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A Nurse’s Voice: Allie Davis, BSN, RN

Allie Davis, BSN, RN, meets with us about her life as a traveling nurse. In this video, Allie Davis, RN with years of experience, shares the pros and cons of being a travel nurse. She also offers tips on how to make the most of your travel nursing career! Allie has traveled with us for 4 years to several different locations, but she is loving Florida at the moment.  Her husband works remotely, so he is able to travel with her on her assignments. We often wonder how people choose their profession and what inspires them to work as a healthcare professional. Allie’s grandmother allowed her come along to Guatelmala in the summers and help with medical needs when she was in highschool. Allie grew a passion to help people no matter who they are and where they are. Her kindness and caring personality shows through this interview. To no surprise, working in the medical field can be difficult. She opens up with some ways she deals with stressful days on the job.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: All right. Good morning, Allie. How are you?

Allie Davis, RN: I’m good, how are you doing?

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: I’m so glad you were able to join us or me specifically, actually, but I’m glad that you’re meeting with me.  So, OK, tell us where you are.

Allie Davis, RN: So, currently I’m in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: That is great.

Allie Davis, RN: Yeah, and this is actually my condo that I’m currently renting. And this is part of the bay. So, we’re just like ten minutes from the beach. It’s glorious. So every off day I try to do something, you know, it’s like every off day is a vacation.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: I’m…I’m really jealous. I’m like. It’s cold, I’m wearing a jacket. It’s cold at Memphis. So, let’s get started with the first question because I sent you the list, but we’ll get started on the few questions that I have. So. How did you find Travel Nurses, Inc.? And what made you choose to travel with our agency?

Allie Davis, RN: So, I found Travel Nurses, Inc. by actually an older employee of ya’ll’s, Sebastian. He went to nursing school with me, and I actually graduated with Shane Garner as well. Yeah. And I had like posted on our graduation nursing page.

We still had like a Facebook page and they’re like, Hey, if anybody’s interested in travelling like I work for Travel Nurses, Inc. And I was like, okay, maybe in a couple of years after I get my first couple of years under my belt, I’m interested in traveling.

Literally, I hit my two year mark and I was contacting Sebastian, I was like, OK, I’m ready to travel. Let’s go. What can I do? And I just felt super comfortable with him and Shane, and I’ve loved the company. I’ve been with you guys for quite some time now. So, it’s great.

 

 

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: So, how many years were you in nursing, like actively a nurse before you started? Like, how many years ago was that?

Allie Davis, RN: So, that was four years ago. So, I’ve been travel nursing for four years.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: That’s awesome. That’s great. I’m glad that you like it because like, that’s a long time in traveling.

Allie Davis, RN: Yes, I’ve actually it’s been a blessing because I did like travel travel for about two and a half years and then my husband and I, we just kind of wanted to stay somewhere a little bit longer, kind of plant our roots a little bit more permanently, not… forever, permanently, but for a little bit longer than a few months. And so we actually came back to St. Petersburg, which is where our first travel contract was. We just fell in love with the city of St. Pete, and were like, look, we can get this condo literally right on the water, you know, for what we’re paying for our mortgage here.

So let’s make the move. And I’ve been doing local contracts for the past two years, and I would like to continue to do that for a little while longer, at least.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: Yeah, that’s awesome. And…So, what inspired you to become a nurse?

Allie Davis, RN: What inspired me? So my grandmother, I call her my Grammy, she is actually now a retired nurse. But when I was in middle school, she really wanted me to come to Nicaragua on a medical mission trip with her, my grandfather, and their church group.

And I’d never really been away from home long. I’d definitely never been out of the country. And at this point in time, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian. I knew I wanted to be in health care some type of way, like I wanted to be… help healing someone or something.

And… so I went to Nicaragua with her. We were there for two weeks and I worked alongside of her and getting to see her be a nurse and interacting with these people in these different communities, listening to their complaints and needs, and her being able to help diagnose and medicate and do her assessments; I was just wowed. I was like, just something clicked in me. I was like, This is it. This is what I’m supposed to be doing. So I went for the next, like six years in a row with her. And then once I graduated from nursing school, I was actually able to, like, play the role as an actual nurse, which that was amazing to do as well.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: So that is so cool.

Allie Davis, RN: Yeah!

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: Thank you, Grammy.

Allie Davis, RN: Yes. Love you.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: That’s awesome. I’m so jealous. Like I’ve been on. I’ve been to a few like trips like that, but never actively. But I’m not a nurse, so never actively like doing something like that. So that’s super cool. How do you… Let me rephrase this. How does it feel when you are in the nursing community? Like just to be a part of that?

Allie Davis, RN: It feels if I had like one word to describe being in the nursing community, I would say it’s empowering. For the most part, we all have each other’s back like we know what it’s like the everyday hustle and bustle, especially as long twelve hour shifts.

It’s not easy. It’s not for the faint hearted, but it’s so rewarding at the same time. So being able to be a part of that community and especially during this COVID pandemic,

it’s been crazy for everybody. And definitely no way to sugarcoat it.

It’s been really rough. But being a part of the community and just being able to have each other’s back and we all kind of have this understanding of we…we got this, we can do this. Let’s keep pushing through.

We we’ve got to do this for our patients and for our loved ones. And so it’s definitely empowering.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: But that’s a perfect word like, I’m so glad that you had that because that’s perfect. How do you go about finding housing while on a travel nurse, well, obviously you said you just got this condo, but beforehand, how did you get housing?

Allie Davis, RN: So we actually learn the hard way. I did Craigslist and got scammed, so but we have also done Craigslist since. Yes, I know we’re crazy and it has worked. So just please do your research, please. Because there are scammers everywhere.

Don’t ever mail any check or any money or anything. Face time. Zoom, whatever you do to reassure, get references. So we…hit a miss on Craigslist. Another big one that I really, really enjoyed using was Furnished Finder because it’s free to use, you don’t get charged for services.

We’ve done Airbnb in the past, but those services… service charges can add up like crazy, especially if you’re doing somewhere for a few months. It can really, really add up. So Furnished Finder was a great thing, and you have to be in the medical field to do a profile.

So there’s a lot more trust in the community of Furnished Finder and everything is, hence, furnished typically. And they do expect…because your average length of stay is going to be 13 weeks, typically, now some you’ll have like four week contracts are eight week contracts, but typically they’re 13 weeks, which for some renters that aren’t used to renting to the medical traveling medical field… is kind of a long stint. So they’re like, no, I won’t. Kind of turn and burn type deal. So, the Furnished Finder was great. We used that multiple times.

 

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: Oh, OK. Well, that is good to know. That’s great.

Allie Davis, RN: And really quick. Also Gypsy Travel Nurse page on Facebook. Great site for finding housing and stuff as well. We’ve had some luck with there and we’ve been able to help our fellow travel nurse friends find housing on that Facebook page as well.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: OK, awesome. So, OK, so you find these houses, you find locations. What drives you to go to certain locations? Is it your family? The pay adventure? Like what drives you to go to different places?

Allie Davis, RN: So definitely all of it plays a part. But I hate the cold. Yeah, I’m in Florida. And so seasons and like weather would have a huge impact on it and obviously pay and you have to compare the pay compared to the housing crisis.

So it just depends. Like when we did Connecticut, for example, Connecticut has a very long and harsh winter, but I wanted a like a nice snow at least once. But there everybody always talks about the foliage and like their fall, how beautiful it is, and you have to see it.

So when we went and did Connecticut, their summers are pretty mild, so we did the end of their summer, like end of July we were there all the fall, which was absolutely beautiful. If you’ve not been, it’s like Connecticut New England area, you got to go.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: Yeah, I’ve never been so.

Allie Davis, RN: It’s beautiful.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: I’m going.

Allie Davis, RN: Like the landscapes literally looked like the paintings that you see of the different colored trees, and it was magical. And then we got a couple of big

snows and we were out of there by mid-December. So, we got to see some, like two really cool snows.

Allie Davis, RN: And then I was, I’m over it. I’m ready to go back to warm weather.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: Yeah, you’re in the middle. You got kind of got a feel of several seasons summer, fall and winter. That’s..that’s cool.

Allie Davis, RN: That was great because we…we extended, so it was nice.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: So, do ya’ll also like find places…on our website, you know, like that you’ve never been in, you’re trying to travel there and go adventure like at those… like the mountains or whatever like because, you know, there’s always a hot spot at some point.

Allie Davis, RN: There’s always a hot spot. Yes, absolutely. Definitely. Seeing where the needs are… that would always be like one of the big conversations I would have with my recruiter is just like, you know…Because seasonally, different areas have higher needs and the pay is better.

So, I would just kind of outweigh the pros and cons for that. But when I was growing up, we didn’t really travel much. So getting to be like a travel nurse and doing travel nursing gave us a lot of experience to be able to travel and go and see.

So everywhere I went, I’d never been before. So it was every day was a total new adventure and I would really try to push myself to every single off day like, all right, let’s get up, let’s go do something, let’s check out something.

So, every day was an adventure. It was great.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: That…you’re… You’re living the life…. So, your husband travels with you?

Allie Davis, RN: Yes, he does. And he works remote. He does online sales. So it’s been great. Very flexible….Very fortunate.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: That’s awesome. Like he so he works remote, so wherever you go, he can go on you travel assignment?

Allie Davis, RN: Absolutely, I would…I would… My husband’s my best friend. I would not be able to do this without him. It would… It would not be easy. It would not be near as fun. So, we’re very blessed and very fortunate to be able to travel together.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: Oh yeah, that’s so awesome. And ya’ll have been married the whole time you’ve been…

Allie Davis, RN: Yes, Yes! We started dating like a year before I got into nursing school, so he’s been there through it all. And we got married. I told him he had to wait until I graduated nursing school before we could get married.

Allie Davis, RN: So, I graduated a few months later, we got married.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: That’s awesome…So, like you just… you have the cute little life. So, okay, final question. How do you take care of yourself after a difficult shift?

Allie Davis, RN: Girl, now these shifts can be rough and we’re stuck… I mean, we say twelve hour shifts, but it’s always 13 like always at least 13 hours, so it just depends. But definitely like when I get home, the first thing I do is go and take a hot shower and I light candles, because candles just make me just relax and breathe and calm down. And if it’s been really bad, I’m definitely having a glass of wine and I love to watch just anything to kind of get my mind off of just all the seriousness that goes on at work.

Allie Davis, RN: So any funny sitcom like right now I’m rewatching New Girl, it’s the best.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: Oh my gosh, we love New Girl at Travel Nurses, Inc. We talk about it all the time.

Allie Davis, RN: It’s hilarious! I want Schmidt to be my best friend.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: I got the vibe that you would love that show.

Allie Davis, RN: It’s great. Absolutely. So anything like that just to kind of help me unwind. And especially if I have to work the next day, just kind of not have me focus on

the next day, but just enjoy the present and good old Schmidt and Jessica Day.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: Yes, Well, thank you so much for doing this, and it’s good for people to like, see like what a real travel nurse looks like and like how fun or not fun it can be. So I thank you for answering my questions and just being real and being yourself.

Allie Davis, RN: Absolutely. Love you guys. I appreciate all you’ve done for me again. Love Travel Nurses, Inc. Love travel nursing. It’s been such a blessing. And you know, if I wasn’t doing this, I would just be doing the same thing, but I would be at home and not near as happy because you’re going to have hard shifts anywhere you work and you’re going to have bad days anywhere. So it’s all about making the best of it and the best of your surroundings.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: Yeah, that’s… You have such great sayings. You’re just spitting… great knowledge.

Allie Davis, RN: That’s what I’m here for.

Megan, Travel Nurses, Inc. Interviewer: Well, I thank you. I hope you have a great rest of your contract and a great rest of your week, and I can’t wait to hear back from you again.

Allie Davis, RN: All right, thank you for doing a good day.

 

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