Relocation advice! New grad, Help guys!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2015

If you can get 3 12's in a row (ask specifically, or plan to make trades), you can go be with him on your days off. I know lots of traveling nurses who do exactly that-- work three days, then go home to be with the family. Or to another job. Or to school.

Believe me, I do know what a sacrifice this feels like to you. My sweet husband and I were together only weekends for the first five years of our marriage due to our job commitments. But this is what grownups have to do sometimes. We talked on the phone every night and kept folders of things we'd have shown each other if we shared every evening, and when he came home we sat down together and shared them over a glass of wine. No re-entry problems, no alienation. He admired me for keeping my job, the house, and the kids together, and I admired him for the commute and hard work he was putting in for our future. And it passed.

Try very hard to take the long view-- in two short years (and they will be short once you're ten years out, honest, and in twenty they'll look like a long afternoon) he will be back where you are, where you will have two whole years of seniority and experience in a job you might not get anywhere else, in a unit you love, and where they will realize how much you cared to stay with them. And if he goes somewhere else, you'll have two years of great experience you can take anywhere, with zero hard feelings.

Think of this as a shared sacrifice with big payoff, and the time does pass. Good luck!