Title:Tools of the Trade

Jessica Collins, R.N. (NHS’21), Travel Nurse

Originally from Buffalo, New York, Jessica Collins chose Georgetown so that she could pursue both nursing and premed, and follow other interests like languages and Model UN.

After graduation, she worked at the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit at Buffalo General Hospital. Once she completed the required experience to be a travel nurse, she began to work at different hospitals across the country in order to have more control over her schedule.

In February 2023, she began her first 13-week travel assignment at Mount Carmel East Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and enjoyed it enough to extend her time there. Her next assignment was at the Cardiothoracic and Trauma ICU at Wynn Hospital in Utica, New York.

Although moving around can make it difficult to connect with co-workers at some locations, Collins appreciates that travel allows her to work with different departments and help patients from a variety of demographics.

She hopes to eventually explore other U.S. regions with her assignments.

“It’s pretty exciting,” she says. “If I get bored at one place, then I can go somewhere else and everything is completely new. It definitely stretches my brain, forces me to think. Plus I love setting my own schedule. I could take a year off if I wanted to.”

1. Laptop: A source of information and entertainment

2. Outerwear: Because hospitals are always really cold

3. Binder: “When I get to a new place, I print out their policies. At every hospital there are different things we’re allowed to do, different meds we’re allowed to give.”

4. Notebook: “As a travel nurse we only get one 12-hour shift to learn how the whole facility works. I write down the expectations.”

5. Prayer coin: “I carry a nurse’s prayer coin that my dad gave me. It says: Lord, watch over me as I perform my duties and serve my community. Please grant me the courage, strength, and determination to face my responsibilities with a hero’s valor. Amen.”