Travel Nurse on a Mission for Peace, Adventure and More
By Melissa Wirkus, contributor
Niki Dunham-Mihm, RN, is not your average travel nurse. She’s on a mission.
In addition to giving her the opportunity to do what she loves to do, which is help people, travel nursing allows this cardiac telemetry and acute medical-surgical nurse to pursue her mission of spreading peace throughout the world.
A travel nurse since December 2010 with leading nurse staffing agency American Mobile Healthcare, an AMN Healthcare company, Dunham-Mihm recently entered and became a semi-finalist in the “Traveler’s Journey” Video Contest, sponsored by Travelnursing.com and American Mobile. The contest was featured on social media sites Facebook and YouTube.
“I decided to enter the video contest because I have a mission in life to spread peace, and the video was a great tool to help my efforts as well as talk about why I love travel nursing,” she explained.
After working as a commercial artist for 19 years, Dunham-Mihm embarked on a new career as a nurse when she was diagnosed with cancer and began researching herbal and homeopathic remedies used for healing and wellness.
“In my studies, a very wise physician who believed in homeopathic medicine told me I should go to nursing school. He encouraged me to utilize my new career to help people with a combination of modern nursing with a foundation of natural healing,” she said. “Travel nursing enables me to touch lives and introduce my thoughts on generating peace, as well as utilize my educational background in helping someone achieve overall wellness. Today I am cancer-free, and have been for 13 years due to a combination of modern thinking and homeopathic ways!”
Now fully immersed in her travel nursing career, Dunham-Mihm continues to gain new nursing skills and valuable hands-on, clinical experience with every assignment. Her travels also give her excellent material for her books, as she is also an accomplished writer in addition to her roles as an artist and health care professional.
“The most amazing aspect of travel nursing in reference to my career is the opportunity to advance my skill set with each new assignment. Each assignment poses a new setting with new ideas and dynamics, which helps me to build my knowledge quickly.”
During her travels, Dunham-Mihm has had the opportunity to learn about cutting-edge technology such as the Da Vinci Surgical System and Epic EMR charting, which has allowed her to expand her scope of practice as a nurse and work in settings with exceptional opportunities that she otherwise might not have had.
The professional growth that travel nursing fosters is just one of the perks for this adventurous nurse. As she outlines in her video, the freedom and flexibility that travel nursing provides are what attracted her to this career in the first place.
“I started traveling for the opportunity to explore new places, cultures and people as well as learn the structure and management style of different hospitals,” she explained. “I love the outdoors and enjoy hiking, backpacking and extreme sports, too. With having the opportunity to choose the places I travel to, I can plan new and exciting adventures around amazing geographic areas. Travel nursing also allows me to take time off anytime I want and do other things that I love, like working for the Big Brother/Big Sister camp and spending time with my family.”
Although most travel nurses leave their 13-week assignments by saying goodbye to the staff and patients they work with, Dunham-Mihm leaves a lasting impression after each assignment with her peace bracelets. After she gave a terminally ill patient a bracelet with a peace sign on it during one of her first assignments, the gesture caught on and soon other staff members were requesting the same bracelet.
“I now give all of my patients and co-workers a peace bracelet to help them remember how important peace from within can be, bringing peace to others as well as healing.”
In addition to fulfilling her goal of helping others and spreading peace, her favorite thing about nursing is the camaraderie and team work she experiences at every facility.
“I feel that when I am on the floor, no matter where I am working, the staff come together as a family and we strive to achieve the same goal with our patients,” she said. “We all wear different hats and if there is a question, we work together as a team to get the answers. I guess you could say I just love being a nurse and working alongside other people who want to heal the sick!”
Getting ready to start her next assignment in Naples, Fla., Dunham-Mihm is excited for the next adventure travel nursing will bring and is looking forward to meeting new lifelong friends and colleagues--as she does on each assignment she takes.
“I think travel nursing should be added to the curriculum of every nursing education program in the world! Travel nursing is one of the most amazing things I have ever done, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see and experience the world. The sky is the limit with travel nursing!”
To learn more about Niki’s mission of peace and her other travel nursing adventures, check out her full video here.
About the “Traveler’s Journey” Video Contest:
In the 2011 Traveler’s Journey Video Contest, sponsored by American Mobile Healthcare and TravelNursing.com, nurses were invited to share their experiences, adventures and stories about travel nursing in a two-minute video. The top 10 videos were posted on the American Mobile Facebook page in August, and more than 1,700 votes were cast to help choose the winner. Share in all of the semi-finalists’ journeys with travel nursing on American Mobile’s YouTube channel.
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