After nearly 30 years in busy, successful family practice, my husband decided to try something new. Since he was not quite ready to retire, emotionally or financially, he struck up a conversation with VISTA Staffing Solutions. He had heard about locum tenens over the years but was not sure how it actually worked. So, after lots of thought and research, he decided to go with VISTA.
Meantime, back at the office, a young man who had been a patient of my husband’s, was just completing residency. He was hopeful to return to his hometown with his wife. Kismet! A perfect match! One wanting to go, and one wanting to come. As most of you know, finding someone to come into practice is not as easy as one would think. So we felt this was just the opportunity we needed. Not only did my husband know the young doctor, but his partner and most of the staff knew him as well and were very fond of him.
Most of our friends and family couldn't believe that he would leave such a well-established practice, to go roaming around, to who knows where. Well, we were just as surprised that we had the guts to do it too! As my husband put it, "The train is slowing down at the station and we'd better jump off now, or we'll have to ride it to the end of the line.
So in September of 2008, we said goodbye. We rented out our house, moved our stuff into the granny unit, packed the car, and headed to our little farm in Oregon.
We started our locum tenens life with a trip to our Oregon farm.
We had purchased the Oregon property in 2005, in hopes that someday we would actually be able to spend some time there. The property in California had gotten way too expensive, so after many trips all over the place, in our Casita trailer, we found our paradise. We spent a few weeks doing some projects (it's a hundred-year-old house), visited with our friends there, then took off on a cross country trip. We thought, as long as we were going through Salt Lake City, we would check out VISTA in person. We called ahead and arranged to meet Laurie. She met us at the door and gave us the grand tour. We met all the staff members and were able to see what they did. After the tour, we went to lunch with the people who had been working with us all along. We were very impressed with how happy everyone seemed in the office. Every person we met, was so kind and helpful and really seemed glad we stopped by. We felt so comfortable there, I was ready to apply for a job and just stay there! But, we had places to go and people to see.
While we were busy getting all in order and traveling, VISTA was busy licensing my husband, in the states, he hoped to work in. Michelle, Sue, Laurie, and Ben worked like mad to get all the paperwork done so he could start as soon as possible.
We had planned a long vacation traveling cross country to see friends and family before the jobs started, but while on our trip, a job came up. We cut the trip a little short and headed home. I thought we'd have a little more downtime, but my husband was anxious to get started. So off we went to Tacoma, Washington.
If I've piqued your interest, please check out my blog. http://rovingdoctor.blogspot.com/ I'm just getting started with it, but I hope to keep friends and family updated.