The Atlas Life #29 - Morgan Hornsby, Traveling ICU Nurse

Rich Smith: How many are we up to, probably 20 some of these Atlas Lifes so far? And this is the first one with Chris Madrigal. How did we wait so long?

Chris Madrigal: I don't know. You've had such great content. I didn't even realize we've had so many of these.

Rich Smith: We're into the 20s.

Chris Madrigal: I'm actually really nervous.

Rich Smith: No.

Chris Madrigal: No, I totally am. I was just literally saying that before we started.

Rich Smith: You brought us Morgan Hornsby.

Chris Madrigal: Yep.

Rich Smith: Great nurse that's been with us for a while. Tell me about Morgan.

Chris Madrigal: Oh wow. Morgan Hornsby, ICU nurse, from Florida. She's probably taken four or five assignments. She's gone everywhere from Amarillo to Alexandria, out to Denver. She's in Minnesota.

Rich Smith: Awesome.

Chris Madrigal: She's just a great nurse. I think she embodies everything that we're looking for in an Atlas nurse. Just a good heart, cares about people and just flexible and understands travel life.

Rich Smith: Awesome. How did you guys first connect?

Chris Madrigal: Kristen [Begean 00:00:59], a nurse, love her. I came across Kristen, I don't know, years ago. She doesn't even travel anymore and she had referred Morgan to me. And it's so funny, Morgan and I are actually planning a trip to Nashville to see Kristen because I've met Morgan in Amarillo and I met her in Denver.

Rich Smith: Awesome.

Chris Madrigal: And Kristin's like, "Wait a minute, we've never met in person." That's how we met. She was a referral and yeah, it's been love at first contract. Can I say that?

Rich Smith: Sure.

Chris Madrigal: That's so cheesy.

Rich Smith: No, Did you just make that up right now?

Chris Madrigal: You know how it is.

Rich Smith: That's the tagline for this one.

Chris Madrigal: Okay.

Rich Smith: Love at first contract. Chris is happily married but not that kind of love.

Chris Madrigal: Yeah.

Rich Smith: That is cool. That's really awesome. I hear these stories a lot with our nurses, right. But there seems to be just that genuine respect and admiration for each other that you guys have, right?

Chris Madrigal: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Rich Smith: And I think there's something special to that.

Chris Madrigal: Absolutely. She makes it easier to do my job because she trusts me. And because she trusts me, then there's just a greater responsibility to want to make sure that the contract's right, the pays right. And if anything goes wrong, I want to help her just because I know she reciprocates that.

Rich Smith: Awesome.

Chris Madrigal: So yeah, I'm smitten for Morgan Hornsby and a lot of my nurses. I'm not going to lie. I don't want them to go like, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha." But she is legit.

Rich Smith: I hope that you come back with more nurses for the Atlas Life as we continue to do these.

Chris Madrigal: Absolutely.

Rich Smith: Awesome. Well Chris, thank you so much. I really appreciate it and Morgan, welcome to the Atlas Life.

Rich Smith: Okay, Morgan Hornsby is with us today. Morgan, you're an ICU nurse working with Chris Madrigal, how is that?

Morgan Hornsby: It's awesome. Chris is like, he's so cool. We just have this really great connection. And I think it was on an Atlas thing recently, I read not everybody has a personal relationship and that's fine. But Chris and I just get along so great. We bonded over our love of everything chill. We're just both really chill people. And...

Rich Smith: He actually brought this up when I just talked to him a minute ago, and you'll see when we edit this all together. He actually said, and I can't remember how he phrased it, but he said, "I love me some Morgan Hornsby." I thought that's it, right? I mean, your right. Not everybody's going to have that personal relationship. Not everybody wants that personal relationship. Right?

Morgan Hornsby: Yeah.

Rich Smith: But some people do and when it works, it's magic.

Morgan Hornsby: Oh yeah, absolutely.

Rich Smith: Cool. All right, let's get into this little bit. How did you first meet Chris? How did that connection happen?

Morgan Hornsby: There's another nurse, Kristen, that I had worked with her before I was even a nurse. When I was a nursing assistant and she was a nurse at the hospital I worked at. She and I have known each other for, Oh my gosh, probably 10 years or something like that.

Rich Smith: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Morgan Hornsby: Well, she had started traveling and she always talked it up and I always wanted to travel anyways.

Rich Smith: Great.

Morgan Hornsby: But she came back. She had moved to Nashville for a while and she came back and did a travel contract at our old hospital and that's when we really started talking about it. I had been working in ICU a few years and so she connected us and that's how we first met.

Rich Smith: That's how it was and since then you've done what, four or five different contracts with us?

Morgan Hornsby: Yeah, I've worked in Texas, Louisiana, Colorado and now I'm in Minnesota.

Rich Smith: Which one has been your favorite then?

Morgan Hornsby: Probably Colorado. Just because, I mean it's Colorado, right?

Rich Smith: Yes.

Morgan Hornsby: Also, my best friend from when we were little kids lives out there with her two daughters and I got to live with them. And I got to live there the entire first seven months of her new baby's life. It was awesome. I got to just hang out with them all the time. It was an amazing time.

Rich Smith: Awesome. You'll have contracts that are fun or whatever. But when they work out like that, it probably just reinforces why you do this in the first place?

Morgan Hornsby: Oh yeah, absolutely. And I mean plus, Colorado is Colorado. I love hiking. Hiking is one of my favorite things to do.

Rich Smith: Yep. Well, if seen any of my pictures or read any of my stuff, I mean that's our gig too. I'm not a skier. I think I would try to snowboard. Chris has tried to talk me into it a few times.

Morgan Hornsby: Yes, me too.

Rich Smith: But I like to hike. My family likes to hike too. Even my nine year old, he loves to get out there and hike.

Morgan Hornsby: Oh yeah. Yeah, it's awesome and I mean it's everywhere in Colorado.

Rich Smith: Everywhere, yes.

Morgan Hornsby: Yeah.

Rich Smith: You can't go more than 10 feet and you find a trailhead somewhere.

Morgan Hornsby: Right. Absolutely.

Rich Smith: Yeah. Okay. I guess we kind of got into the why, as you continue to do this, what keeps you going from this contract to the next contract to the next one? Why?

Morgan Hornsby: I would say probably I just love seeing the different parts of the country and meeting different people. And I love that I have friends all over the country. When I was in Denver, one of my favorite bands was playing down in Dallas. And so I called up one of my friends from Texas and was like, "Hey, do you want to go to a concert this weekend?" Find each other down in Dallas? Because when they played in Denver, I was working and I couldn't go. I just love that all over the country I have friends.

Rich Smith: Yeah.

Morgan Hornsby: And I think that's one of the best parts.

Rich Smith: He mentioned this band. You need to help me out here. The Dirty Heads?

Morgan Hornsby: Yes.

Rich Smith: Okay, help me, I'm clearly old. I...

Morgan Hornsby: They're kind of like a reggae type band. I just, I love them. They're super chill, super fun. They put on one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life.

Rich Smith: All right.

Morgan Hornsby: Awesome energy live, and we both love them. And it's funny because Crystal called me up and be like, "Oh Hey, this Dirty Head song was on, so I was thinking about you." It's fun. I love them so much.

Rich Smith: I like it. That's cool. They played here in Omaha a few times and Chris has gone to see them.

Morgan Hornsby: He has.

Rich Smith: And so that's stuck in my head. I've heard of them before, so...

Morgan Hornsby: Yes, they are awesome.

Rich Smith: I should probably check it out. I'll look them up.

Morgan Hornsby: All right, great.

Rich Smith: Okay, Florida native originally.

Morgan Hornsby: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Rich Smith: Do you want to go back to Florida eventually? I mean...

Morgan Hornsby: I will always love Florida. I love every time I go home I'm like, "Oh, I don't want to leave, I don't want to go." I love the beaches, the water, everything about that. Boat days and kayaking and all that kind of stuff. But I actually did in between, Oh my gosh... When I left Denver, before I came to Minnesota, I did a three month contract at my old hospital where I still work PRN. And that was nice. I was like, "All right, I get to be home for three months." Family, friends, all that, and then I was ready to go again.

Rich Smith: Once again, the freedom of what you do right? You can go home again for a while.

Morgan Hornsby: Right.

Rich Smith: And then go back out.

Morgan Hornsby: It's perfect.

Rich Smith: There you go.

Morgan Hornsby: Life.

Rich Smith: Give me the best and worst part of traveling. Because this comes up a lot and I mean we've touched on it a little bit already, but what's the best? What's the worst?

Morgan Hornsby: The best, like I said, "I just love meeting new people, traveling all over the place, seeing different parts of the country." And honestly, I also think part of the best part is I love seeing how other hospitals do things. I think that's cool. And then you're like, "Oh my gosh, I never would've thought to do that." That part's awesome. I would say the worst part about the actual traveling, I hate packing. I hate doing that every three to six months or whatever. And then as far as the work part of it, I think just for me personally, I would say getting to know the different doctors. Especially in the ICU, we're really work so closely with the physicians because things can change constantly, on a dime.

Rich Smith: Correct.

Morgan Hornsby: Just getting to know them and how they like to treat their patients and how they like to do different things. I think is probably the hardest part of the actual working.

Rich Smith: Sure. They're not necessarily bad part, just more difficult.

Morgan Hornsby: Yeah, difficult. Absolutely.

Rich Smith: It's interesting that you say that you like to see how different hospitals are run because I've talked to more than a few that have said that's a bad part. I like the consistency or whatever, which does not seem like the trait of a travel nurse. I would think your answer is closer to...

Morgan Hornsby: Yeah, no, I love it. And I mean, I don't know, I guess I just always had really great experiences at all my hospitals and I'm a huge go with the flow. I think that things work out the way they're supposed to work out. When I'm trying to pick assignments and Chris will be like, "Where do you want to go?" And I'm like, "I don't know anywhere." He's like, "Okay, narrow it down a little."

Rich Smith: Sure.

Morgan Hornsby: I ended up in Louisiana because I was like, "Oh, I want to be in the South for winter." And he's like, "Well, you know, Louisiana is a walkthrough state, you can get your license there." I'm like, "Okay, let's do it."

Rich Smith: [inaudible 00:11:30].

Morgan Hornsby: But I think with that comes the... I've always had a really great experiences because of... I think that, like I said, "I think things work out the way they're supposed to." I always hear these horror stories about traveling, you know?

Rich Smith: Yeah.

Morgan Hornsby: And I just, I've never experienced it. And I think that maybe is why I enjoy seeing the way hospitals do different things because I've always been at great hospitals. So...

Rich Smith: Or I mean is it possible, that you have experienced, probably not the most ideal situation somewhere, but because you have such a good attitude about it, it's not that bad.

Morgan Hornsby: I think that definitely plays a huge role in it. I think you just can't get hung up on... That's not the way I do things. It's the way they do things.

Rich Smith: Right.

Morgan Hornsby: Yeah.

Rich Smith: All of a sudden it makes perfect sense, right? I mean, there's this thing and it's always been there for recruiters on our side, right? It's, you are who you recruit. Our recruiters recruit people that they good relationships with the people who are most similar to them.

Morgan Hornsby: Yes.

Rich Smith: This makes a ton of sense right now. It really does. And I mean that in the most awesome way possible. I love Chris. He's one of the heartbeats of Atlas. He really is. And so it makes perfect sense that you're with him and that you're happy.

Morgan Hornsby: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think we definitely have very similar personalities.

Rich Smith: All right, last question. What's next?

Morgan Hornsby: I have no idea. I'm here until October.

Rich Smith: Okay.

Morgan Hornsby: And then I'm taking a couple of weeks off to go home.

Rich Smith: Okay.

Morgan Hornsby: And then, I don't know, I normally try to go a little bit warmer places in the winter. Being from Florida, I don't do snow well, driving. I was in Denver until December last year and we didn't have a ton of big storms, luckily.

Rich Smith: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Morgan Hornsby: But driving in the snow was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done in my life, for me and everyone else on the road. But I also feel like I almost, and this is probably going to take Chris by surprise, I also feel like I almost want to do a winter contract somewhere and actually suck it up and live. I feel like it's an experience I need to have.

Rich Smith: Besides the cold and the snow, I mean, there's a lot of good places to go in the winter. I mean, even places you may not even think of Utah or Montana, places like that. That you wouldn't normally think of that have really great hospitals, that pay pretty decent in the winter because it's very hard for them to draw.

Morgan Hornsby: Right.

Rich Smith: You never know.

Morgan Hornsby: Maybe we'll see. I don't know. I'll have to think about it.

Rich Smith: You know what? I somehow think it's all going to work out.

Morgan Hornsby: I agree, totally.

Rich Smith: All right. Morgan, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. We are always here if you ever need anything. I know you've got Chris's number.

Morgan Hornsby: Absolutely.

Rich Smith: All right, thanks. And we'll see you on the road.

Morgan Hornsby: Thank you very much. Absolutely.