From Perm to Travel Nursing: Why This RN Isn’t Turning Back
By Jennifer Larson, contributor
Alysha Macarz, RN, was working contentedly at a full-time job as an ICU nurse at Yale New Haven Hospital, when the hospital happened to hire a large group of travel nurses.
“I’d heard of travel nursing, but I didn’t know much about it,” Alysha recalled.
That was about to change.
Alysha became friendly with a travel nurse from American Mobile who worked on her unit. The nurse told her about her experiences as a traveler.
“I said, that sounds appealing,” she said. “When you stay in one place for so long, you get super comfortable with it. I thought, ‘Maybe I am too comfortable here, and I wonder what it would be like to work somewhere else.’”
Eager to learn how healthcare may be different in other hospitals, Alysha decided she was ready for a change--and a challenge. She found NursesRx and inquired about travel positions.
“Turns out, I was right,” she said. “It’s been incredibly challenging, but also incredibly rewarding. I’ve learned so much, and I’ve met so many amazing people.”
Since her original inquiry, she has taken travel nurse assignments over the course of five years in a variety of states, including Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC.
But her first assignment was in Massachusetts, not too far away from her home state of Connecticut. She made arrangements for her two young daughters to stay with her parents back home and took the plunge.
“I was nervous at the beginning about the whole idea of traveling,” said Alysha. “So, we agreed I’d go somewhere relatively local to Connecticut in case it didn’t pan out.”
The experience was eye-opening. It brought her out of her comfort zone and taught her a great deal about herself as a healthcare professional and as a person.
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“I learned I really am adaptable and capable of taking on new situations--and making that into a strength,” she said.
Unafraid to Try New Things
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Since that first assignment, Alysha hasn’t shied away from trying new things. During her second travel nurse assignment, her recruiter convinced her to try a float pool assignment, something she’d never done as a staff nurse.
“It ended up being amazing, and I was like, ‘Ellen, you’re right. I should keep doing this,” said Alysha.
She traveled to the Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC region and took on travel assignments there. In fact, she liked one job so much that she decided to accept a job offer for a permanent position.
But after just seven months, she felt a strong desire to travel again.
She hit the road again. She took on an especially challenging assignment on a transplant unit at Johns Hopkins--something she’d never considered before in her life.
She began working on the liver/kidney/pancreas unit, where patients traveled from all over the world for transplantation.
“It was so different from anything I’d ever done before,” Alysha said. “That was the most challenging assignment I’d ever had. But it was a good experience in that I definitely had to be flexible and adaptable, and I learned so much.”
Some of her patients were transplant recipients--people who had waited anxiously for months, even years, for the precious gift of an organ.
Others were living donors who were giving a kidney or part of their liver to someone in need. She loved taking care of both groups of people.
“That was a really, really cool experience,” she said.
Appreciating the Benefits of Travel Nursing
Travel nursing has allowed Alysha to expand her horizons and grow as a nurse. It’s taught her a lot about herself. It’s also provided some pretty nice tangible benefits, too.
“For me, doing travel nursing has also been more financially stable for me,” she said. “It’s allowed me to give my girls that things that they need and want.”
She added, “It just works for me.”
Could it work for you? Alysha thinks it might. If you don’t like it, you’re only committed for 13 weeks--many travel nursing jobs start as 13-week assignments.
“And you can do anything for 13 weeks,” she said. “At the end of it, if you don’t like it, well… we’re nurses. You’re a nurse, and you can find a permanent job anywhere.”
But you might love it, like Alysha does.
“Why not try it,” she suggested. “It may turn out to be something really amazing?”