Home > Career Options > Real Nurse Stories > Cristine Tyler

A Real Nurse Story: Cristine Tyler

Story Features

Email This Story Print This Story

Vincent Van Gogh once asked, "What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" Cristine Tyler can't answer that—she delights in the travel nursing career she had the courage to try, although she took the risk after a decade of hesitation.

"I had wanted to do travel nursing ever since I got into nursing in 1985," says the PCU RN, who works with heart-attack and heart-monitor patients. "Still, it took me 10 years to summon up the courage to give up everything I knew to be safe and routine. It was scary to face a complete change every few months. But I had decided I wanted a new niche and a new home, and traveling was a great way to explore my options."

Tyler gave herself a window of one to two years to try travel nursing. She determined that not even a worst-case first assignment would sabotage her new career direction. "Even if it's a horrible working environment, you know you're probably there for only 13 weeks, or 39 shifts," she can now rationalize. But in her seven years as a travel nurse, she has yet to regret an assignment.

In fact, traveling has shaped Tyler's choice of residence, her career, and even her love life. After 19 assignments with Cross Country TravCorps, the 37-year-old knows she wants to settle in Colorado. Travel nursing also has taught her how various hospitals operate, which is invaluable information for her career goal of becoming a legal nurse consultant. In addition, she met her boyfriend while on assignment in Virginia and hopes they can move to Colorado together.

The Elizabethtown, Ky., resident has sampled potential relocation habitats and hospitals through assignments in Colorado, Florida, California, North Carolina, Maine, and Virginia. Tyler's free shared housing always has been comfortable, and at times it would have been otherwise unaffordable, such as the $3,200-a-month quarters she had near San Francisco.

Wherever Tyler's assignments take her, her presence is much appreciated. In hiring traveling nurses, hospitals often gain personnel who are more adaptable and experienced than permanent staff. "Where I'm working now, the travelers are the unit's most seasoned nurses," Tyler says. "The other nurses come to us with their questions, but we can decline a leadership role if we wish."

Which nursing type offers the best advantages? That depends on your perspective. Per diem nurses and nurse residents may earn more salary than travelers, but as Tyler points out, they don't receive the tax-free housing compensation that travelers do. Permanent staff accrue vacation time and sick days, whereas travelers must save money to allow themselves time off. Yet permanent nurses also must deal with more stress.

"When I was working my permanent job, they could mandate that I work overtime and come in on my day off. Plus, I was all wrapped up in the office politics," Tyler explains. "Now when the staff complains about management, I can be compassionate and empathetic, but it's nothing that really affects me."

Tyler dreads the frequent packing and unpacking that her job necessitates, along with the eventuality of leaving newfound friends. On the bright side, she has accumulated friends throughout the country whom she can visit.

One day, Tyler will unpack her bags and stay at a destination. But she's in no rush to discontinue her traveling. "I have so much freedom now, I would have to gather up the courage to become a staff nurse again!"