Travel ER RN, Nate Crnkovich - The Atlas Life #75

Speaker 1: You think it'll be a lot more calming, knowing that your recruiter is also one of your best friends?

Nate Crnkovich: Yeah, absolutely. I think that makes a huge difference. Honestly, just knowing I have a buddy who I know who's going to be honest with me, he's going to make everything as simple as he can for me. Jake's already been great about going out of his way to make the transition easy, helping me with any questions I have since I'm new, especially. So yeah, I think, absolutely, having a friend that you can report back to as your recruiter is definitely helpful.

Nate Crnkovich: I'm Nate Crnkovich. I'm an emergency department RN. So I've actually been friends with Matt for a while now. Knew him in high school throughout college, just through some mutual friends.

Nate Crnkovich: I knew I was always wanted to do traveling nursing, so the fact that I had a friend that was already in the field with recruiting and worked at a traveling agency just made everything very simple, real smooth. Jake's been great. And then the whole department, all the staff, have been great about helping me with the whole transition into traveling.

Jake Goltl: When he was playing football at Morningside, I was playing basketball. So that's really when we got pretty close.

Nate Crnkovich: Yeah, and then Jake busted his knee.

Jake Goltl: Yeah, I got hurt and I had to go home. It's been an awesome transition, I guess, and just [process 00:01:23] to be able to place one of your friends out where he wants to go.

Nate Crnkovich: Even in nursing school, I knew it was something I always wanted to do, so it was more just a matter of getting the experience in the emergency room. I wanted to make sure I had at least two years of critical care experience working as a trauma and ER nurse at Bergan Mercy here in Omaha. So once I felt I had enough experience, I felt competent in my skill sets and just being a competent RN, I felt that I was ready to do traveling. And so that's when I got ahold of Jake, and we went through everything. And like I said earlier, everything's been super smooth sailing. I mean, no real issues getting everything set up. The whole transition's been real simple for me.

Nate Crnkovich: I think it'll be interesting. It'll be a test of my own skills as far as being a nurse, especially an emergency room nurse, just because you'll be in your own facility, you'll kind of be on your own. You've got to learn everything quick, kind of on the fly.

Nate Crnkovich: I also think just being able to travel to different locations across the country, see a lot of different sites, enjoy just different areas that you normally wouldn't be able to do with a full time job.

Nate Crnkovich: I'd say just the fact that you're brand new, it's only three months, so it's pretty quick. You have to figure everything out pretty fast. I think it'd be tough to just transition from one facility that you know nothing about. Like I said, it's just a quick transition. So I think that'll be tough at first. But I think, especially once you get your first assignment under your belt, I think the transition from there on out will be easier.

Jake Goltl: Honestly, I think it's going to be great. I love this kid like a brother, and we treat each other like brothers. So if he needs to hear something, I need to be as honest as possible with him. So I'm going to tell him what the facility is expecting from him. If there's a issue or anything like that, I'm going to have to fill him in.

Jake Goltl: So I think it's going to be great. I think he's going to be awesome to work with, and I think he's going to kill it out in California.

Nate Crnkovich: I'm pretty happy I got set up with California right away. I've always wanted to move out there, at least for like a short time. I think anywhere with a beach is never a bad idea. So I'm pretty excited with where I'm at right now. As far as where I want to do after this assignment, I'm open to whatever. I'd be open to stay at the same facility if that was an option. I'd be open to try another hospital in California.

Nate Crnkovich: I might end up on the East Coast for this next assignment. I don't know. I'm open to whatever.

Jake Goltl: The best part is I get a little vacation out of it. I'm going to drive out with him to Oxnard, California, to help with that transition and turn it into a road trip, get a few days with him. Kind of pick his brain to see what he thinks of the whole experience so far and be able to hopefully smooth the transition into California for him and stay with him a couple of days out there until he gets his feet under him. So the trip to California, going through Denver, Phoenix, to LA hasn't happened yet, but when this video is uploaded, we would've already gone on the trip. So here are some photos and some clips from our trip to California.

Jake Goltl: This concludes our 24-hour drive.