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A Real Nurse Story: Rodney Daly

In the last year and a half, Rodney Daly has been a nurse at Easter Seals camps in Colorado and California, taken two trips to Russia, and worked as a telemetry nurse at hospitals in Ohio, Washington, and California. In the midst of all this, he even managed to sneak in a vacation to New York City.

It may sound like an unusually busy and chaotic schedule, but this is simply a normal year in Rodney's life.

"I just love adventure and meeting new people," he says. "Everything that's happened in my life has been [good] luck."

It was definitely luck that brought Rodney to nursing. He was in his early 20s when his employer at a local bowling alley encouraged him to go to nursing school with her. He decided to join her and since that time, his life hasn't been the same.

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Moving to Florida a few years after graduation, he met travel nurses who told him about a lifestyle that would allow himto live in a new place every three months. He signed up with a travel-nurse agency nine years ago and hasn't stopped moving; he's worked all over the country.

"And there's still so much to see and do out there," he says. "Traveling has led me to so many different experiences and people. I hope to do this until I retire."

For a change of pace from the hospital setting, Rodney spends his summers as a nurse at Easter Seals camps for disabled adults and children. It was an opportunity "that just fell into my lap," he remembers, when he asked his travel company to find him a job as a camp nurse.

Although Rodney didn't particularly want to work at a camp for sick kids, he changed his mind after a recruiter, desperately looking for a nurse, told him an Easter Seals camp would have to close for the summer if a nurse couldn't be found. Rodney took the job-and loved it.

"I've met so many amazing people and heard so many inspiring stories. It makes you want to do more, just knowing these people are so happy and energetic," he says.

Rodney's primary job at camp is nursing-administering medications and taking care of the typical camp emergencies-but he also participates in the daily activities and evening events. And his experiences at camp even led to the serendipitous adventure of traveling in Russia. While at camp, he learned to clown, and later used that skill when he took a trip to Russia to clown in orphanages, nursing homes, and hospitals. Rodney arranged his original trip through Patch Adams' organization, the Gesundheit! Institute, joining 30 other medical workers, professional clowns, and volunteers from around the world for a two-week tour.

He's since returned to Russia several times, working with an organization called Maria's Children, which offers a summer arts camp for Russian orphans aboard a boat on the Volga River. Rodney is part of a group of international volunteers who teach clowning, circus arts, painting, music, and dance.

"It's such a confidence-booster for them," says Rodney. "It gives them a lot of positive feedback they might not normally experience."

The rewards of his work are almost too many to mention; in fact, when you ask Rodney how these experiences have changed his life, he replies, "How much time do you have?" Foremost in his mind, however, is that he's become a better nurse. Because he's used different technologies and medications in the various hospitals in which he's worked, and has experienced so many unique cultures and personalities, he says he now tends to look at patients more as individuals.

"I try to talk to each patient about [his or her] plan of care and adapt the plan to individual needs," he says. "I didn't always do that in the beginning of my career."

If you want to know more about Rodney's experiences, keep an eye out for the book he's writing on his life as a travel nurse. It promises to be an adventure story you won't want to miss!