When Susan Cavanagh, RN, became a nurse in her home country of New Zealand, she had no idea where her career would take her. Then one day, more than two decades after getting her nursing license, everything changed.
Susan was working in the operating room (OR) when a coworker approached her and explained she’d gotten a nursing job in the United States. When Susan got home and told her husband Denniss the news, he looked at her and said, “Why don’t you do that?”
“Do what?” Susan asked him in reply.
“Why don’t you go and work in the States?”
Although her husband’s suggestion came as a surprise, the more they talked about it, the better the idea seemed. They had already raised their two sons, and Susan had never gone abroad.
“A lot of young New Zealanders do what’s called ‘the Big OE’, or overseas experience,” explains Susan. And since she had never had one of her own, this was her chance.
The immigration process took two years, but Susan and Denniss eventually arrived safely in their new home of Lubbock, Texas in late 2001, ready for whatever the future held.
“It was a huge cultural shift for us,” says Susan. “It was silly little things, like, ‘Wow, Texas really does have tumbleweeds.’”
Although she had some concerns about whether they’d made the right choice, Susan and her husband dove right into exploring the country. They moved from Texas to Colorado, and then finally to Alabama where she and Denniss live now. While working as a permanent staff nurse in each of these places, she also explored a variety of nursing specialties, from oncology and bone marrow transplant (BMT) to the burn unit and open-heart intensive care unit (ICU).
Similar to how she came to the U.S., it was hearing about someone else’s journey that prompted Susan to consider travel nursing. She had been working as a permanent staff nurse when a traveler came through and mentioned TRS Healthcare. Once again, Denniss encouraged her to give it a shot.
“Just go out there and do it,” Susan recalls him saying. “Just because you’ve never done it before doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.”
From there, Susan made the leap and got in touch with her now-recruiter, Shaunna Nastasi, in 2020 and has been traveling with TRS Healthcare ever since.
“The thing I’ve found that I love about nursing is that it’s so many careers in one,” says Susan. And travel nursing in particular allows her to have an even wider range of experiences—something Susan values greatly.
“I love the freedom of it. I love having control of my career now. I’ve been a nurse for a long, long time, and I never had true control of my career, but now I have control of my career and family time. I just love it. I’ll never go back to the hospital system as a permanent staff. Travel nursing allows me to not only expand my knowledge, but gives me greater opportunities to meet different people.”
One of Susan’s best experiences as a travel nurse was working at an Indian Health Service (IHS) facility in Gallup, New Mexico. At this facility, what made the work enjoyable for Susan was that it wasn’t just about providing healthcare; it was also about helping to preserve the culture.
“Some people didn’t want to come to the facility because they didn’t trust the care they would receive, so when folks would sit down and talk with me—open up to me—I felt so privileged,” she adds.
That connection is what Susan says she values above all. Whether it’s sitting with people receiving a bone marrow transplant as their last treatment option, holding the hand of a burn patient, or simply being a person that someone can talk to at the end of their life, Susan sees nursing as being as much about care as it is about technical knowledge.
“My patients don’t care about my degree or how many letters I have behind my name. They care about the care I provide. You give them part of yourself, and they give part of themselves back to you.”
This kind of passion carries through to Susan’s personal life as well. When she isn’t traveling, she and Denniss tend to a flock of Jacob sheep (which are a conservation priority within the U.S.) and maintain a variety of hobbies, such as woodworking and glass staining. She also enjoys spending time with her five dogs, one of which she recently began bringing along on assignments.
Susan was also recently announced as one of TRS Healthcare’s 2024 Nurse of the Year nominees, the winner of which will be announced in early 2025.
“TRS has been great to me,” she adds. “I’ve never traveled except for with Shaunna. When I first started traveling, I went from a steady position to this complete unknown world…But now I’m like, ‘I don’t need to worry about it. Shaunna will find me a job.’”
Ready for your next travel nursing assignment? TRS Healthcare can help you get started and connect you with jobs that fit your unique lifestyle. Browse our current jobs or apply with us now!
