By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
St. Thomas. The United States Virgin Islands. A magnet for vacationers who want to soak up the sun and enjoy some of the world’s most beautiful beaches.
For Plain Dealing’s Joni Lowe, St. Thomas is the best of both worlds – a place to practice her profession, and a place to live, albeit temporarily.
After some 20 years working in Shreveport-Bossier, the 43-year-old dialysis nurse decided to see what the rest of the world offers and became a travel nurse. According to the website Zippia, Lowe is one of more than 1.7 million travel nurses in the U.S.
“I had always been interested in it, but I could not do it because I had little kids at home,” Lowe, a married mother of four said from her efficiency apartment ($1,800 a month) on the island. It was not going to happen.”
But Lowe’s children grew up, which allowed her to leave home.
“I said, ‘If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it big.’”
Lowe’s first travel assignment didn’t require her to go far. In 2021, she got her feet wet while working a year at Ochsner LSU Health in Shreveport.
“I thought that would be a good way to practice and see what it’s like. Not to actually be a staff member, but just to be an agency-type nurse.”
Then came the opportunity to go to the Caribbean. Lowe’s first assignment was January through May of 2023. Then, she went to Tulsa, Oklahoma for three months. Lowe was about to take her next assignment in Iowa, when St. Thomas called and offered her the opportunity to return. Lowe will finish her current contract July 14th and fly home two days later.
At each stop, in addition to her salary, Lowe gets a housing and food stipend. In St. Thomas, she also receives a rental car stipend since she couldn’t bring her car.
“You get paid almost twice as much to do the same job. You get to travel. You get to see all the things. No matter where you go, they’re going to have places to eat and activities to do that you don’t have at home. I try to find all those places everywhere I go.”
Lowe calls her travel work a “Workcation”. For example, when in Oklahoma, she was close to a dot on the map called Pawhuska.
“That’s where the Pioneer Woman has her restaurant, her mercantile, her ranch. It was one hour away. I got to see that. Otherwise, I would not have driven from Plain Dealing to Pawhuska, a six-hour drive. I was only an hour away, so why not?”
In St. Thomas, Lowe spends most of her three days off (she works four, 10-hour days) at the beach, or at the island’s hub for dining and shopping.
“Megan’s Bay is literally a 10-minute drive from my apartment. That’s where the cruise ship dumps all the people. All the cruise shippers want to see Megan’s Bay. I can drive there in 10 minutes!”
Lowe has also shared benefits of her “Workcation” with family when they have visited.
“I went with my husband, my daughter, and her friend, and we took a boat trip to the British Virgin Islands to see the Batholiths. It’s a very unique geographic formation of rocks. Otherwise, there’s not a chance any of us would see that if I wasn’t here working. We visited White Bay, my absolute favorite beach in the world. We all got to go to St. John and see Trunk Bay, which again this year was voted the number one beach in the world.”
While working away from home sounds great, there are disadvantages, starting with being away from family.
“It’s not easy. It gets very, very tough. I talk to them a lot. I am so thankful for technology. Because of that (think FaceTime), I can see them live and in person every day, but it’s not like being with them. But it also gives you something to look forward to when you come home.”
Lowe has taken notice of how differently people view her – or other wives – who leave their husband to work away from home.
“You have all these people working in the oil field and others are like, ‘Oh, that’s such a great job. He takes such good care of his family. His wife doesn’t have to work.’ But you get a nurse who goes away and leaves her husband at home, and it’s like, ‘How do you stay away from your husband that long? Don’t you worry he’s going to cheat on you?’ There’s such a double-standard.”
Then there’s the expense of working on an island.
“I bought one of those Sara Lee pound cakes. It was $14.”
Lowe isn’t sure where she will go for her next assignment. She recently interviewed with a facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. If that is to be her next “home”, the scenery is sure to be different than what she’s enjoyed the 10 and a half months she’s been in St. Thomas.
“Dialysis is going to be similar no matter where you are. Healthcare in the Caribbean is different than what we’re used to in the States. I will be glad to get back to the States. I just hope I have been able to provide some knowledge and learning that maybe otherwise wouldn’t have been available to them here.”
Contact Tony at SBJTonyT@gmail.com.