Small Town Girl Enjoys New Experiences with Travel Nursing

“Finding the perfect hospital in the perfect place,” is the goal of Kim Tull, BSN, RN. She is a firm believer that travel nursing offers the best opportunity to do just that, and she is having a great time working at different hospitals and locales as part of her search.

In 2005, Tull earned her nursing degree from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho, where her family had lived since she was in sixth grade. She graduated from high school, stayed for college and accepted her first nursing job at the local hospital.

Tull worked in pediatrics, her specialty of choice. She enjoyed her job but, with only ten beds, the small unit didn’t offer the broad range of experiences she was seeking.

“I worked there for a year but I wasn’t being challenged in the way I wanted, and I longed to see new places,” Tull said. “Travel nursing seemed like the perfect way to take care of both needs.”

She and a friend signed on with American Mobile Healthcare, asked for a placement in the same city and were soon headed to their first assignments in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From there they moved on to Mesa, Arizona, where her friend was bitten by the love bug and decided to stay put.

Tull’s next assignment, in Oklahoma City, was her first solo trip—if you don’t count her two pet Chihuahuas who she brought with herShe also took them along to Southern California, where she has worked for. the past year, enjoying the region’s mild weather and wide variety of outdoor activities.

Tull is always eager to try whatever a particular area has to offer.

“In Oklahoma I hunted the red rose-shaped rocks that can only be found in that state, I gave skydiving a try and learned to surf in San Diego, and saw some spring training baseball games when I was in Arizona,” she said. “I also do things that tourists do—movie star home tours, Dodgers’ games and going to restaurants famous for celebrity sightings.”

Although she had never been a runner, the mild temperatures of San Diego beckoned Tull outdoors and she decided to give the sport a try. She found a runners’ “meet-up” group online and joined them for training runs. She has since completed a marathon and is now honing her swimming and biking skills, aiming to compete in triathlons.

Tull is well suited to the lifestyle of a traveling nurse.

“I like meeting people, making friends and keeping them,” she said, “and the meet-up groups put me in touch with people with similar interests. In addition to my running group, I also get together with people who have Chihuahuas. I adjust quickly to new work situations, too.”

All of Tull’s work assignments have been in pediatrics.

“I am so glad to be getting excellent professional experience in so many aspects of pediatric nursing,” she said. “With each assignment, I move to another pediatric specialty. Because I have an interest in learning more about peds patients with trachs and on ventilators, I asked to be placed on a unit with patients who have trachs and vents, which is where I’m currently working.”

Tull recently entered a two-year family nurse practitioner program at California State University in Long Beach.

“American Mobile Healthcare has a great tuition reimbursement program,” Tull said, “and free continuing education on RN.com.”

She avoids homesickness by using some of her time between assignments—up to 30 days off—to visit her family.

“My next break coincides with the holidays,” Tull said happily, “so I’ll be home for Christmas.”