Valerie's Nursing Travel Journey

My name is Valerie Williams and I am a travel nurse. I first found out about it 20 years ago when a colleague brought it to my attention from an ad in RN Magazine.

At the time I had been a Registered Nurse(RN) for 10 years, was a single parent of two and was looking for a change. I had just graduated from University of Buffalo and was having roadblocks in my personal life as well as my nursing career.

For the very first time, I experienced racism in my hometown as a nurse who was just trying to make a difference and climb the ladder of success and people in authority in the workplace tried to hold me back, by not giving me requested time off, not being flexible with me as much as I seen them be with my coworkers in school and the Director of Nursing (DON) refusing to sign a mandatory form from my school to complete my Master Degree. She stated I was a brand new nurse and needed more experience as an undergrad. So trying to become a Nurse Practitioner appeared to be a challenge, that I was not ready nor had the energy to fight with the hospital being it was my first RN job as a new grad.

I decided to move to Maryland where my brother and his family lived. I had visited several times and was amazed by the large number of successful African Americans that lived there. They were the majority in the schools, which surprised me because I lived in the wealthiest county in Maryland. I was also impressed with the nice cars they were driving. My mentality at that time was back home if you drove a nice car you were a Doctor, Lawyer or a Drug Dealer. I wanted this life and environment so bad, I took a 13 week travel contract, in which I went from $17/hr as a Charge Nurse to $36/hr as a travel staff contract nurse.

I brought my children with me. My apartment was very suburban, beautiful landscaping, quiet neighborhood, furnished and utilities were included. Shout out to NursesRX, the travel agency I went with at that time.

The apartment was $1000/mo, my travel stipend monthly was $1300/mo. I had $300 left to do whatever I wanted and that didn’t even include my weekly full time paycheck. I also received a meal and incidental allowance weekly, like around $400 that was not taxed, it was enough to pay for my son’s daycare. I thought I had died and went to Heaven, because it was so surreal. I vowed to never go back home or to work as a hospital staff member for anyone ever again. It was the first time I felt complete and my struggles financially were over.

After eleven months you have to go back home or go to another state when you are a traveler, because if you stay in one state for a year, that becomes your permanent residence and you can no longer receive the untaxed stipends. My recruiter did not tell me that until the last minute, although it was probably stated in my contract. I just kept renewing my contract every 13 weeks.

When I found out I had to leave, I took a local contract at a military hospital and my salary increased to $42/hr, but rent, daycare

and all other expenses fell on me. I chose to go that route because I had enrolled my children in school which started in August.

It really was a smooth transition. I worked with military personnel that were stationed at the hospital for three years and then their families had to leave. Their children were always moving around and they did not like that, so I understood what they were going through and put the brakes on traveling nursing while my children were still of school age.

A lot of nurses fear travel nursing because they say they want security, stability and the benefits of being staff. Travel agencies offer you the same benefits. Insurance, 401k, life insurance and more. You only have to live more than 50 miles from your permanent address. Travel nursing has changed my life for the better and given my children the opportunities they would not have had if I had chosen to stay in Buffalo. I was able to go to all their activities and school meetings without requesting time off . They have gone on trips to the Caribbean and cruises, flew on airplanes, which I had not done until my adulthood. Travel nursing paid for their private schools and they did not want for anything that was of necessity, I had to stick that in because there were a lot of wants they had as a pre-teen or teenager that they did not get, due to my judgement as a parent.

In 2017 I started to dibble and dabble with travel nursing again taking an assignment here and there. I took an extended one back home when my father became ill in 2018 the hospital let me renew three times until his passing. Then Covid hit in March of 2020 and because I was still a local contractor working at the same military hospital in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) at the time, my hours were cut because surgeries had halted, it was perfect timing to pursue my first love on a regular basis, not because I needed the change, it was in my heart from 20 years ago.

I went to Queens New York, Mesa Arizona, Los Angeles California, El Paso Texas, San Antonio Texas, Syracuse New York, Binghamton New York, Greenville North Carolina and my last assignment per this article was Memphis Tennessee.

God has been with me throughout my journey, if it was not for travel nursing, I would not be the person I am today. You learn new ways of doing things, you learn different cultures, personalities and meet great nurses that you build relationships with.

You only get one orientation day so you must know your craft. The first day is hospital orientation the next day you are shadowing a nurse on your shift and then the next shift you hit the ground running. It’s intimidating your very first assignment and that is why your first assignment should be 13 weeks so you can get a feel for the environment and make friends with other nurses you work with who are travel nurses that will give you advice for your next assignment. My first week on any assignment even now is also intimidating. You have to get a routine down and learn how to use the paging system to call Doctor’s and other staff members, learn where things are located, familiarize yourself with the computerized charting system. Even if you have used Cerner or Epic for charting before, each hospital's version is slightly different, but after you learn all of that; you will feel like you have been working there forever.

I was blessed to have gone to Maryland and to now live here because it’s a compact state that I did not know about when I moved here. Meaning I can go to other compact states and work without applying for their states license, which can take up to 3-6 months to receive. Living in a compact state can save you a lot of money. Most licenses cost $200-$350 per state.

Anyone considering becoming a travel nurse. I suggest you sign up with 4-5 agencies, each will be unique in their own way pertaining to benefits, housing and pay. Some pay 100% for housing and will purchase your plane ticket there & back from assignment, like Fastaff. I suggest them for first timers. I say that because I have seen new travelers being let go in the middle of their contract, because they could not keep up or they refused to float. If you book your own housing especially through Craigslist or Airbnb. The landlord will want all the rent you booked for and it could become a legal issue if you leave early, I prefer hotels.

Depending on the location, if I can find a decent hotel or stay with a friend. I tell Fastaff I want the stipend instead of them paying for the hotel. If you wish to drive, Fastaff will reimburse you the mileage there & back up to $600 round trip. Some agencies give retention bonuses and rental cars. A few agencies will pay retention bonuses when you consecutively sign up with them back to back without a lapse in the next assignment. The bonus can be anywhere from an extra $500-$1000 at the completion of your next assignment with them.

There are so many mom/pop travel agencies that have sprung up since I started, most no longer put you in apartment complexes anymore, but you can take your stipend and rent your own.

Once you move from a compact state you will have to apply for a license in any state you want to work in. As a traveler the states I believe that are essential to have a license in are New York, California and Texas. Southern states don’t pay as well and the Nurse/Patient ratio can be a lot higher 1:7-1:9. The average patient nurse ratio is 1:5 in most hospitals and sometimes 1:6 with a call out or depending on acuity. California lobbed years ago for safe work conditions so depending on the specialty the ratios are limited and doable. California also mandated that every staff member should take their breaks, lunch and two 15 minute but most agencies will offer you a waiver to sign if you chose to work through them. Most nurses sign the waiver, because in California anything worked over 8 hours is considered overtime. If the waiver is not signed and you don’t take your break the hospital will be fined.

If I had the opportunity to decide to be staff or a travel nurse from the experience I have now. I would never be staff where I did not have autonomy, being short staff day in and day out, burning myself out doing overtime trying to be a team player, making extra money, but too tired to spend it and most of the money is eaten up in taxes; coworkers causing you to be so discouraged and unhappy due to their toxic ways, causing a negative environment and cliques you have to put up with at no end.

Not to mention not getting your requested days off, or being able to take vacation around certain holidays; I will pick travel nursing any day. I schedule my contract around events and you can request time off and have it in your contract. When the environment is toxic, you are still smiling because you know your end date is around the corner. The added bonus is because you are making more money and some of it is not taxed, putting you in a lower income bracket, so it seems and you can write a lot of things off on your taxes.

Lastly I will say, don’t judge something by someone else’s negative experience or opinion, if you want to do it go ahead and try it, you can always go back to being a staff nurse if you desire. I never pursued finishing my Master’s degree when I got to Maryland, mostly because most of the nurses that were Nurse Practitioners were working as regular nurses or CVS minute Clinic. They stated it was more flexible to work the floors and they made more money. I plan to get my Master’s at some point, not sure if I want to be a Nurse Practitioner anymore, but because I have done travel nursing it has allowed me to increase my credit score, pay off debt and have a savings account, so when I do go back to school. I can focus on school & work when I want PRN and that is what we all wish we could do. If I can do it, you can too. ☺️

#Travelnurse #Nurseblogger #BuffaloBlackNurses #BlackNurse