By Claire Brocato, feature writer
With her two sons grown and off her hands, American Mobile Healthcare traveler, Margo Kerby, RN, decided that it was time to experience life outside of her hometown of Midland, Texas. That was seven years ago.
With Bambi, her canine companion, in tow Kerby said good-bye to Midland and headed to her first assignment in Dallas, Texas. A year later, she traded the wide open spaces of the Lone Star state for the lush forests and tropical beaches of Hawaii, one of her all-time favorite travel destinations.
"It is truly a ‘postcard’ state," she remarked. "I ended up in tears when I realized how lucky I was to be there and to have the opportunity to experience the kind of life I was living."
"So many people wait their whole lives to be able to take a vacation to a place like that," she said, "and there I was living and working in paradise. I felt very blessed. What made my assignment even more incredible was the fact that my accommodation was on the 10th floor of a fabulous condominium in Waikiki. It was utterly breathtaking."
After a year in the tropics, Kerby finally made the move back to the mainland and found herself drawn to an entirely different city–Las Vegas.
"Those casinos didn’t get a nickel from me, though," she laughed. "I spent all my money seeing the best shows in town–everything from Broadway productions like Les Miserables to big name acts such as Kenny Rogers, Gladys Knight, the Righteous Brothers and Julio Iglesias. I had more fun than you can imagine!"
Besides making new friends and exploring exciting destinations, Kerby says that travel nursing has allowed her to grow in her profession.
"From the moment I arrive at a new assignment, I’m all ears," she said. "I keep a little spiral notebook with me at all times and use it to keep a record of the physicians’ names and phone numbers, unit details, copies of the facility’s standards and any other information that will help me in my work. Often times, when I leave a facility, my coworkers want to auction off my notebook!"
This dynamic ICU nurse is currently on assignment in Oklahoma City, the hometown of Kerby’s son and daughter-in-law, who are expecting the arrival of their first child soon.
"Working here gives me the chance to spoil my new little grandson to pieces," she continued. "I’ve wanted to be a grandma for ages and travel nursing has made it possible for me to be with my family for an extended period of time and to share this very precious time with them."
"My ‘traveling vacation’ has enriched my life in so many ways," Kerby said. "There’s always a reason for me to be in a certain place, even if I don’t know it at the time. It’s as if the angels pick me up and put me down wherever they want me to be."
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