How we got here: The Nomadic Pediatrician: 2022 in Review and The Nomadic Pediatrician: 2021 in Review
Header Image Credit: The Locums Strategist

It has been 3.5 years since I embarked on an unfamiliar path as the self-proclaimed “Nomadic Pediatrician.”

Since then, I’ve seen lots of neat things, explored lots of fun places, and met the best people. I’ve joined the LocumStory Physician Advisory Board and even got to represent them and help at the booth at the AAP National Conference and Exhibits in October. I’ve done a dozen or so podcast interviews, kept up with helping out anyone interested in locums, and continued to endorse the amazing learning experience I had with all of my unconventional work. Locum tenens, “to take the place of,” a phrase that changed for me over the last few years. Now, I would love to be like some of my more youthful peers and go “viral” on YouTube or TikTok or whatever other social media channel is the new and upcoming endeavor; but, as much as a I like to talk and write, I’ve decided for the time being to keep myself just with this blog. And now somehow, at the time of publication of this post, I’ll likely be sleeping to make up for continued exhaustion following a long 24 hour shift as a Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellow physician, taking care of >80 bebes. Don’t get me wrong, I love it.

I welcome all emails and questions regarding locum tenens or my life and love helping new people get into the game so to speak: TheNomadicPediatrician@gmail.com (@thenomadicpediatrician).

I am sadly as I write this, no longer Nomadic in the sense of Locum Tenens, but my heart will always be on the road, lost in the desert, freezing in the snow, or trudging through the forest to look at the ocean from a hidden vista among a bluff. Every day I wonder if going back to Fellowship Training was worth it… At the time this post publishes, I’ll be 6 months into my 3 years of training to become a Neonatologist. It has so far already been very intense, physically and emotionally… As I get older, I realize that doing 24 hour shifts and staying awake for a consecutive 30 hours or so multiple times per month is… Less ideal than it used to be, but I can definitely still do it.

As I transition through this period of time, I hope to continue sharing medical stories and my own perspective on the medical system, interactions with humanity, and overall my philosophy and theory for finding direction and purpose.

Overall Stats from 2020-2023

For some recaps on my travel work and the licensing/credentialing fuss…

• Total State Medical Licenses Held (Many of these will slide into an inactive state over the next year or two) = 10 (NM, TX, ME, CA, ND, MO, PA, WI, NC, MA)
• Total DEA Certificates Held = 5 (Somehow I kept track of each one per state, but all will lapse prior to finishing fellowship)
• Total Hospitals Worked In To Date = 13 (+1 clinic)

And Just for fun…. Roughly, since the numbers are so absurd and it’s too much work to call every rental agency or airline i’ve adventured with…

• Total Hotel Nights = >1000
  • Hilton – 694 Total Nights [101 Total Stays]:
    • 2020: 101 Nights (18 Stays)
    • 2021: 209 Nights (33 Stays),
    • 2022: 268 Nights (24 Stays)
    • 2023: 116 Nights (26 Stays)
    • Remaining Until Lifetime Diamond Status: 306 nights left + 7 more years
  • Marriott – 281 Total Nights (Year breakdown not available)
  • Other Hotels/Lodgings: >50
• Total Rental Car Days = >1000 (To get around living in hotels, but a majority with National Rental of 483 Days!)
• Total Flights = >70 (Estimates: 2020 = 0, 2021 = 29, 2022 = 31, 2023 = 12)

So NOw what?

Neonatology Fellowship is 36 months of training in learning how to care for the sickest, smallest, and most premature humans. I write these posts not only to enliven my exploration but to remind myself of the world outside of academia. I write these posts to remind myself of the fact that the world has endless opportunity. I write this to understand and re-analyze my recurrent feelings of burn-out as I traverse my own personal journey in figuring out what is most important to me in life.

I am still unsure of where I want to be, what I want to do with my life outside of medicine, but I know I long to be once again Nomadic, and No-one. Will. Stop. Me.

Sincerely, The Nomadic Pediatrician (On Hiatus)

Kansas City, Missouri – the unstable feeling of stability

There’s a decent football team (apparently won some big game in the last few years…), Taylor Swift is moving here, there’s an amazing farmers market, the city is clean and has less rats than DC thankfully, and the people are fairly nice. It doesn’t hurt that I do love my apartment, but on the total downside, apparently this places is ranked as the WORST city to date in… Which is very unfortunate, so tell your friends I’m still single!