Hello new and old friends! I always like to do a little recap, when I start reviewing a hospital, assignment, town, and apartment when we wrap up an assignment. My name is Dominique Bryant, and I’m a travel nurse currently traveling the United States, with my husband. My husband Nicholas works in finance, and works from home. He is able to travel with me. We recently got married in October 2021, and decided to start travel nursing. I started travel nursing because I was very burnt out from COVID, and my primary nursing job in Maine. We recently just finished an assignment in Omaha, Nebraska. I wanted to touch a little bit about the hospital, area, and the place we stayed, before I go into all things Alaska! We accepted a job in Nebraska with the intention of exploring the Midwest a little bit. If anyone’s been keeping up, we haven’t had any Midwest assignments yet! Nebraska has a lot of good day and weekend trips. Check out my other blogs for some ideas!
My husband and I are very busy people… On our way to our next assignment, we always make a bucket list for our assignment. It’s honestly one of my favorite things to do. I really enjoy suggesting things to future renters and readers. Follow my instagram for our adventures in Nebraska at @travelingbeebryantRN. I first want to touch on our Nebraska Adventures, just because I feel like I have so many good suggestions. See our condensed bucket list below for our Nebraska assignment! Can you check off some things? We also included some great food, coffee, and drink places in the surrounding area!
While we did a lot of fun things in Nebraska,and the surrounding area the last three months, we did come to Nebraska to work. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that! I am a travel nurse, and I was hired to work at Nebraska Medical center. I try not to talk about my experience at the medical center until my contract is over. For the most part, I really had a positive experience in Omaha. I am a medsurg/medtele/IMC/PCU nurse. I was hired as a medtele nurse at Nebraska Med. If you aren’t in the nursing field, you won’t understand this lingo, but these are some necessary things to know. The hospital used an epic charting system. On days, it was typical to have 5-6 patients on a medsurg or medtele floor.( It was typical to have 6 patients. ) your repeating yourself: Typical drips on these floors were heparin, non titrated drips, and insulin gtts. This hospital loves their insulin drips. They did not have a turn team, but had lab techs, respiratory therapy, rapid response teams, and also transport teams. They had an IV therapy team, but typically if you had a hard time getting access, you called the paramedics. They had 2+ paramedics for the hospital that helped with transport, access, and responding to codes. The patient care techs were mixed, some were absolutely amazing, and some of the best people I worked with, and some of them were not consistent. The hospital was very traveler friendly, and welcoming. Permanent and travel nurses were all friendly. They had two charge nurses on shift. They were all super helpful, and approachable. The only issue I ever had was when a patient was unhappy about her overnight care, and wanted to talk to someone. I approached the charge with the situation, and had to follow up three times to make sure it was completed. This was atypical, and primarily an issue with one charge. I worked on 6 neuro, and it was primarily travel nurses. I found the manager very welcoming, and accommodating. In terms of scheduling, I think this is where I was a little salty. The staffing office made the schedules. My contract stated I would work 2 weekends in a four week period. The first day I arrived, they gave me my schedule. The schedule had me on 8 weekends in a row, with one weekend off in that schedule block. I’m not saying Saturday or Sunday, both days. I understand they need to fill their staffing needs, but who would agree to this? Immediately I brought my contract to the manager/staffing office and said that some changes needed to be made. They were not happy with this, and the ppl were not really willing to change it. They decided to change it when I said it was a “breach of contract”, and this would not work for me. I explained that my husband works Monday through Friday, and I only see him on weekends. I explained that’s why I specifically placed it in my contract. I think as soon as I said breach of contract, they were willing to change it. Lesson is, always put weekends in the contract. If you don’t, expect to work every weekend at Nebraska Medical Center. If a schedule didn’t work for you, you would need to call the staffing office (2 weeks before the shift you want to switch (No weekends), or switch with a coworker. I accepted a 13 week contract, and I was hired for 36 hours a week. I attempted to extend three weeks, but was declined. They said 13 weeks or nothing. They also expected me to work all the holidays from thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. I ended up declining this offer. Would they require any staff to work all those holidays? In my contract, they were allowed to cancel for low census. I was never canceled for low census. The floor was often short staffed. I was floated once during my assignment. The staff on that floor were super helpful, and approachable. My last thing I wanted to discuss was parking and scrubs. Nebraska Medical Center was very picky with their scrubs. They wanted staff to wear just steel gray scrubs, or a Nebraska medicine t-shirt. They wanted staff to wear sweaters with the Nebraska Medicine logo. In a travel nurse’s mind, “oh good a sweater we can wear for 13 weeks, and never wear again”. Make sure to ask your agency for a scrubs reimbursement, when you accept an assignment at Nebraska Medical Center. The parking was my biggest concern with this hospital. They wanted staff to walk 0.5 miles to a parking lot to and from work in the dark, and weather conditions. They didn’t offer a shuttle, and had employees pay for parking (Again, always ask for a parking reimbursement). The first day I went to the parking office, and the security officer was giving me complex directions to go through the tunnels and different buildings, so I didn’t have to walk outside. Honestly, I was half paying attention to him because I thought he was pulling my leg. News flash, he was being serious. I had to politely ask him for a map, and start slower, as I thought he was joking. It was just too much… definitely a turn off. Nick ended up driving/picking me up after Orange Theory in the morning. It gave us the motivation to go to the gym before work, and the passenger princess didn’t have to drive.
Now let’s talk about where we stayed during our assignment! I am going to link the furnish finder at the end of this blog. We found the apartment on the furnished finders website. It was an old building that had one rental available for short term tenants, and the rest of the units were long term. I want to first touch on the location of the apartment. The apartment is located in Papillion, which was about 20 minutes from the hospital in Omaha. The apartment is located about 6 minutes away from the Orangetheory, 2 minutes from Target, a grocery store, businesses downtown, and also residential housing. It was approximately 19 minutes away from Costco, and the bigger named stores. It was also close to a park that we really enjoyed walking in. The apartment comes with a parking spot located near the building entry. It was a really convenient apartment, but it had a lot of flaws. They sent us a form to fill out issues at move in and let me tell you… it was a mile long. The biggest concern was the leaking ceiling above the toilet. This took 3 weeks to finish. They removed a minimum amount off our rent for inconvenience. It was not ideal. Some of the biggest issues with the apartment consisted of not having a battery in the fire alarm, one of the vents of the AC/Heater was falling off, and the apartment not having a dresser. All I got to say is… if you lived somewhere for 13 weeks, would you need a dresser? If the answer is yes, put one in the rental you are renting out to travel nurses. Along with these issues, they had some small things wrong with the apartment. You couldn’t use some of the outlets in the kitchen, they left empty boxes of items (leaving the shelves to be filled with their items) and sheets that didn’t properly fit the bed. The sheets when we arrived were falling off the bed, as they looked too small. Even though the apartment had a lot of issues, it also had a lot of positives. It was in a convenient location to all the things we wanted, was in a safe location, park nearby, and also included a desk for Nick to work at. It was also a two bedroom apartment, so he was able to use it as an office.
I would love to include a link to the furnished finder, but it’s currently not posted. If you are thinking of renting in Papillion, shoot me a message and I can assist! The apartment is a two bedroom one bath. The front door opens up into a living room, which goes into the kitchen, small pantry, and outdoor deck. One of the bedrooms is a smaller bedroom that was used as an office. Along with the desk, it had a large closet. We used this closet for storage and our winter clothes. See pictures of Nick’s office below. This was a great environment for Nick to work in. He really appreciated the desk that was set up when we arrived. The master bedroom was a good size with a queen bed, two nightstands, and large closet. For some reasons, I don’t have a picture of the masterbedroom. The closet was in good size, although It only had a few hangers. This was an issue, as they didn’t provide a desk. We immediately had to purchase hangers for us to unpack. We ended up buying a dresser from goodwill for 20 dollars. In my previous blogs, you’ll see I refinished the dresser.
We paid $2300 a month to live in this apartment in Papillion. This also included an AC unit and utilities. It also included parking, shared laundry, and was close to work and other locations. I know that seems steep, but for a furnished apartment with utilities included, that is pretty reasonable. At least that’s what we thought by looking at different furnished finder apartments. After talking to the coworkers I worked with, it definitely felt like a steep price for what we got.
Overall looking back at our experience at the Papillion Apartment, and Nebraska assignment, we would consider working at Nebraska Medicine again. The staff at the facility were pleasant, welcoming, and made it into a good experience. I think I would be strict with my wording on my contract, making it a better experience. I was very impressed with the care that the doctors and nurses provided their patients. In regards to the Papillion apartment, I think we would decline resigning the lease, and go in a different direction. They can’t all be keepers!
This wraps up the our review of Nebraska. Stay up to date on our Alaska journey, travel tips and suggestions, and of course Flicks_withnick movie reviews online. Give us a follow on Instagram or subscribe.
TravelingbeebryantRN & Flicks_withNick 
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