December 2007
Since I've not written real monthly letters for most of this year, and I've gone without a full-time job for the better part of 7 months of this year, I thought it might just be easiest to write a summary letter for this year. The last travel letter you received was probably in April after my contract in Susanville, CA ended. I've been essentially unemployed from that point till now, so will end this year on the list of those who have no steady source of income. It has been a very difficult year, even on the job, but much more so without a regular paycheck.
Not that I haven't been down this road before, but I had hoped not to experience such an income drought again. My first time of extended joblessness occurred in 1996 after my remarkable trip to South Africa to visit family and missionary friends. It lasted an entire year, and when the Lord finally answered my prayers for a job, it was to send me back out on the travel nurse road to the town that has become my tax residence and one of my favorite cities in America: Fort Worth, TX. The second dry spell lasted 8 months of 2001.
Then in 2005 I worked 6 months of the year, spaced out three months on and three months out of work, so it wasn't quite such a difficult year financially. However, that particular period of not having work did have some basis in the fact that my brother Jonathan and his family were on furlough in the US, and I was trying to find work in very specific locations in order to be close enough to them to spend some quality time with them. Not that it matters much why you're not finding work, the result is loss of income and financial difficulties, which also tend to make your credit status less than stellar.
My current lack of work is totally unexplainable in human terms, nor do I expect to understand it unless someday in glory God lets me see how this fit into His "big picture". Many who only know that I'm a nurse are incredulous that any nurse could be jobless and unemployed at all, never mind for nearly 8 months consecutively. Even those who know me well are still astonished that jobs for me could be so elusive, because, despite my penchant for being quite particular about what nursing contracts I choose (also where and why), there are so many open nursing positions begging to be filled that it is really not understandable why I would be unable to find a job that would spark my interest.
Which is not to say that this is so...I rarely stop looking for work, even when I have a contract to which I am currently committed, because I've had contracts unexpectedly cancelled on more than one occasion. There is very little downtime for me when it comes to seeking the next contract, and I am constantly networking with other consultants, business acquaintances in other professions who could know someone who needs someone like me. So this year of being mostly unemployed has come as no small surprise to me more than anyone.
There have been some very attractive interim management opportunities to which I've submitted my profile, which have come to naught. In most cases, it is because someone else submitted and was a better "fit" than me in the estimation of the person doing the interviews. There have also been quite a few travel nurse staffing positions to which I've submitted my profile, some of which I've actually had interviews for, but more that have not even bothered to contact me for an interview. This is not an uncommon occurrence in travel circles, but with my resume, it's pretty amazing to have been ignored so many times by so many OR Directors, because there are very few travel nurses out there with more experience than I have!
Now, while I've failed to find sustainable work since April, there have been a couple contracts that I secured. Back in late September, I took a position in Hopewell, VA and worked there a total of three weeks. From the first day there I had a bad feeling about what was going on there, and it only took a few days to get proof that my suspicions were correct. Administration and management talked a good line, but the rank and file were not actually doing what Administration said they were, and very few of the staff (nurses and techs) in the OR were practicing what the policy manual in the OR said they should be doing.
In a hospital, in the medical profession, policies are the Bible all staff must follow in order to provide the correct standard of care to which the hospital subscribes and promises to it's patients. All businesses have policy manuals, most follow them to one degree of perfection or another, but usually a slack approach to policy enforcement doesn't make such a big difference. However, when it comes to the medical profession and patient safety policies, it is critical to follow them very closely. The national standard of patient care safety practices is not something that's optional in hospitals anymore: it's linked to financial reimbursement from the feds and insurance companies' payments on their patients' policies. Even if a nurse is not ethically and morally bound to provide the best standard of care to her patients, political and financial repercussions for patient care practices makes most hospitals jump through hoops.
So when I encounter a hospital that is blatantly saying one thing but doing something very different (and unsafe in violation of their policy manual), I have to be very sure that what I'm doing keeps me protected legally while I care for patients. If I can't get assurance that my legal standing is on very solid ground, I'll find a way to make the contract come to a premature end. That's what happened at this particular hospital, so it was with a great sense of relief that the hospital's Chief Nursing Officer informed me that they would no longer have need of my services.
It was scary to lose the job because I desperately needed the income, but it was even more frightening to have to contemplate continuing to work in an OR where the OR techs were in charge, patients were left unsecured on OR beds (one actually fell off the bed as she was waking up from anesthesia because no one was standing beside her and the safety strap had been released). There was widespread and blatant disregard of OR policies, and I couldn't work there anymore.
To complicate matters more, I had just purchased a "new" vehicle to replace my Jeep, and I was once more facing car and car insurance payments without a job. My "new" vehicle is a Toyota Sequoia Ltd. V-8...the Beast... as I fondly call it. The tale of how this purchase came about is another story altogether, which is in draft form at the moment. The purchase of the Beast also forced me to take a trip to Texas to register, title, and license it so that it would be street-legal. Some have wondered why I didn't just license it in NC, since that's where it was purchased and where I happen to be "living" at the time, but I haven't changed my legal state of tax residence, which is TX. So, if I had attempted to register it here, I would also have had to apply for a NC driver's license, which would have necessitated changing my state of residence, and that is not something I'm prepared to do again until I am able to purchase a home of my own and settle down (hopefully in AZ).
The trip to Texas was facilitated by the early termination of my contract in VA, and the weather cooperated right up to the final day of the trip, and then the heavens wept for two days solid as if to make up for their lack of effort all summer long. If you haven't followed the news of weather across the nation, the Southeast has been experiencing severe drought since May, and at this time NC is still in the midst of a severe drought such as we've not experienced in recorded history of rainfall in this area, I believe. Some counties have gone so far as to limit the allotment of gallons available to each household, with heavy price increases for using more than your limit.
Upon my return to NC from my trip to Fort Worth, TX, I was fortunate to secure another staffing contract right nearby in Concord, NC just about an hour from Greensboro. I had high hopes for that contract, but it was also not going to work out. The woman who interviewed me told some untruths about the OR, agreed to an orientation that she reneged on once I was there, and they weren't prepared at all for properly orienting travel nurses. When the OR turned out to be much larger than I had been told, with more extensive types of surgery than I had been informed of, I asked for a whole day of orientation in all 4 of the major specialties they serve. The CNO was not happy with this request, believing erroneously that travel nurses only need minimal orientation in order to be able to "hit the ground running" in any facility.
So, because I wasn't immediately able to function comfortably on a computer system I'd never seen before (and they didn't have a test program to train travelers with), and I asked for 4 days of orientation in the rooms (beyond the first day of general orientation and paperwork orientation), they decided that I wasn't a good fit for this contract. With their attitude, and that of most of the OR nurses I met in my 4 days there, I wasn't unhappy to end that contract either, even while it was once more jeopardizing my already shaky financial status. People who believe you can short-circuit the orientation process of a travel nurse, which is always short anyway, also believe that it's not legally irresponsible to bypass policies and turn a blind eye to incorrect practices, which I was seeing happening in that OR in the few days I was there.
Since the end of that contract November 8th, I have had nothing else come up in the way of steady work. I did get to work a strike in CA this past week, December 12-18, which provided me a nice paycheck to help me through most of January 2008 if I'm very frugal. This strike is very likely to be repeated (another 5-day strike) the end of January, so if I'm not gainfully employed by then on a normal contract, then that will be another week's worth of pay to help me get through February. Supplemented by unemployment checks, the generosity of my parents in allowing me to live in their home, and some financial shoring up, I'm not destitute. The Lord provides for my needs, and while it is difficult to be on such "short rations", I lack for nothing.
When it became evident that work was eluding me, I finally swallowed my pride to file for unemployment benefits from CA, and was approved. While the hospital in Susanville tried to disqualify me from eligibility for that unemployment, my excellent records, good friends being willing to provide testimony for me and the Lord's mercy helped me prove my worthiness for continued unemployment benefits. Winning that court battle was a blessing that has extended into the end of this year, enabling me to continue to scrape by with paying bills.
Something else momentous happened this year in October: I turned 50!! Still hard to believe I've become a half-century old, but the numbers don't lie. Gladly, most people refuse to believe my age, so I can still pass for a lot younger. AARP has accepted me among their ranks of members, so I've got another resource for cost-savings in a variety of areas. I guess the Toyota was the most expensive birthday present I've ever given myself...if you look at it from that perspective. Meanwhile, I have been planning for and praying about a trip to Israel during my year of Jubilee.
The other big change in my life this year has been a broadening of my spiritual life into an area that I'd never known before. I've been attending a Messianic congregation full-time since April, and that's one of the most significant benefits that have come into my life as a result of my unemployment. Worshipping in the ancient Hebraic ways, celebrating the Jewish festivals set down in the Old Testament, learning songs of Hebrew worship taken from the Scripture, all this and more have enriched my spiritual life this year. Messianic worship brings a third dimension of understanding, insight and blessing to me and has renewed my joy in the Lord and His service.
So in September and following, I experienced my first ever Rosh Hashanah, Yom Terua/Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Hanukkah this year. My new congregation, Valley of Blessing, has designed a custom tour of Israel which we were hoping to make in late March 2008, but due to lack of sufficient numbers signed up for the trip, we have had to postpone it. Hopefully, Lord-willing, we'll be able to reschedule it for October 2008, which will allow me to make my first Alliya (going up to) Israel during my personal year of Jubilee! That will be most exciting and fulfilling for me, as I have longed to experience Israel for over twenty years now.
Please pray with me that the Lord will allow me to see His chosen land and the people of His heart in this year of Jubilee for me, and find a place of ministry to them while visiting. My involvement in a Messianic congregation has renewed my love for the people of Israel, and my desire to find a means of being a witness and minister to them somehow. Thus, to say that this year has been extremely difficult in many ways is no small statement, but it has also been a year of incredible blessings and joy in serving the Lord. Not long after I had been regularly attending VOB, I woke one morning with a Hebrew song on my lips, and I now have a repertoire of thirty or more songs written in Hebrew which I've committed to memory and heart. Singing Psalms and scriptural prayers in Hebrew is such a joy to me, and I love the richness of worship they bring to my heart.
As 2007 ends, with my family all in Suriname, serving the Lord as missionaries there; one nephew, Matthew, in Turkey on an extended missionary tour; most of the family on my mother's side serving the Lord on various mission fields in Africa; my father's brother and one of his sons serving as missionaries in Brazil, I find that I have much for which to be thankful!!! Our God is a great God, a loving and merciful God; one Who keeps His children safely wherever He has placed them; Who daily loadeth us with benefits. What a privilege to be called the children of God, and share such blessings with all those of God's family. May 2008 bring us each many opportunities to serve Him in purity and truth. I trust you will each have a wonderful holiday season with family and friends, celebrating the reason we cherish this season, not the shallowness of mere giving and receiving of temporal gifts.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Love,
Debbie
