{"id":327,"date":"2012-11-20T16:37:02","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T16:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/?p=327"},"modified":"2012-11-20T16:53:24","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T16:53:24","slug":"from-rural-root-to-big-city-life-of-a-travel-nurse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/from-rural-root-to-big-city-life-of-a-travel-nurse\/","title":{"rendered":"From Rural Roots to Big City &#8211; Life of a Travel Nurse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-331\" title=\"travel nurse adventures\" src=\"http:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/iStock_000022137079XSmall-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"travel nurse adventures\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/iStock_000022137079XSmall-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/iStock_000022137079XSmall.jpg 422w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>I grew up in a very small town in rural Massachusetts, and by very small, &nbsp;I mean an absence of traffic lights and real traffic for that matter. A place most might refer to as a &lsquo;one-horse town&rsquo;, which was fine when I was young. It meant I basically had free rein to run around all over the neighboring woods and enjoy the comforts of knowing everyone in my town on a first name basis.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward twenty-something years, where I found myself graduating from the University of Boston with a B.S. in nursing and starting off my new and exciting life in nursing. And of course, where was my first assignment? Right back home! Who&nbsp;would&#8217;ve&nbsp;thought that after living in the big city of Boston I&rsquo;d end up right back to my roots, but there I was, tending to my neighbor&rsquo;s great grandmother who was in the final stages of dementia and needed round the clock care. The way I looked at it was that I should relish this time at home, after all, who knows when I might be able to spend this amount of time with my family. I got to cheer on my teenage brother as he made the winning layup to claim our local High School&rsquo;s State Title that year and also photograph my younger sister with her boyfriend as they headed to prom together.<\/p>\n<p>Soon after, I received my new assignment taking me all the way across the country to Butte, Montana working at a substance abuse clinic. Talk about being worlds away, or was it?&nbsp; When I got settled in my new home, I began to get my bearings, researching the local mining culture and joining in the same type of activities that I had back in Massachusetts.&nbsp; I immediately found a Dojo so I could continue with my Kendo practice and haunted all the numerous historical and mineral museums. I even made the pilgrimage to visit the Lady of the Rockies.&nbsp; Butte was great, cold in the winter, but don&rsquo;t forget I grew up with bitter nor&rsquo;easters so unlike some of my nursing brethren from fairer states. The weather&nbsp;didn&#8217;t&nbsp;bother me&#8230; &nbsp;or so I thought.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, my next assignment took me out of the mountains and into the high desert heat of Scottsdale, Arizona where I continued on with geriatrics, withering under the suffocating infernos of the southwest. I know, they call it a dry heat, or so&nbsp;I&#8217;ve&nbsp;been told a million times, but after the 14<sup>th<\/sup> day of temperatures over the 110&deg; mark, I begged my agency to place me anywhere that&rsquo;s at least fifty degrees cooler.&nbsp; So you can imagine my relief when I applied for the Barrows, Alaska assignment and soon left behind the heavy traffic and heavier heat for a blissful eight months in one of the most remote corners of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there were much different issues to contend with (having to leave my car running 24\/7 and dodging moose on my way to work), but I learned to be content with much less, to adapt to the local lifestyle, bear stew and stink heads (yes, people there really do eat fermented fish heads), &nbsp;but the experience I gained was invaluable and no matter where I hung my nursing cap at the end of the day, life was never dull, it was filled with new and exciting challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Though&nbsp;I&#8217;ve&nbsp;returned to my New England roots to raise my own family, I hope that someday my own children will find the courage to venture out into this great world, knowing they always have a home with me, too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Author<br \/>\n<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/113655553754943194759?rel=author\">Kathryn Norcutt<\/a> has been an active member of the health care community for over 20 years. During her time as a nurse, she has helped people from all walks of life and ages. Now, Kathryn leads a much less hectic life and devotes most of her free time to writing for RNnetwork, a site specializing in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rnnetwork.com\/travel-nursing\/\">traveling nursing jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I grew up in a very small town in rural Massachusetts, and by very small, &nbsp;I mean an absence of traffic lights and real traffic for that matter. A place most might refer to as a &lsquo;one-horse town&rsquo;, which was &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/from-rural-root-to-big-city-life-of-a-travel-nurse\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,56,57],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-nursing","tag-featured","tag-life-of-a-travel-nurse","tag-travel-nurse-adventures"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From Rural Root to Big City - Life of a Travel Nurse - Travel Nursing Central Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kathy Norcutt shares her adventures as a travel nurse- from small rural towns to big cities.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/from-rural-root-to-big-city-life-of-a-travel-nurse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Rural Root to Big City - Life of a Travel Nurse - Travel Nursing Central Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kathy Norcutt shares her adventures as a travel nurse- from small rural towns to big cities.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/from-rural-root-to-big-city-life-of-a-travel-nurse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Travel Nursing Central Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-20T16:37:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-11-20T16:53:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/iStock_000022137079XSmall.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"422\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"281\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber Pickler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber Pickler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/from-rural-root-to-big-city-life-of-a-travel-nurse\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/from-rural-root-to-big-city-life-of-a-travel-nurse\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amber Pickler\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/travelnursingcentral.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e04da676dba0a55b6d9ecf1b1a27db92\"},\"headline\":\"From Rural Roots to Big City &#8211; 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