For Avera nurse Christy Lee, it just works. She lives in Tea, SD, but enjoys the adventure of working exactly where she’s needed – even if it’s across the state.
As an internal travel nurse, she gets the professional growth opportunities of learning new roles on new teams at different hospitals.
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Yet she also has the advantages of being a full-time nurse with a health system, including a full range of employee benefit options. “For me, it’s the best of both worlds,” Lee said. “I had a lot of pediatrics experience, and I wanted to work with more adult patients, and this program let me do that,” said Lee, a registered nurse who took on a travel role on medical-surgical floor at Avera St. Luke’s Hospital in Aberdeen.
Compared to other travel opportunities and agencies, traveling within Avera as a single health system has many advantages.
“It’s so nice to not have to relearn things, because the electronic medical records, the charting system and the policies are the same,” Lee said. “In many travel nurse contracts, you only have a few days to complete all those steps, all while busy with patients and meeting your team.”
Choosing to Be a Travel Nurse With Avera
“When I learned about the travel program, I knew there would be a transition, and that it could be hard,” she said. “But I never felt out of place when I arrived, and I had a week of training before I went to Aberdeen.”
She had worked as a travel RN, so she knew the position had pros and cons. “There are usually recruiters. They seek you out and help you book jobs based on the distance from home, the type of care and the system,” Lee said. “After your contract is over, you might not have work for a while.”
Her work with Avera’s internal travel RN program is different:
- She only works at Avera sites, so she’s not relearning basic processes in new settings. This includes five regional Avera hospitals in South Dakota in Aberdeen, Mitchell, Pierre, Sioux Falls and Yankton, as well sites in Nebraska and Minnesota.
- Travel roles are offered in varied departments including ICU, emergency, women’s/children’s, dialysis and med-surg.
- Travel roles are available as full-time salaried positions.
- Contracts are six to 13 weeks, and when they end, she has a couple weeks away from work before the next.
- Nurses can go where their skills are needed most.
- RNs who travel can return to more traditional roles if they wish, after they complete a contract.
- She knows the duration at any specific site is finite; then she’ll move on.
Getting to meet new people, learn from them and contribute to a team that’s grateful for her contributions goes a long way for her, too. “It’s nice to have a team I can really get to know, working closely with everyone,” Lee added. “They made sure I felt as part of the care family on that floor.”
Extended Time with Family
Lee typically works three 12-hour days, then she’s home for four days. Sometimes she works for six days, with eight days off. “Even if I were working closer to home, I’d still be working 12-hour shifts,” she said. “In any 12-hour setting, you have to be away from family.”
When she’s home, she can catch up with her husband, Cole, and their 12- and 7-year-old kids. Lee also has three grown children. Since she often has bigger blocks of time off, she and the family can plan trips to her home state of Nebraska, or take vacations large and small. Christy and Cole plan a couple’s night or afternoon while she’s back.
“I enjoy catching up on the kids’ activities: football, cheer and school,” she said. “My husband owns his own business, so we have flexibility. If he had a more typical 9-5 job, I might not have this opportunity.”
“I’m really happy I tried this out. I’ve grown professionally, met many new friends and had a chance to learn about a new approach to my career.”
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