My fourth Assignment! I can’t believe I was already on assignment number four! But let’s back track a bit.
As you recall, I was out in Boston, MA exploring the East coast all summer long prior to starting this assignment. During this time in Boston, my step dad was diagnosed with an advanced/aggressive cancer that metastasized to his brain.
I knew I needed to finish my current assignment, but I also knew that I needed to get home as soon as possible. This was not in my plan and I expected to continue to travel the United States but this became my priority.
I finished my assignment on a Friday, slept, and woke up early on Saturday morning to make the drive home. It was an emotional time for my family, but because of the flexibility I had with traveling, I was able to take the next 5 weeks off of work to stay at home to be with my family.
I didn’t need to work, I had money saved to live off of during this time and I was staying with my mother to help her during this time so my expenses were minimal.
I didn’t have anyone pressuring me to take on another assignment. I didn’t have a set amount of time that I was allowed to take off. And I surely didn’t have a boss pressuring me to return to work.
When my step dad passed during my time off, I knew my mom needed people around even more than she did before. However, I also knew I needed to return to work to continue my own journey. My sister had already moved in full time at this point, but I knew returning to traveling out of state was out of the question, so I explored other options.
Local-Traveling Assignment
I reached out to my recruiter about finding a job in MN near where my mom lived. We ended up finding a traveling assignment North of the Twin cities area not too far from where my mom lived. It was an outpatient clinic where I would be the only therapist on staff with a personal secretary.
This job was in the backwoods of MN in cabin country so I actually was able to stay at a family friend’s cabin for free during this time. This allowed me to be near work during the week, but still make it home every weekend to spend time with my family during this trying time.
I was paid the exact same as any other traveling assignment I had been on even though I wasn’t traveling far. I received my same tax free stipends and benefits. You may be asking yourself how this is possible since I was traveling so close to home?
So How is This Possible?
I started writing this section and realized how large this post was growing so I actually created a second post discussing how far away you need to work from your tax home to still receive your tax free stipend.
Hopefully, this will help explain this often very confusing part of traveling healthcare to make sure that you don’t miss out on your tax free stipend by making a mistake.
The Assignment
The assignment itself turned out to be great. As a traveler, I had full autonomy over my patients, my scheduling, and my clinic flow. I set up the clinic exactly how I would want one to run.
As a traveler, this is rare to be able to come in and make the changes you want to make to best optimize your care. The company put a lot of trust in me as a clinician but it turned out to be a very good fit for me. I met some amazing people here and my secretaries turned out to be like second moms for me. They still check in on me to make sure I’m doing okay.
Conclusion
I tell you this story not to make you feel bad for me, but to show you the flexibility that traveling healthcare has. There aren’t many full time jobs that would allow you to take 5 weeks off and then also work remotely near home for the next 16 weeks.
This just doesn’t happen. But with traveling it was fully possible. It was a very difficult time for my family, but with the flexibility traveling has, it definitely smoothed the process from a work perspective. This helped improve stress and allowed me to make the best out of an otherwise difficult situation.
As always, if you have any questions or want to get in contact with me about who I travel with, feel free to reach out to me here!
