About 185 of the employees at Northside Hospital don't live in metro Atlanta. They hail from North Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee or Florida.
With a suitcase and a willingness to nurse, they make a long commute to work each week; some even fly.
In exchange, the hospital gives them a bed, a full- or part-time job with benefits and greater career opportunities. Faced with a national nursing shortage, hospitals have found ingenious ways to attract the quality staff they need.
"We call it the Local Traveler program and it's a direct response to wanting to have qualified and experienced nurses in all our departments despite the shortage," said Anita Motil, employment supervisor at Northside. "We couldn't find nurses locally for our NICU, so we began brainstorming. Someone suggested hiring employees from outside the area (more than 75 miles away), paying their mileage and putting them up in hotels.
"We all thought it was crazy, that it would never work."
That's exactly what Lenore Fincher, RN, thought five years ago. After posting her résumé on the Internet, she heard from a headhunter about a new program at Northside Hospital.
"I live in Leesburg, just above Albany. Needless to say, I was skeptical, but after interviewing, I decided to give it a try," she said.
Traveling nurses are hired into specific departments at the same pay rates as other employees. They usually work three 12-hour shifts a week, but scheduling is flexible. The nurses receive mileage and room reimbursement at a choice of three Atlanta hotels.
While the program costs more than hiring locally, and the personnel logistics are complicated, it's still more cost-effective than hiring agency nurses, Motil said. "From a quality and competency standpoint, this allows us to staff well with experienced and loyal employees. The program has grown every year, mostly by referrals from our staff."
Piedmont Hospital has a similar commuter program and officials agree that the arrangement works.
"It has helped us tremendously in filling vacancies that are harder to fill and we have less staff turnover," said Lorna Martin, RN, MN, CNAA and CNO at Piedmont. "We get experienced nurses who are looking for a work setting that they can't find in their small towns."
Home away from home
Fincher works the weekend nightshift in NICU at Northside while her husband takes care of their children. "He gets to do the fun stuff, and I get the homework assignments during the week, but I think we have more time together than most families."
She decorates her hotel room with family photos, and during her off hours she works on craft projects and sometimes meets other traveling nurses for dinner or breakfast.
"I have learned so much more working here," Fincher said. "With staff coming from all over it's a melting pot of people and ideas. You see more and that deepens you as a nurse."
For a labor and delivery nurse, working at the "biggest baby factory in the Southeast" was a natural attraction for Lyliam Fox, RN, who's been traveling from Warner Robins since 2000.
"We average 17,000 births a year and have six different pods, so you don't work with the same nurses each night. I'll be learning skills from one nurse and teaching someone else. It's a lovely system," Fox said.
"Even though the traveling gets old, I look forward to coming to work each week, and I like the place with kitchens. It feels like an apartment," she added.
Fox doesn't feel like a step-child employee because of the friendships she's made at work.
"My son was in Baghdad for 20 months and these special ladies at Northside got me through a lot," she said. "He was able to say that he had prayer group support from several states."
Dave James, RN, BSN, TNCC, from Auburn, Ala., was the first emergency medicine specialist when he joined in Northside's travel program in 2000.
"I'm a small town-type of guy," James said. "Working here, I've been able to build a house near Auburn, yet benefit from the experiences of a city hospital."
As a clinical supervisor, James has recruited other nurses to the program, including Andy Powell, also from Auburn.
Better pay and scheduling put Powell on the road to Northside.
"I was working at a small hospital near here - varying shifts, on call two nights a week and every other weekend. I was never able to lead a normal life," Powell said.
Now he works Monday to Wednesday one week and Wednesday to Friday the next. "My work and off time are totally separate and I have more time to spend with my family. That's really nice," Powell said.
Powell also feels more appreciated because supervisors listen to workplace concerns and will work schedules around personal circumstances.
"People act like they're glad you're here and I've advanced quickly," he said.
As a charge nurse/preceptor in the emergency room, he trains new hires and interns, while perfecting his own skills through teaching.
"I can't say that being away from home three days a week is perfect," he said, "but this job is the closest I've found."
Down from the mountains
After 15 years in a Nashville hospital, Barbara Jenkins was looking for a larger hospital setting. The traveling program allows her to live in Chatsworth, the small North Georgia town where her family has 200-year-old roots, while serving as an anchor nurse in a bustling Family Care Center at Northside.
"I'm a mountain woman when I'm home and at work, I'm the one they come to when there's a question about a baby's condition," Jenkins said.
She works weekends and said the time flies by. "When you work 12 hours a day, all you want to do is sleep when you get back to the room," Jenkins said. "The hotel is very good about keeping the halls quiet during the day and they put out a continental breakfast. A lot of us will sit down and talk things over at breakfast before going to bed."
Jenkins chose her car for its safety and gas efficiency, and keeps a work bag packed at all times. "One of the downsides is that you wake up sometimes and wonder where you are, but I feel very blessed to have this job and I've made lifelong friends at work," she said.
Julie Spears, RN, couldn't refuse a schedule that allowed her to be both a hands-on mom and labor and delivery nurse.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights she leaves her three small children and husband at home in LaGrange to work an eight-hour shift at Northside. She sleeps in the hotel the next morning, then drives back in time to meet her children when they get home from school.
"Here [in LaGrange], I'd have to work a 12-hour shift and my husband couldn't get home in time to be with the kids," Spears said. "This way I can settle the kids in bed before I leave for work and I'm home four nights."
Spears loves the excitement of the labor and delivery unit and the hospital's educational classes.
"Everyone just welcomes you in and I've learned more in five months than I did in five years," she said. "This is a terrific situation as a mother and a nurse."