First Contract Completed!!
I am so excited to be able to say that I have completed my first contract! If you would have asked me 10 weeks ago if I thought I would have made it, I would have said NO!! Here is the break down of this first travel nurse experience.
The worst part of this whole experience: the testing requirements! This particular hospital was VERY MUCH over the top excessive with it’s pre-contract test! Those tests nearly put an end to my travel nursing career before it even got started (no joke)! Once I passed all of the tests, looking back, it was all down hill from there!
Travel Nursing is not Easy but neither is Nursing in general. As a nurse, you are required to adapt and improvise on an daily basis. With Travel Nursing, you have to be comfortable with change and able to adapt to not only the job but your environment quickly. I had some bad days where my lack of experience on their floor made the job difficult but the bad days didn’t last long. The longer I was on the floor, the more comfortable I got and my voice became louder.
Having to do Call/Weekends is the most dreaded part of my job! Working full time during the week and then having to work call at night and on the weekends causes burn-out quick. Every facility is different on how they handle call and I have got to say, this facility knows what Call hours are meant for- EMERGENCIES ONLY! Although I was required to pick up a large amount of call hours the last 4 weeks of my contract, I never had to stay late over 2 hours, never got called in at night, and only spent roughly 6 hours total for all combined weekend days.
On the flip side, there were some really great things about Travel Nursing! I enjoyed meeting new people and a few became friends that I hope to keep in contact with!
Eight weeks and I am done. It took about 4 weeks for the honeymoon to wear off and the unit to show its true colors. As a Travel Nurse, knowing that my obligation there had an end date, I was able to smile and push through without getting caught in the drama and politics of Staff Nursing.
The ability to live and explore a new city was also very cool. Although, Sugar Land Texas is not what I would call a “destination location”, it had its highlights. Specifically, the dog park was AMAZING and Watson loved going every evening at 7pm.
The PAY!! I want to dive into this a little deeper because I know that this is what most are wondering about but I need a few days to gather all the exact numbers. I can say that I did make a significant amount more money working as a Traveler than I did in the same amount of time as a Staff RN. More to come soon!
The freedom between contracts! I know, I know… this isn’t about this contract specifically but knowing that I had the choice on how much time I want to take off between contracts was an awesome hidden benefit. I don’t have to save up PTO’s, request off and plan a year ahead just to take a week off. I know exactly when my next time off is and can extend that for as long as I want or need.
So, as I finish out my last few days here in Sugar Land packing and prepping the rig for transport, I am excited to head home to Nacogdoches, Texas. We will have 2 weeks off to relax and recoup before we hit the road again. The rig is in need of a few upgrades/organizing before we leave home base again. Our next Contract location will be a 13 week stay and with that, we will need to make sure we are prepared for the change in seasons.
Contract #1 Complete! 24 days till the start of Contract #2!
