Life is looking very different these days than
it was 6 months ago- to the point that I need to change the tagline for this
blog! I am no longer working as a travel OT!
After almost 3 years to the day, I threw in the
towel on my travel OT lifestyle and started putting down roots. It was time.
In truth, I never expected to travel for so
long. It started as a great way to try out a variety of employment settings
while getting a jump start on paying off my student loans- and getting to
explore new parts of the country was just an extremely nice perk. And then I
made my final student loan payment- hooray! But I was still having fun
traveling and I was still gaining valuable new work experience…and I wasn’t
really sure where I wanted to settle when I stopped travelling. Frankly, it was
easier to keep taking new travel assignments than it was to contemplate a
permanent position. So I kicked that can down the road a couple of times, until
I couldn’t justify doing it anymore.
Fast-forward through a few months of big
decisions, hard work, and steep transitions, and here I am, living in Denver,
Colorado, enjoying the first snow fall of the season.
I’m renting my own little apartment in
Englewood, a suburb a few miles south of Denver. Having been on the road for the last three
years, I didn’t actually have any furniture, so that had to be remedied pretty
quickly. My dad drove out with his big Suburban and we spent one hectic weekend
picking up all the Craigslist and consignment shop items I’d placed on hold and
making a couple of trips to Ikea and Home Depot, as well. My mom flew out the
following week to help me with the organizational and decorative side of things
and my apartment came together really nicely. Thanks, Mom and Dad!!
As you may know, Denver is experiencing a huge
influx of young people- primarily Midwesterners of the outdoorsy persuasion
seeking big city opportunities, but also large numbers of people disillusioned
by the high cost of living along California coast.
Denver has a number of well-reputed hospitals,
which was one of my criteria when picking a city in which to ‘go perm,’ as temp
staffers like to say. Unfortunately, Denver is SO popular with young
professionals that there is no need for hospitals to hire people directly into
full-time positions with benefits. Instead, they offer ‘per diem’ positions. People always ask me what ‘per diem’ means, so
here it is, straight from Merriam-Webster:
per diem
2: paid by the day
As a healthcare professional, this means that
you are on-staff, but that you have no guaranteed hours (or benefits). You get
called in as needed. You may get called in to cover a full maternity leave, or
you may get called in just for the day because someone is out with the flu.
Some people absolutely love the flexibility
this arrangement offers. As a single person moving to a new city, however, it
all sounded a little precarious to me. I wanted assurance that I would have reasonably
steady work- and therefore a reasonably steady income!
So, I ended up taking 2 per diem positions, one
at Craig Hospital, and one at Swedish Medical Center. Conveniently, these two
hospitals are literally right next to each other.
Swedish is a 400-bed acute care hospital while
Craig is a rehab hospital that specializes in brain injury and spinal cord
injury. Craig Hospital has been on my radar for a number of years now because
it is considered one of the best rehab hospitals in the country so I’m pretty
excited to be working there, even if it is just per diem.
And, contrary to my fears, there has been no shortage
of work so far! Both hospitals have been
offering me full-time hours, so I actually have to turn down requests to work
on a regular basis. Between the 2 facilities, I’m working 6 days per week at least
two weeks per month and the learning curve at Craig is quite steep, so life has
been busy!
I’ve still managed a few adventures
since I arrived in Denver (In case you were worried!!) and am hoping to touch
on them in my next post.
