
Paula Watkins, RN, CNOR
• ON THE ROAD AGAIN Some travel jobs
leave you with more baggage than you brought.
