Any traveling nurses/medical workers out there?

MedTraveler · April 15, 2021

I am new to this forum and considering a full-time traveling worker lifestyle by 5th wheel RV. I was hoping to get feedback from you all regarding longer-term parking for RVs. Typically my contracts last for 3 months and I wouldn't want to take a contract where I had to constantly move my RV due to limitations on time or lack of availability at a particular campground/park. I'm wondering how you make this work. I realize I wouldn't take a job where I couldn't park my RV in a convenient location relative to work, but at first glance, finding places to park seems daunting. I work in medicine and there are a lot of opportunities out there right now in my line of work so there are options. Is there always the risk of ending up stranded without a place to land? I would rather avoid that sort of "fun" if possible. Or is it possible to plan ahead sufficiently to avoid such a scenario? Typically I only get no more than up to 1.5 months lead time in advance of each assignment which means traditional campground options are booked up and unavailable on such short notice. Any advice?

lappir · April 15, 2021

I have been a Travel Nurse since 1989 and a Full Time RVer since sometime in 2007 . It can be difficult at times to find a "Long Term" place to park, but I have never not found one where I want to go. I also don't interview for a position until after I have checked out a couple RV parks in the area using the satellite photos.

Rod

Twotoes · April 16, 2021

Not sure but I would think that rural areas, rather than urban, should have a greater demand for medical staff. Rural areas will have camp grounds nearby with available spaces. Urban areas have a larger population to draw upon and fewer nearby camp grounds.

lappir · April 16, 2021

4 hours ago, Twotoes said:

Not sure but I would think that rural areas, rather than urban, should have a greater demand for medical staff. Rural areas will have camp grounds nearby with available spaces. Urban areas have a larger population to draw upon and fewer nearby camp grounds.

The reality of health care staffing needs is there are needs everywhere. The more people the more need for healthcare providers. Specific needs are maybe more prevalent in a rural area. To my surprise, the most difficult location to find a summer parking spot occurred when I worked in Des Moines, Iowa.

I was born and raised in Iowa and felt there were many campgrounds and really didn't think I needed to stress about getting a location before committing to a position. Boy was I wrong. I had to go 30+ miles West of Des Moines to find a spot and all of my family I wanted to be close to were 90 miles Southeast. To me Iowa is about as rural as you can get, but I'm jaded by 30+ years of living there.

Florida is the second hardest location to find a spot, depending on the season. Colorado for me was third and by far, at least so far Oklahoma has been the easiest. KC Missouri I almost forgot was a bit difficult until I found a friend who had a friend who had a spot on his Acreage. Those sometimes are the best kind have had them in Florida, Iowa and Missouri so far.

Rod

MedTraveler · April 17, 2021

On 4/16/2021 at 11:05 AM, lappir said:

The reality of health care staffing needs is there are needs everywhere. The more people the more need for healthcare providers. Specific needs are maybe more prevalent in a rural area. To my surprise, the most difficult location to find a summer parking spot occurred when I worked in Des Moines, Iowa.

Very true. Lots of opportunities right now in my field of clinical lab work too. Thanks for the useful feedback on the rural vs. urban possibilities. What I've discovered after some intense searching - at least in this area (Cincinnati) - is that it is possible to find locations if you know where to look. I finally found a location here in town after asking a lot of more traditional camp site locations for referrals to other parks with possible long-term stay options and obtained contacts with some Mom and Pop parks that fit the bill. Some were surprisingly very near my current gig and were pretty reasonably priced as well. We are going to look at a site today.

Another tip is to search towns near rivers or bodies of water on Google for RV parks. Areas with tourist attractions can be difficult seasonally.

sandsys · April 17, 2021

There's an RV park in Durham, NC, that has mostly people living there while undergoing treatment. It's a lovely place with cheerful workers. I was only there long enough to do a dump and fill because I was living in a nearby parking lot but the staff made me laugh several times in those few minutes.

Linda Sand

JimK · April 29, 2021

Good luck finding a reasonably priced RV park in the San Francisco area. I am sure there are plenty of other examples and of course there will be other even densely populated urban areas with decent choices and availability.