Tall Man, Tall Van: Nate Hemann Shares His Experience Travel Nursing While Living The Van Life
Like many travel healthcare professionals, nurse Nate Hemann wanted to pursue traveling to experience new sights, meet new people and gain experience working across the country. Before starting his journey, Hemann decided to make his first major commitment to the travel life in an unconventional way—by converting a freshly purchased 2018 Ford Transit into his permanent home away from home. Hemann started documenting his experience building and living in his van on August 2, 2018, through his Instagram account, @thetallmanvan. From his posts, Hemann shares messages of positivity, his enthusiasm for nature and all the highs and lows of living in a van while working as a travel nurse. I spoke with Hemann to find out more about his nursing career, how he converted his ride and why he decided to tackle the #VanLife. Editor’s Note: Photos in this story pulled from the @thetallmanvan account were used with permission. Some of the answers below were edited for clarity. Q: How did you get involved in the nursing profession? I decided I was going to go to school for nursing in about the 10th grade. I honestly don’t remember a single moment that sparked it. I did, however, grow up right next to the Mayo Clinic, and with both of my parents working there, as well as nearly every other adult in my life growing up, it’s really no surprise that I ended up with a career in the medical field. I have also always loved people and science, and to me, nursing is the best fit for me with my strengths in both of those areas. Q: What made you want to pursue the travel nursing route? Travel nursing was not something I had ever thought about until holiday break during my senior year of nursing school. I went on a study abroad trip with 20 some other nursing students to the Philippines to learn about and dive into the culture and nursing practices there. This single trip set me on the travel path that I am on now, both in my career and in my personal life. I made it a financial goal of mine after graduating college to always be able to say “yes” to travel when asked by anyone around me, and so far, I’m surpassing my goal of traveling whenever possible far more than I ever imagined I would. Q: Being that you’ve just started your travel career, what has the experience been like so far? Although I technically began my travel nurse career the beginning of October 2018, I feel that it really started in July of 2017. After working one year as a staff nurse in Duluth, Minnesota, I packed up my car and drove to Seattle to be a part of the amazing team and culture of Harborview Medical Center. After a year at Harborview, and meeting all of the countless, amazing travel nurses there, I knew that I had to be one as well. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nate Hemann (@thetallmanvan) on Feb 6, 2019 at 6:59am PST The experience so far has been supportive and educational, as well as beautiful considering I have gotten to be in Northern California and Central Oregon for my first two contracts. I feel fortunate to have gone to two hospitals so far with an overall good attitude toward travel nurses because I know that that is not always the case. Q: What have you learned? Any unexpected challenges? I have learned that I love to float, which as a traveler is something you have to learn to like, or you certainly won’t have a good experience. I love the challenge of a new unit and a new patient demographic outside of my specialty. I will say that I am not learning as much nursing-wise as I would like to, and that’s why I will seek out more trauma and teaching hospitals, like Harborview. For now, I am trying to keep up to date outside of work. However, I am learning so much about myself being in these smaller cities and hospitals. It is giving me more financial freedom and time to explore the great outdoors with my van and any friends I meet along the way. As far as nursing goes, the main challenge I have found is that staff nurses tend to be resistant to change, and as the new nurse on the unit all the time, that can make me feel isolated. I have picked up skills and knowledge in various ways and places, and some nurses I work with only know nursing from the college in the same community that they work in—and perhaps have lived in that very community their entire life. As someone who constantly wants to learn and understand the world from other perspectives, it frustrates me to work with complacent and inflexible individuals. Q: Where have you visited so far? Considering that, what’s your most favorite moment from the places you have visited? My two contracts so far have been in Eureka, California and Eugene, Oregon. I have visited countless places outside of these two locations since I drove from Minnesota to get here, and in between contracts, I took two-and-a-half weeks off to ski in Wyoming and Utah. Top of my list since starting travel nursing would be as follows in no particular order: Grand Teton National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Redwoods National Park, and the Southern Oregon coast. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nate Hemann (@thetallmanvan) on Oct 19, 2018 at 11:24am PDT I’m not typically a man of favorites—usually a top three or five kind of guy—but there was an instance during this travel nurse journey that I felt absolute bliss. I hiked down a steep and wooded part of the Southern Oregon coast, made my way to rocky outcrops, and it was all just after a big storm system had rolled through. The waves crashing against the coast were absolutely massive. I