"When I hear someone talking about their financial troubles, I just say, “listen, let me tell you there are great travel nursing jobs that pay very well and you can earn extra cash by making referrals.” Referrals are one way that Chambers has supplemented her travel nursing income. As a FASTAFF travel RN, Regina has referred seven nurses to FASTAFF in the past two years and has earned $4,000 by making these referrals. She even printed business cards with her name and the name of her recruiter. Chambers has taken this step to simplify referring others to FASTAFF because she is constantly meeting nurses that would benefit from traveling.

Chambers isn't shy about sharing the reasons she has become such a proponent of travel nursing over the last three and a half years. She originally decided to pursue travel nursing after a friend let her look at her pay stub from her traveling job. Traveling has allowed Chambers and her family to move into a home twice the size of their old one and has made it possible for her to help pay for her sons' college educations before they have even graduated from high school. But Chambers has come to appreciate more than the paycheck. Over the years, the travel and opportunities that her career has afforded her have made her stick with it.

Chamber’s husband and two children have enjoyed taking advantage of her varied job sites as well. Her first assignment was in California but she had to leave the week before Christmas. It could have been quite a struggle for her family to be apart during the holidays but she made it work. Her family joined her in California for Christmas week and they saw the sights together. They went to a Lakers game, Disneyland and Universal Studios. It may have been unconventional but her son still remembers that Christmas as his favorite.

Chambers believes that visiting places she might have never chosen for a vacation is a real advantage. While she was working on a FASTAFF assignment in Massachusetts, her son visited and she was able to take him to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. Already a varsity player at age 13, he was enthusiastic about seeing this shrine to his basketball heroes. Once he returned home he got to show off a little when his coach asked the team if they knew the location of the basketball hall of fame. Not only did he know where it was located - he had actually been there!

Unlike many travel nurses, Chambers felt a little lift in her workload when she began traveling. She came from the University of Alabama, Birmingham hospital, a level-one trauma facility that treats patients with serious medical problems. She was used to doing everything for her patients in the Neurological ICU because, as she explained, "We didn't want anybody touching our patients but us. They were just too fragile."

Traveling to places with lower nurse to patient ratios and departments that don't get as many severe injuries turned out to be a relief. Because her skills are so strong, she has been able to assist hospital nurses with procedures they don't typically do such as drawing blood or starting an IV. While working in a post-partum unit in Nevada, Chamber’s skills actually helped save a life. When a patient complained of shortness of breath while lying in bed, the other nurses didn't know how to react. Chambers had seen similar situations before so she took the woman straight to x-ray. The patient was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolus and kept in the hospital an extra two weeks because of her condition. In this very serious situation Chamber’s quick response saved the woman's life.

Chambers said she plans to keep traveling as long as she is able. She'll also keep referring nurses to FASTAFF. After all, when a person has benefited like Regina has, spreading the word is spreading the wealth.

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Recently FASTAFF was awarded the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Certification for Healthcare Staffing Services. FASTAFF nurses are of the highest caliber as the preceeding story attests!