There’s never a dull moment during Halloween in the emergency department. Depending on what day Halloween falls on, there could be people in costumes for days leading up to the holiday.
Walking out into the lobby to call a patient back is like walking out to a costume party. It’s entertaining when people come in a group, and they’re all dressed cohesively. For example, you may walk out to a group of female college students dressed as a six-pack of your favorite seltzers. Or perhaps Ken is here for a sprained ankle in a Barbie and Ken duo.
But today’s story from Travel Nurses, Inc. involves an angel and a very unfortunate mix-up.
Untold Stories from the Emergency Department: A Sticky Situation
Sealy Crider, RN, was working in the emergency department one Halloween night a few years back. She went to the lobby to call back her next patient when an angel stood up. But this was not your typical angel—this was a Victoria’s Secret angel decked out with giant wings, perfect nails, and everything.
Sealy noticed this patient had glitter all over, and her friend guided her back to the room. This was a little odd, but Sealy wrote it off because she had seen many things in her days as an ER nurse.
Once they were in the room, Sealy began her assessment and asked what brought this angel to the emergency department. At that moment, Sealy began to realize what was going on. This was a college student who was getting ready to go out to a Halloween party. Being in a college town, this was pretty typical for Halloween in Sealy’s ED.
The patient was drinking while getting ready for the party and made a pretty big mistake. She was wearing press-on nails and put on her nails a few hours before starting her make up. However, she did not put her supplies away.
When she went to put her eyelashes on, she accidentally used her nail glue instead of her eyelash glue.
By the time she realized her mistake, it was too late. In a haste after realizing she used the wrong glue, she tried wiping the glue off her hands on her skin. At this point, the glitter from her outfit was on her skin. It was a mess, and after a few seconds, her eyes were glued shut.
With this explanation in mind, Sealy was able to alert the providers, and they immediately got to work. After a few hours of work, they were able to soak the glue off, and the patient was able to walk out of the hospital.
Who knows if she still went to the party, but she vowed to triple-check her glues moving forward. If you have a crazy story from working in the ER on Halloween, send Travel Nurses, Inc. an email. They would love to hear your stories. You can email them at hello@travelnursesinc.com.
Do you have any crazy Halloween stories from your travel adventures? If you would like to share your crazy Halloween stories with the TGN readers comment them below.
Happy Halloween from Travel Nurses, Inc.
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How do you sum up eighteen years of travel nursing? That’s 18 years of travel nurse contracts, new places, new co-workers, new patients, and new experiences. The past 18 years have been pretty fantastic. I’ve had the fortune of working in places like Guam (6 different times), Hawaii (the big island and Maui), Alaska, and many other US states.
My travel nurse journey
Sometimes I get extremely lucky in my travels. For instance, I experienced Maui during the lockdowns and had the beaches to myself. It was the stuff of dreams. Or when I decided I was going to work in Alaska one summer. I lucked out when I found a contract in Anchorage. The cherry on the top was the mama moose who would bring her baby out on the hospital grounds every dawn and dusk.
When I look at my work badges, I am reminded of the places I’ve worked and the places I visited on that contract. And, almost as important, the places I’ve been between travel nurse contracts. Whether it be solo travel or with friends and family, my home base is in Missouri, but I usually work at least 1 travel nurse contract each year in California. This means I drive 30 hours to California.
I often invite my mom or a friend to fly out and drive back together, stopping to see as many sights as possible. On these return trips, my mom and I saw Yellowstone National Park, Grand Tetons National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Las Vegas, and many other sights. And a friend and I saw the Grand Canyon for her first time. Little did I know that she had always wanted to see La Brea Tar Pits, so we checked it out before we left Los Angeles. The tar pits are excavation sites near downtown Los Angeles, where saber-tooth cat and wooly mammoth dating to 38,000 years have been dug out of the ground, and liquid tar bubbles up out of a pit.
My international travels
My travel nurse journey has also afforded me the luxury of international travel. And believe me. I come up with some crazy ideas. Like when a friend and I hopped on a flight to India for 6 weeks. Or when working on Guam, Southeast Asia and Japan are only a short flight away. One year after leaving Guam, I whittled my traveling items into 1 suitcase. I traveled through 10 different countries in Southeast Asia for 4 months. It was amazing. I met a Buddhist monk in Myanmar who became my unofficial tour guide. He took me to gorgeous 1000-year-old temples (over 30) carved from a single boulder. The following year, I returned to Southeast Asia and Australia for 3 months, and my new friend accompanied me to Indonesia. Another time my friend Salma and I vacationed on a tiny island off the coast of Belize. There was no electricity or internet, but there was plenty of snorkeling, hermit crabs, and coconuts. We were adopted by Lucky, one of the five island dogs. He was an Australian shepherd who we loved. The island was so small that a person could walk all the way across the island in about 5 minutes. I didn’t want the week to end.
Last fall, I embarked on a 6-week getaway. I came across a cruise where both the price and the timing were perfect. Before the cruise, I flew into Zurich, Switzerland, and spent the day meeting up with a couple of old friends. Among other places, we visited the Lindt chocolate factory and ate our weight in Lindt chocolate. After Zurich, I made my way to Venice for the cruise by way of the Bernina Train, considered one of the top train rides in the world, and it is something that had been on my ‘to-do’ list. The 27-night cruise started in Venice and ended in Durban, South Africa, winding its way through the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal, down the eastern side of Africa, and stopping in 10 different countries (including 3 island nations) along the way. Once the cruise was over, I flew to Kruger National Park in South Africa for a week-long safari. I couldn’t believe the numerous herds of zebras, elephants, giraffes, and hippopotami.
My career has been fulfilling and gratifying
These days, I usually work a couple of contracts a year, and I don’t work when I’m at home in the Ozarks. My house is paid for, and I have some money in the bank. And working less gives me more time to pursue more traveling and spend more time with family and friends. I consider myself extremely blessed to be doing what I love for work while seeing so much of the world’s beauty. My travel nurse journey has been extremely fulfilling and gratifying. I’m not sure exactly how much longer I’ll be at the bedside, but if it means another 18 years of traveling for both work and pleasure, I’ll take it!
We hope you enjoyed reading Laura’s travel nurse journey story. Would you like to share your story? Comment below or send an email here.
She was born to be a traveler. Growing up with a dad in the Air Force, naturally, they moved around a lot, never staying in one place for more than a few years. Nurse Ann Marie doesn’t have those childhood friends she’s known since grade school. She was always the new kid, fighting those first-day feelings that she wouldn’t fit in or no one would like her. Maybe that early practice shaped her destiny as a traveling nurse who makes life-long friends everywhere she goes.
There’s the LA artist who paints with her feet after a brain injury from a terrible car accident that limited her hand-eye coordination. She met Nick—who she later found out worked for Capitol Records and knew Elvis and the Jacksons—while on a walk in the Hollywood Hills; she just had to say hello to this gentleman in a blue polyester sport coat and pajamas as he took out the garbage. His wife had just passed away, and he was alone, so Ann Marie and her daughter spent Thanksgiving with him a few days after they met.
Michael—the “Free Dad Hugs” guy pictured with Ann Marie on Facebook at the Boise Pride Parade—who another friend, Molly, recognized from high school and said, “You’ve got to become friends with him!” So, when Ann Marie ran into him at the farmer’s market, she introduced herself, and they’ve been friends for many years. There’s the European couple in their late 70s who own an estate jewelry store in Dallas where Ann Marie regularly feeds her obsession for funky vintage jewelry. And, as you can imagine, there are so many more in every city she’s worked in all over the country.
Social Life
This network of fascinating people who have filled her social life are just as dear to her as her pre-op, PACU, and post-op patients, whose stories have opened her heart and mind to people from all walks of life. The ability to make the focus of her work be on her patients, thanks to a career as a traveler, revived Ann Marie’s passion for nursing. Burnt out as a staff nurse and near the point of quitting, traveling reminded her of the reasons she became a nurse in the first place—one of which is her patients’ stories.
Patients in pre-op, PACU, and post-op might be nervous, afraid, and suffering, so Nurse Ann Marie—much like herself outside of work—asks them about their lives and gets them talking about their experiences and interests. She’s learned about Native American cultures and traditions, treated and talked with incarcerated patients, heard the stories of homeless men and women, cared for children with disabilities in their homes, and grown close with their families.
These moments of connection may or may not have had an effect on or even be remembered by her patients, but they enrich Ann Marie’s life and continually remind her that nursing is more than just a job. Travel nursing has opened her perspective on what it means to be a nurse, on friendship and personal connection, on her patients’ lives, and on the importance of our stories. Ann Marie has collected countless stories and has great ones of her own that she hopes to share with other travelers and possibly help someone along the way.
We want to hear your stories! What inspires you as a healthcare traveler? Who’s the most interesting person you’ve met on your travels? Go to Aequor Perspectives to share your story.
Hospitals seem to bring out a unique side in individuals that might not typically be seen at home or in public. Nurses go through a wide variety of emotions during one shift while experiencing these behaviors and interesting personalities. We have patients who are generally “normal” and are easy to work with, patients who are angry and demanding, which creates an air of frustration for the entire staff, and patients who are absolutely hilarious, and we leave their rooms with a smile and loving our jobs. Of course, there are always the situations that arise that leave everyone wide-eyed and open-mouthed in disbelief too. It is widely known that nurses generally have a wicked sense of humor with the ability to laugh at things that others might find terrifying, annoying, or offensive. Below are examples of nurse stories about patients we experience and how we find humor in each situation.
Heartwarming & Funny Travel Nurse Stories:
Witnessed by a nurse: an accidental act of kindness.
I had a patient who had a stroke and couldn’t talk. He kept having a woman visitor who shaved him and took wonderful care of him for 3 days. We assumed it was his wife and never thought any different until speech therapy went in to work with him. She asked the wife if she could work with Mr. Doe. She said, “Oh, that’s not his name; it’s Johnson.” The speech therapist looked at his wristband, confirmed it was the patient she was looking for and came to me to verify the patient’s name. I let her know it was Mr. Doe, the person she was going to work with at that time. She says, “well, the lady in the room said that his name is Johnson.” I told her that we do have a patient by the name of Johnson, but he is in room 210. So, I walked into room 214 and asked the lady to step out for a moment. I asked what her husband’s name was, and she told me Johnson. I then walked her to room 210 and asked, “does he look familiar?” She put her hands over her mouth and said, “yessss!!”. She said, “Oh my, 214 looks just like him, only a little puffier, but I thought it was because of the stroke! Please don’t tell my husband what I did; this is soooo embarrassing!” I laughed and jokingly said, “Good luck explaining where you have been for the last 3 days!”. Later that evening 214’s son came to visit for the first time. He said, “Dad looks so good. You guys kept him all shaved up.” I told him the story, and his eyes welled up. He explained that his dad’s wife had died 2 years ago, but this is how she always kept him, well shaved. “I bet he was in heaven those 3 days.”
That time the nurse explained, “it isn’t lemonade.”
I had a very confused patient I was taking care of one night. He had Alzheimer’s Disease and was incredibly pleasant, so I enjoyed spending time with him and his wife. At one point, I saw his wife leave the unit, so I walked down to his room to keep an eye on him and make sure all safety precautions were in place. I stopped dead in my tracks at the doorway when I saw him drinking from his urinal like it was a bottle of juice. I rushed over, pulled the urinal from his lips, and sweetly asked, “whatcha doin bud?” His reply was, “I wanted a drink of this lemonade, but it tastes terrible!” My response was, “I bet it does!” and I proceeded to empty it and leave it in the bathroom where he could not reach it on his own. I informed his wife of this interaction when she returned, and we both got a good laugh out of it (outside of the room).
When the patient teaches anatomy to the nurse.
I was caring for an elderly gentleman during a shift and was completely enjoying my time with him. Older men are often my favorite patients because they can be so sweet but so funny. This man was incredibly witty and had a new joke for me every time I entered his room. My absolute favorite, which still makes me laugh to this day, was, “How do you know what mothballs smell like? I can never get their legs apart!” That one got me, and I wheeled him out to the nurse’s desk so he could repeat it for everyone.
Is honesty always the best policy?
I was taking care of a post-op open-heart patient. We had removed his breathing tube and had woken him up. We start doing education right away with patients, so the dietitian came into the room and was giving him information on what his diet should look like when he leaves the hospital. The patient appeared to understand the education and soon ordered lunch. Of course, he was disappointed by the cafeteria food and was grumbling about it a bit. I was making casual conversation with him in hopes to boost his mood, and I asked him what his first meal will be when he leaves the hospital, thinking he will have listened to the dietitian. His answer was, “a one-pound cheeseburger with a big slab of butter on it.” I kinda waited a minute to see if he was joking, ya know, open heart surgery and all, and he never cracked a smile. My response was, “ok first of all, don’t say that to the surgeon when he comes in, and second, I look forward to doing this again with you soon!”
The sassy patients nurses love.
I was working in a detox facility when two girls broke out into a fight one night. I stepped in to stop the fight and asked what it was all about. One girl started screaming that another girl had borrowed her jeans and she had crabs. She came towards me with a pair of tweezers and said, “See! Look at it!” I had these tweezers coming at my face, so I quickly grabbed her wrist and focused on what she was holding. As my eyes were adjusting, I realized she has an actual crab in her tweezers! I yelled, “Crap! Don’t let that thing go!!” I’m laughing, thinking about having just come face to face with someone’s crab. I put it in a baggie and called the on-call doctor. I related everything that had transpired and then got treatment for everyone!!
Nurses know laughter is the best medicine. Wine, not whine.
One patient I took care of off and on for a couple of years as she fought breast cancer was always a pleasure to work with and had a great sense of humor even though she was going through a fight for her life. She was a wine lover like myself, so we had several conversations about our favorite wines and wineries. During her treatment, she had to have a double mastectomy, which is always a little heartbreaking. Thankfully, she completed her course of treatment as a breast cancer survivor! She chose to have breast implants when she was completely healed and stayed with us for a night post-procedure. When I asked what she thought of her new look, she laughed, pointed to her chest, and said, “I’d like to introduce you to Pinot and Grigio!”
A Nurse’s Perspective
There is really no such thing as a typical day or patient; that’s part of the adventure in a nursing career. But each day presents unique challenges and opportunities that help us grow into better nurses and better people. Treating patients kindly and professionally is core to who we are, and when we can share a joke or a smile with those we serve, everyone feels better. Isn’t that the goal, after all?
We hope you enjoyed this article with heartwarming and funny travel nurse stories about patients. Do you have any heartwarming or funny travel nurse stories you would like to share? Comment those travel nurse stories below.
Are you looking for your next travel nurse assignment? Click here to view our job board. Do you need housing for an upcoming assignment? Click here to search our housing page.
If you are a new travel nurse or looking into becoming a travel nurse:
Hi! My name is Ashley (Ash for short). I just thought I’d introduce myself to those who have known me as Melissa. You see, I had a patient last night with stage 4 Ovarian cancer (the same kind that took my Grandma). She was in severe pain, the kind that most of you will never experience or even begin to comprehend, and she was younger than I am. I am 42; just let that sink in for a moment.
Her body was emaciated because she only ate one meal in 2-3 days because she was “full.” Her stomach was bloated and protruded so far that it pushed on her lungs, not unlike a nine months pregnant woman, an ironic mockery of the fact that she hasn’t and never will have children.
She asked me for chocolate
She asked me for chocolate. I didn’t have any, but a co-worker had left four tootsie rolls on the desk, so I gave those to her…the joy on her face as she savored them was beautiful…she called them her “breakfast,” and she thanked me and called me Ashley.
I brought her pain medication “when it was time” instead of waiting for her to ask. But I could still hear her crying in-between time because of the pain, and she thanked me and called me Ash.
I got her into an actual hospital bed instead of the hard ER stretcher to try to help ease her, and she thanked me and called me Ashley.
As the early morning hours rolled by, she told me she wasn’t afraid to die and that she didn’t want to wake up in the morning. She worried about the stress her sickness was putting on her elderly father. I spoke to her about Hospice/Palliative care and the fact that daddies love their baby girls no matter the age, and she cried and thanked me and called me Ashley.
I love you, Thank you, Ashley
She finally got a room upstairs, and as she was being wheeled out, she said to me, “I love you. Thank you, Ash”.
You see, she had it in her mind that Ashley was my name because she didn’t remember me introducing myself as Melissa. But you know what? I have never been more proud to be called Ashley. My name didn’t matter…our time together as nurse and patient revolved around more important things.
We hope this story from a fellow travel nurse touched your heart as much as it touched ours. If you have a similar story and would like to share it, please send an email here.
Are you looking for your next travel nurse assignment? Click here to view our job board. Do you need housing for an upcoming assignment? Click here to search our housing page.
If you are a new travel nurse or looking into becoming a travel nurse:
Travel nursing plays an integral role in healthcare, often meeting needs that would otherwise go unmet. I am proud of the work we do at RNnetwork and all of the nurses we get to work with on a daily basis. I have seen firsthand the many ways that travel nursing changes lives. Here are just a few of them.
1. Delivering care (and caring) to those that need it most
Trauma nurse Kathleen Johnson treats all of her patients like family. When she started nursing in 1973, she joined the field because she loves people. She never really cared about making money. Since becoming a travel nurse, she has treated gunshot wounds in Chicago and other crime-related injuries in California. She said that she talked to those patients about their lives and how they can get out of crime.
“When people are sick, they have a certain open door, and we nurses can walk through it, and we can actually heal,” says Kathleen.
Nancy Abelson came to nursing later in life, graduating from nursing school at the age of 59.
“I love my job. I love my patients, and I love my coworkers,” says Nancy. “I’ve made so many connections with my patients that you take with you when you leave at the end of the day and that you remember. I feel a great deal of compassion for my patients. I’ve always wanted to serve a medical mission, and in many ways, this has been my mission field.”
2. Gaining balance between work and personal life
“The permanent game is great, but unfortunately, dialysis has a pretty high turnover. That can lead to staffing shortages, and the burden gets placed on those who are permanent,” Katie Elliott, PCT, says. “I was working a lot more hours than I wanted, and I didn’t really have any social time. When I found out about traveling, there was a lot that appealed to me. I especially liked that traveling gave me more control over when and how I work and didn’t burden me financially at the same time.”
3. Growing and finding yourself
“The personal growth I have experienced through travel nursing is something I didn’t expect,” says labor and delivery nurse Rachel Ronk. “I always expect to leave the hospital feeling like I made a difference. Those feelings weren’t new to me. But the feeling of growth and confidence instilled in me through traveling has been huge. I feel like I’m an entirely new person since I moved here. I never expected to be where I am right now. I’ve learned a lot about myself.”
“I didn’t realize I had as much in me as I have until I started traveling. And I didn’t realize how much of myself I was giving to others,” ICU nurse Angie Kyler shares. “I have always been there for my family, but I knew they had reached a stage where they could do it on their own. I needed to find my own focal point. Travel nursing has helped me find myself.”
4. Meeting your true love
Most nurses don’t take a travel job expecting to meet the love of their life, but it still happens. William and April Cantwell met when William was working a travel assignment at the facility where April was working. One thing led to another, and now they are a travel nurse family, traveling with their baby boy.
“When we started traveling, we explained to our recruiter that we only want to go to places that need at least two nurses,” says William Cantwell. “Everywhere we’ve gone was with the understanding that it’s a package deal. You don’t get me without her, and you don’t get her without me.”
5. Becoming part of a new community
ER, nurse Deb Kelly doesn’t take an assignment just for the job. She loves to throw herself into the local community as well.
“When I’m not working, there are things that I can do to get my mind off of work but also help. I love helping people. And if I’m not starting an IV or starting medication, then I’m going to help pass out food and try to help somebody’s weekend be better,” says Deb. “That kind of keeps me going.”
Travel nursing is more than a job, it’s a calling, and for those who do it, it changes their lives for the better every day. Whether it’s connecting with a patient, a coworker, or exploring a new part of the country, travel nursing offers many life-changing opportunities.
Lynne Gross is the president of RNnetwork, one of the nation’s leading travel nurse staffing agencies, and has more than 20 years of healthcare staffing experience. Since joining RNnetwork in 2011, Gross has held a variety of leadership roles in the company, including director and vice president. RNnetwork is part of the CHG Healthcare family of companies.
We hope you found this article on five ways travel nursing has changed lives helpful in your travel nurse journey. Have you found ways that travel nursing has changed lives? Comment them below.
If you are a new travel nurse or looking into becoming a travel nurse:
As if traveling as a medical professional for the first time isn’t a whirlwind in itself, let’s throw in a pandemic, and hey, why not top it off with a wildfire? That’s what 26-year-old Med Surg RN Stan John faced during his inaugural assignment as a travel nurse.
Getting His Start as a Travel Nurse:
First, let us give you some of Stan’s background. As the middle child of three boys, Stan grew up in Mumbai, India. He was 19 and in his first year of college when his family’s visa papers were processed, and they moved to the US, settling in Chicago almost seven years ago.
“We came to the US, and I had to start over from scratch,” he said, referring not only to rebuilding their lives here in the states but also to his progress in college. So, he enrolled in nursing classes at a local college.
Graduating in the spring of 2019 with a degree in his back pocket, Stan began working as a Med Surg RN at a Level 1 trauma and teaching facility in Park Ridge, Illinois. He met his then-girlfriend, Lynn, who was a CNA. And as they say, the rest is history. Stan and Lynn were hitched in March of 2020 in an online ceremony. You know, “COVID-style.”
Shortly after, he started the search for a travel assignment. Now, a year of experience is not much in the world of nursing. But Stan had charge nurse experience, and COVID-19 opened some doors for newer nurses who were desperately needed in hotspot cities all over the country. Plus, he was confidently up for the challenge of travel nursing in the middle of a pandemic. This is good because little did he know Stan would test his confidence.
Soon, Stan found himself chatting with more than 20 recruiters, creating profiles with dozens of different agencies, which, unfortunately, left him feeling like ‘just another number.’
“Most of the recruiters were just so proud, and they were like, ‘well, you don’t have experience,’” he said. “They were seeing me as a burden saying, ‘Oh, we can’t do anything for you.’”
Enter Mr. Coby Wallingford, Stan’s recruiter at Triage. Coby told Stan he would try his best, making him feel like an actual priority—a welcomed change of pace.
“Coby, his attitude was so humble; he focused on me and, you know, he saw me as a priority,” Stan said. “I was like, ‘man, this guy’s good,’ and that’s how I knew Triage was for me.” Coby helped him find an assignment in Oregon starting in August 2020.
This is Where it Gets Crazy:
As a US resident of only six years at the time, Stan wasn’t quite sure where Oregon was but heard it was beautiful. Once he found it on the map (wink), he and his wife, Lynn, headed West and began their travel nurse adventure together.
Fast forward a few weeks into his first assignment as a travel nurse. Lynn wakes him up—it’s 2:30 in the afternoon. The firefighters were knocking on their door, telling them they had to evacuate immediately because of wildfires ravaging the surrounding land and inching closer.
Throwing everything they owned in their car, they headed toward the hospital in Medford, where Stan worked. Generally, this is a call-out-of-work kind of event, but not in the life of a nurse. This is their “Clark Kent enters a telephone booth and emerges Superman” moment. Whenever disaster strikes, medical professionals are on the frontline—always.
“I called the hospital and said, ‘hey, I’m coming into work, but my wife is with me, and I need a place for her,’” he explained. They told him, no problem, get to the hospital safely.
Upon arrival, Stan was told to stay on standby because he was needed at a community hospital in Ashland, where the wildfires were known to have started. They were waiting for a police escort to open barricades and somewhere for Stan’s wife, Lynn, to go.
As luck would have it, Lynn’s former middle school teacher had moved to Southern Oregon from Chicago a few years prior. The teacher, now an angel in disguise, offered them a place to stay.
Knowing his wife was safe, Stan and another Triage travel nurse, Kathy, made the unforgettable trip to lend a hand to the small town victims. As police escorts were racing ahead of them to open barricades, Stan looked around at the highway ablaze. It was like a scene from a movie.
At that point, shh…. stuff got real, REAL quick.
Disclaimer: this is not a typical situation, obviously. It’s one we’re in awe of, which is why we took the time to talk with Stan about his and Kathy’s wild, crazy ride through the Oregon wildfires of 2020.
Stan describes what he saw:
Literally, there was a fire on both sides of the road we were driving through. I thought, ‘I can’t believe it; this is serious.’ All I can see is smoke and red blazing everywhere. Signs on the highways were burning; trees were burning, cars are exploding on the sides of the road—a bunch of cars. We were driving through it, and we were really close…I was scared.
Stan also knew that Ashland, being such a rural town, didn’t have multiple fire departments like where he lived in Chicago. It also had a heck of a lot more trees than Chicago.
“Everything was blazing in front of my eyes, the trees are burning, and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t even know where we could run to, the fire was too far,” he said.
Walking into the hospital, shoving aside his fear, Stan went into nurse-mode—consoling his patients who were terrified and distraught after losing everything they had.
With cell towers on fire, internet was spotty at best. Phones were down; people couldn’t communicate to their family they were safe (including Lynn, trying to reach Stan without luck). The hospital’s Epic system was down, so they had to chart the old-school way—paper and pen. When you’re dealing with heavy medication and a highly stressful situation where the possibility for mistakes is already greater…that’s an issue. But he and the staff kept their cool, knowing they had to be there for their patients to deliver the best care possible.
“You know, like 90% of the city of Ashland was destroyed,” he said. “So, I told them, ‘hey, you’re not alone over here. Other employees’ houses and businesses have burned down from the wildfire, so you are not alone. There will be a solution once everything finishes.”
Even though a literal dark cloud of the wildfire hung over them, every person there rallied around each other as members of the same community, facing the same horrific event.
“We all worked together in that hospital,” Stan said. And that’s exactly how they all made it to the other side of this ordeal safe.
No Regrets, Only Gratitude:
When asked if he wishes he had a crystal ball and could see a glimpse into the future before taking this assignment, he answered:
No, I’m glad I experienced this. It was scary, but I’m glad I went through this because I know how to react in these situations now. If a patient is hysterical, I know how to react and stay calm and get them to focus on the bigger picture of life. I can keep others calm, so I need to use the resources I have to help others during the situation.
Stan felt he was up to the challenge of his first travel nurse assignment being in the middle of a pandemic, and boy, did he deliver. The recruiters who told him he couldn’t hang—well, how do you like him now?
To say we’re thankful that both Stan and Kathy were safe throughout the wildfire is an understatement, and we’re beyond grateful to them for taking on this unexpected literal firestorm of an assignment. Situations like this wildfire are exactly why travel nurses and medical pros are needed, though. Smaller, rural communities across the US need help from professionals like these two. It’s why we do what we do.
What did he learn from the entire experience other than he’s pretty much a badass, and his superpower keeps people calm in insanely intense situations?
“I learned that America is a great country and we have a lot of resources here,” he said. “The government did stand up and make sure their people are safe and I knew the hospital would be the safest space to be. I’m very thankful for life and glad to be alive.”
The major takeaway from Stan’s travel nurse story?
“Be grateful for every day. I tell my patients that now, too,” he said. You heard him—nurse’s orders.
And this is why we refer to our medical professionals as heroes—because they are.
Finished the travel nursing guide and are ready to look for an assignment?
