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 With a nursing career spanning several decades, Kathryn (Kat) Madigan, RN, has only managed to gain more enthusiasm and passion for her career with each passing year.
“I’ve been in nursing since my Navy days back in 1971,” Madigan said. “I mostly did cardiac care and then I was a perfusionist for 14 years; then I went back to the OR to work on trauma cases.”
An operating room nurse currently on assignment in San Diego with travel staffing company American Mobile Healthcare, Madigan has been an avid traveler her whole life and lives each day with a “can-do” attitude.
“All of my jobs have included traveling. For the better part of my career I have traveled,” Madigan said. “I like the diversity, I like the self-imposed challenge that traveling offers.”
Madigan has completed assignments in Phoenix, Arizona; San Diego, California; Detroit, Michigan and Laurium, Michigan, during her four years of travel with American Mobile but had to search around to find the right agency that was a match for her active lifestyle.
“I was fortunate enough to have picked the wrong company at first and that mistake pointed me in the right direction,” Madigan said. “I’ve been very happy with American Mobile.”
Madigan credits her positive traveling experiences to Lance Bowman, recruitment manager at American Mobile who has worked with her since the start.
“I got to talking with traveling companies and wasn’t too thrilled,” Madigan said. “I kept getting calls from travel nursing companies and before Lance, it was like pulling teeth. He held my little hand while I whined and complained.”
Originally from Detroit, Madigan cannot get enough of the gorgeous California sunshine and abundance of activity she has experienced while on assignment in “America’s Finest City.”
“I’m lovin’ it here in San Diego,” Madigan exclaimed as she took a walk outside her condo. “I love getting exercise out here in the sunshine.”
Always up for a new challenge and fresh experience, Madigan decided to take up the sport of ice hockey at the age of 51. In addition to being a fierce hockey player, Madigan also satisfies her exploratory whims by teaching and mentoring other nurses.
“I like to teach new nurses, to try to encourage them,“ she explained. “I try to get people back to the beginnings of nursing—to caring for people.”
Madigan’s passion for life and the profession of nursing undoubtedly spreads to all who talk to her. Although she was apprehensive about travel nursing at first, she found she couldn’t have made a better decision for herself.
She hopes to pay off her house in Michigan soon thanks to the money she has earned during her years as a travel nurse, and encourages new nurses to explore the option of travel nursing.
“It’s the one job where you know you will never be out of work. It’s exciting to pick up your stuff and head out to a new place,” Madigan said. “I think it is the greatest thing in the world to get you off your behind and get out there.”
When asked what the most rewarding part of traveling is for her, Madigan’s answer summed up her aura completely: “Finding out that you can go anywhere and do anything.”
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