It's a bit surreal to be writing this, but it's the truth - Patrick and I are moving. Packing up. Leaving the state of Washington indefinitely....moving. It is so strange to think that a month from now we will no longer be residents of this place.
Backing up a bit; the reason we are leaving the state that contains both of our parents, many of our friends, and our community - travel nursing. Ever since nursing school, the two of us have wanted to travel. It feels like it's in our blood; this itch to go and do and see, to experience life how others live it. We don't know where it will take us in the grand scheme of things, or how long it will last, but we have always wanted to go.
So this fall, after much thought and prayer, we decided to take the plunge and start investigating travel nursing agencies. There are surprisingly a lot to choose from, though they all have pretty much the same setup - "Sign up with us and we will contract you out to hospitals for short-term assignments".
After many applications, skills checklists, and reference requests, we settled on American Mobile. Our recruiter there was amazing, and really motivated to get us an interview, stat. We told her our hope to be assigned nearby, maybe in Seattle for starters. Or even Hawaii, which could be pretty great during the winter months. Then we got a call from Connecticut.
What?
Yep, Yale-New Haven Medical Center wanted an interview. This was not in the plan. Connecticut?? Not even on the radar. But we decided to go ahead with the interview and chalk it up to experience. The manager explained that they are opening a brand new unit and need to staff it while they hire core nurses. They have 12hr shifts, patient/staff ratios are reasonable, and the assignment is 13 weeks starting January 3rd, 2012. Whoa. We got off the phone a little overwhelmed, but prayed about it and thought that maybe this was it. The next day we were each offered day shift positions. In the same hospital. On the same unit. According to our recruiter, this is virtually unheard of. So not only do we get to travel together, we get to work the same unit (insert sappy sigh here).
So here we go, or at least we WILL go. First we have to contend with loads of paperwork, finishing out at Sacred Heart, packing up our belongings, storing furniture...it feels like an endless list of to-do's. But the exciting thing is that it's happening. We're going. And we couldn't be happier about that :)
