The Atlas Life #36 - Beth Vandenbush, Traveling Critical Care Nurse

Jake Brower: Why do you want me to look bad?

Beth Vandenbush: I don't want you to look bad. I want it to look genuine. Put your coffee cup back in your lap and hold it in that hand.

Jake Brower: I don't know.

Speaker 3: Just hold it over. There you go.

Speaker 4: Yeah. That's-

Speaker 3: Perfect.

Jake Brower: Now, it looks like there's something there and I'm hiding.

Speaker 4: No, it doesn't.

Beth Vandenbush: I am Beth Vandenbush. I'm a travel nurse working with Atlas. I'm an ICU nurse specializing in critical care with CVICU patients. I'm from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and I'm currently on the road to Reno, Nevada. I've been traveling for about a year now. I was referred to Jake while I was traveling with a different company, and I wasn't having the greatest luck with the company I was with and just kept hearing about "You should meet my recruiter, Jake. You should work with Jake at Atlas." So I sent an email over to Jake, and he took me on and I just been with him ever since.

Jake Brower: She's one of those travelers that's just really traveling for the right reasons and so ... She really was never asking for much, just somebody to be honest and shoot straight and she shoots straight, as well. Anyone who's worked with her knows that. She wins people over really fast in interviews. So she's literally the easiest nurse to place, like ever. It might be the Wisconsin accent.

Beth Vandenbush: Oh, I don't know about that. Jake is wonderful to work with because he takes the considerations that the nurse is looking for. So it's just kind of like, "Jake, this is what I want to do." And he looks through all of his lists and really pays attention to what you've asked for and then just starts offering out suggestions. So it's actually really effortless to work with him.

Beth Vandenbush: I'd say the best part are the places and the people you get to meet. In my field specifically, it's really nice to see the different things going on in ICUs across the country. That's always interesting to see. Personally, it's great too because I get to travel and see new places, meet new people, experience things that maybe I otherwise wouldn't unless I took vacation time and decided to go do it. The worst parts are probably something for the most part you expect in the job. They need travelers for a reason, so maybe they're going through a transition. They don't have staff. They have new staff. Some of them need more help than just travel nurses and that's where it gets to this is not an ideal place to be, but then it's also important for me to report that back to Jake so that he knows in future references maybe he's got a brand new traveler or somebody who's not good in those situations. I think it helps other travelers do well to then.

Jake Brower: She loves Disney World. She would go to Disney World by herself.

Beth Vandenbush: Yeah. I would go there and literally wait in the lines to get pictures with the princesses. I don't know. If you're going to go, you've got to go all out so I get some looks and everybody would just kind of look at me in line. There was a family once behind me that were like, "Oh, who are you here with? You have a kid waiting." I was like, "No, it's just me."

Jake Brower: Yeah. She took full advantage of being in Orlando. She did Orlando really, really well. She's really independent, so I think, which is also something that really helps a traveler be successful. Obviously, they're going to be dependent on their relationship with their recruiter and their agency, but at the end of the day, when things have gone wrong, her response is "Just give it to me. I'll take care of it."

Beth Vandenbush: I don't have this list of places I need to be. So I genuinely just want experiences, which makes it really easy for me to be placed somewhere, I think. However, I do think we have our seasons backwards. I've been in Florida in the middle of summer, and I'm going to Reno in the winter. I was in Fargo in the winter.

Jake Brower: We got to fix that.

Beth Vandenbush: We got to switch it around. I need some mild winters, mild summers.

Jake Brower: Maybe Montana, eventually. She interviewed for a job in Montana right before this one.

Jake Brower: Yeah. Jake's not a big fan of the guy from Montana though because he offered me a permanent position.

Beth Vandenbush: Right? He's interviewing her for a travel position and tries to hire as staff. I don't like that guy.

Jake Brower: No. No, I'll stay traveling.