From the ER to America's National Parks: A Unique Take on Travel Nursing
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By Melissa Hagstrom, contributor
Whether working with the search and rescue team at Yosemite National Park or finishing up a busy shift in the emergency room, Jonathan Gleason, RN, is making the most of the flexibility and freedom that come with travel nursing.
A practicing ER nurse since 1999, Gleason worked for a year and a half as a staff nurse before making the switch to travel nursing. He's been hooked ever since.
"My first travel job was in Phoenix, and the city was about 200 times the size of anything I had ever seen," he explained. "It was so interesting coming from a small town."
A self-proclaimed "part-time" travel nurse, Gleason takes a unique approach to his schedule. He books back-to-back contracts that allow him to work consecutively for a few months and then have a large chunk of time to pursue his other passion – the great outdoors.
Because travel nursing allows him to choose when and where he works, he can take his nursing skills beyond the limits of hospital walls and into nature as a health care professional for various national parks rescue teams.
"I worked six years, full-time, for Yosemite Search and Rescue on their technical rescue team," he said. "So what I would do is work for them in the summer and then take travel contracts all winter."
In addition to his duties in Yosemite, Gleason has also worked as the lead medical person on the mountain patrol team for Mt. McKinley and the Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska.
"You are not always on an ambulance, and sometimes you have to hike 10 miles to find the people, or you are lowered over the edge of a cliff," Gleason said of his park rescues.
Gleason credits his work as a travel nurse for helping satisfy his quest for adventure, while at the same time advancing his career and improving his skill set.
"If I stayed where I was [as a staff nurse], I would have a thousandth of the experience I do now. And by working in different facilities, I have been able to become more comfortable working with kids," he said. "I am now totally comfortable working in the pediatric ER and would never have gotten that experience if I wasn't a traveler.”
"I have the opportunity to go to these places that are so much busier and have the acute problems and complicated patients that I wouldn't see in a small town."
Throughout his extensive travel nursing career, Gleason has worked for different staffing companies, but his loyalties are now securely tied to recruiter Lance Bowman at American Mobile Healthcare, an AMN Healthcare company. It was back in 2004 when Gleason was in Southeast Asia as the tsunami hit, and his support system at American Mobile was able to step in and help out the stranded nurse.
"I was traveling in Thailand when the tsunami hit and I was slated to start my travel contract in Arizona in less than a week," he recalled. "American Mobile knew that I was involved in the tsunami and that I could barely get out of the country, but they lined up my housing so I could just get off the airplane and go straight to my new housing.” He was thankful for their efforts to go above and beyond in such unusual circumstances.
Looking back at his numerous adventures and the many friends he has made along the way, Gleason remains excited about his future in travel nursing; there is no telling where it may help him go next.
"It's worked really good for me to have all of this flexibility," he added. "You get to pick your location, pick your time frame, and the people of American Mobile have always helped me out, too."
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