So, here I am.

I have wanted to write this post for over year, so, hence the “new/old,” sentiment in the title. To be honest, I have been scared of this one. So scared that it has taken me over a year to write it. I used to write all the time. Like, it was one of my outlets for stress. If you look through the posts from 2017 and earlier, you will see very quickly that I tend to word vomit when I write. By word vomit, I mean, writing has always been one of my avenues for expressing my disdain for the status quo, and my vision/dream for what could be.

It has been over a year since I last wrote, and I am still that guy.

Only now, I am in a whole new world.

If you need more insight into my old world, there is plenty of info on this site. But for the sake of time, i’m going to let you do your own research, and you should cuz it will give you more context for who I am, and why I am doing this. For now, I’m just going to say, buckle up, its about to get, well, continue to be, “REAL.”

I’m in the travel nursing industry now… if you don’t know what that is, let me summarize it as quickly as possible.

There is a nurse shortage in the US. So, as a result, agencies were born who’s soul purpose was finding nurses who would travel all over the country to fill the most urgent vacancies on units/floors nation wide.

ICU, ER, NICU, PICU, TELE, Medsurg, OR, PACU, L&D, Endo, IR, Cath Lab, CVOR, CVICU. These are all acronyms for different specialties in nursing that said hospitals are constantly in need of. My job is to find nurses to fill these needs, and send them to random locations all over the country to stand in the gap for some of the most hurting people, and families no one knows about.

I am a pastor, turned travel nurse recruiter.

Truth is, this job fits me better than any I ever imagined I’d find when I reached the point that I know my days as a vocational church pastor were over. Like it fits me so much I wake up every morning and ask myself how I got so lucky.

So in September of 2017 I hung up the only career i’ve ever been trained to do and started a new one in a world I didn’t even know existed, and you know what I learned right away?

Everything is broken. People are hurting everywhere you go. Everyone is looking for someone to listen. There is no such thing as an industry that isn’t geared toward preying on the week and lining the pockets of the strong. And that’s where I pick up my blog. I am sick, tired, and sick and tired… after only one year, of the amount of abuse, the lack of info, and the shear volume of misinformation floating around about what should be expected in my new world

So that’s what I’m gonna start writing about. The problems I see in the new industry I am in, and my humble opinions about the steps I think are necessary to change it. Here’s the thing. Though vocation has changed, my heart hasn’t. So you will see, and read so many things that sound exactly the same as what you read if you followed me from the conception of this blog. Here’s why…

My heart has always beat for people. The broken, the hurting, the wondering and wandering. The Lost and disenfranchised. The underdog.

In my new world, the people I interact with day in and day out. The ones I am responsible for, are exactly that. My hope is to empower, expose, educate, and advocate for the amazing friends I get to work with every day. The nurses that wake up every morning (or evening if you are a night shifter) and just sacrifice themselves for the sake of people in vulnerable places.

Here is why… I want us all to be better.

So, you ready to join me? Follow along… I will post about once a week. Sometimes more and sometimes less, cuz i don’t want to give you the impression that you know what to expect from me. Ha.

In the meantime. Thanks for following along on my continued journey. I hope you are encouraged, empowered and inspired, to be a better human.