Travel Nurse Experience: Novant Health-New Hanover Regional Medical Center

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I was cramming to get another job after having a 4-week vacation in the Philippines. My recruiter sent me 4 options/hospitals that matched what I was looking for. Without doing prior research (as I usually don’t), I based my pick on how much the hospital pays relative to the hours worked. Plain, simple data. So I picked New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Easy decision, I thought. There was a catch (of course) and I would find it out later as I go. 

After signing up with the hospital, I went to do my research about the hospital. By now, you can tell I am not good at doing due diligence at all. I usually do my research after the fact rather than before like a normal person would do. So I am a member of a known Facebook group for travel nurses and out of nowhere I’ve decided (this was my research) to quickly check on some feedback from nurses who have previously worked in NHRMC, and guess what, most of them were negative–words that are definitely not exciting. But of course, I don’t believe everything that’s said on social media as some people tend to exaggerate their experiences even though it was mediocre at best. So I am still giving the facility a benefit of the doubt. 

My first week went fine. We had the usual class orientation, brief history of the facility and presentation of their policies. One of the educators seemed nice though, the other lady was a bit snub, smiling was not in her work to-do list. I also had the chance to visit the unit I am going to be assigned to. It was a Neurosurgery unit. I also met the unit manager, Josh. He had this supportive-dad aura in him. That was my first impression of him, and judging by how he composed his emails that were sent to the team, I was convinced. I was scheduled to work 48 hours per week based on the agreement. If I did some research and I cared, I think I would probably not sign-up for a 48-hour week if I knew that the nurse to patient ratio was 1:7. My jaw dropped when I heard it right out of Josh’s mouth. Yes, 1 nurse with 7 neurosurgery patients under his care. Hold on, it gets more exciting. 

As a travel nurse, you get to be the first one to float to a different unit. In this case, I was not only floated once per week, but up to 3-4x per week. I was everywhere. Almost every unit in the hospital, except for ICU and ED. I could have complained a lot, but I know it would not help the situation any better. So instead of quitting, I rode with it. I simply reminded myself that I’ve experienced way worse than what I was currently experiencing. If I could compare my experience with NHRMC to an airline cabin class, I’d say it’s a solid Premium Economy, there’s a little bit of leg room to stretch. Since I learned that I was able to get some “stretch” I extended for 8 more weeks to get through the holidays. 

So if I’d be asked about my experience with NHRMC I think I would say: “It was not bad, but it could’ve been better.”

And if I were to give them stars like in Google Reviews, I would give NHRMC 3 out of 5. One for the wonderful and helpful people I have worked with (some staff and fellow travelers), the second is for the unit I was assigned to (when I’m working in my unit), and the third is for their systems and technology (Epic EMR system and relatively new equipment). 

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