How Kindness Inspires Action

Travel RT Brings New Opportunities

Meet Destiny J., RT in Maui, HI. Destiny joined AMN Healthcare in June 2015 after she went through a divorce- she knew she needed change and she met her AMN Healthcare recruiter, Tara, who Destiny describes as an “amazing person”. She went from a staff respiratory therapist in Dallas, TX to her first travel assignment in North Dakota. She loved the charm North Dakota offered, Mount Rushmore, and activities with coworkers. Due to the harsh winters, she changed locations and took a new assignment on the Big Island of Hawaii. During her time there, she visited the island of Maui and was enchanted. She told her recruiter to let her know if any assignments become available in Maui.

Months later, while on assignment in Colorado, Destiny received a message from her recruiter, Tara, saying, “Hey, are you ready for Maui?”. The answer was a resounding ‘yes’. Travel nursing, specifically in respiratory therapy, united Destiny with her dream location and eventually, her future husband.

Kindness Inspires a New Career

It was by no accident that Destiny found a career in respiratory therapy. When her son was young, he struggled with asthma, causing him to need the service of a respiratory therapist (RT). At the time, Destiny thought the RT was just another nurse. Her son’s RT filled her in about the role of an RT as Destiny witnessed the treatments. With two years of college under her belt, Destiny was unsure what direction she wanted to take her career. After learning about RT and conversations with her son’s RT, Destiny made up her mind within months to go to school to be an RT. She said, “my son is the reason I’m a respiratory therapist. He was four years old when I graduated from RT school. Now he’s twenty years old in a surgery technician program.”

Destiny describes her education and learning, “Respiratory therapy school was two years for an associates degree. I graduated and the hospital where I did my rotation picked me up to be a staff RT at Medical City Dallas. I did some per diem work on the side to build my skills, like at SNF (skilled nursing facilities), surgery centers, and rehab care.” Destiny worked in a variety of medical settings to collect skills and experience.

Kindness Lends to a Special Moment

Destiny shared a time she remembers kindness permeate and it Destiny started it. She describes, “I would practice every time I come into a patient’s room to state my name, explain what I need to do, and ask the patient if they need anything or need me to find a nurse. A majority of healthcare workers do this because we’re those types of people. I recently had a patient who was dying from cancer, and she was on the phone with her daughter, but I didn’t know she was on the phone because it was speaker phone and she didn’t have the phone up to her ear. So, her daughter heard everything. All the requests the mother was making, such as fixing her pillows, me walking around the room handing things to her... The daughter also heard my name because I introduce myself when I walk into the room. The daughter wrote a letter to the head of my department explaining what she overheard and about how well I was taking care of her mother.”

Destiny’s articulation and compassionate care paid itself forward, as kindness often does. Destiny’s kindness triggered the patient’s daughter to perform an act of kindness by writing a letter to Destiny’s boss. Destiny shared, “I have never been on assignment where I haven’t been asked to return. I’m a return traveler.”

Reflections from a Travel RT

“It [travel assignments] always seem scary because it’s the unknown,” Destiny explains, “Trust yourself and what you do. Trust your skills and your experience. Your name [reputation] will carry you further than anything.” Destiny describes the relationship with the hospital and their staff, “Professionalism and getting along with core staff is always important. They make you look good, and you need to make them look good. I’ve been asked to be hired as part of the core staff at least three times. But I turned it down, I wouldn’t have it any other way [but traveling].”

She talks about her experience with AMN Healthcare, saying “It starts with the recruiter. If I was ever having an issue, I’d go to her [Tara, the recruiter] directly and she would either handle it or take it directly to the department [the department that would handle her issue]. That’s why I refer people. She gives me the support that I know if I have a problem that she will handle it.”

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If you’re interested in a travel nursing adventure like Destiny’s, apply today.