By Debra Wood, RN, contributor
Fascinated by history and appreciative of good art, Janice Frye, RN, has spent the last five years traveling along the East Coast, visiting museums, theaters, galleries and cemeteries.
“Travel nursing has offered me a wide open world to enjoy some of my hobbies,” said Frye, who travels as a med-surg nurse with lead staffing company NursesRx. “I work three days and play four.”
While riding the Metrorail past Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, Frye spotted what appeared to be the statue of a nurse, wearing a cape, silhouetted against the green shrubbery. She debarked and ambled down toward the nurses section for a closer look and was surprised by what she learned.
“We’ve had contract nurses ever since the Spanish-American War,” Frye said.
Frye explained that when the number of casualties from the 1898 conflict strapped the country’s medic corps, Pres. William McKinley approached Congress to allow women nurses to serve in military hospitals. Lawmakers approved, and nurses temporarily filled in.
Approximately 653 nurses from all branches of the service are buried in the nurses section of Arlington. Frye read the nurses names on their tombstones and found a woman who haled from her hometown.
Before her death in 1940, Col. Anita Newcomb McGee, as president of the Society of Spanish-American War Nurses, led efforts to dedicate a monument to the memory of the nurses who tended to troops. McGee founded the Army Nurse Corps, set the qualifications for contract nurses, and later established the Nurse Reserve, active during World War I.
An amateur photographer, Frye shot many images of the nurses section of the cemetery. Taking photos and chronicling her adventures has become a hobby.
Frye began traveling about five years ago, after working in multiple specialty areas including trauma and cardiac care. She had considered early retirement but she believes God intervened and pointed her in a different direction. She considers travel nursing a blessing and has accepted assignments in Fredericksburg and Richmond, Virginia; Charleston, South Carolina; and Memphis, Tennessee, soaking up each area’s rich history.
“I do not have a favorite; I have enjoyed every one of them,” Frye said.
Frye considers herself a guest in each new facility and adapts to their methods and policies. She immediately seeks to join the team and do her fair share.
“Most times, I fit in, wherever I go,” Frye said.
In addition to history and the arts, Frye enjoys the water and will take a dinner cruise or go sailing. She seeks out opportunities to explore and doesn’t feel lonely out and about on her own, confident that she will meet others along the way, and she has struck up conversations with fascinating people.
“You have to realize in life that everybody is a book, and every place is someone’s home,” Frye advised. “You can make an assignment what you want.”
Frye takes the time to open the covers, getting to know people and making friends wherever she goes. She appreciates the variety and the differences in language, backgrounds and circumstances. But Frye concluded,what brings people together is “We are all God’s children.”
© 2007. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved.