Why Do Travel Nurses Hate PBDS Testing So Much?

Before

Taking a housing stipend for a Travel Nurse means there are a few challenges. First is to find a place to rent with a short term lease or month-to-month. Next is how to furnish and decorate it so that it is liveable.  I quickly discovered that Goodwill and Dollar Tree are two of my favorite must-shop places when we move. 

Now that we've picked up the keys to the new place, it is my job to figure out how to convert this dark, white-walled habitat that we'll be in for 13 weeks into something resembling our home.  I had forgotten how bland apartments were.  It had been about 18 years since either of us lived in a rental. 

The goal was to: 

1) Keep it cheap
2) Keep it portable
3) Make it colorful
4) Keep it functional

After

First, the livingroom.
We arrived on site with 2 camping fold-up chairs and 2 oversized, lightweight tv trays, and an air mattress. That's it!

I found a "butterfly" green lawnchair that was lime green with a fuzzy seat and no arms; a modern feel.  Next, I junk-picked a white resin Adirondack chair from behind our apartement's dumpster (no joke!). There was nothing wrong with it except it needed to be well-cleaned, which was achieved using a Magic Eraser from the Dollar Tree.

We received a TJ Maxx giftcard for our wedding so I headed there to see what I could pick up to add to our space. I found a indoor/outdoor cushion on clearance with red, orange, and some sage green.  This fit our white chair well. The colors fit with our theme and the pattern of the fabric added a new dimension to our design.  Next, we made a trip to IKEA where I found a fabric panel with a contemporary, neutral design. The panel was advertised as a room divider and measured about 24" wide by about 12' tall.  I cut the fabric into three sections keeping one larger than the other two. I selected it for it's colors, it's simplicity, and it's boldness. I affixed these panels to the wall using Zots, which are glue dots that are a strong yet removable adhesive.  


One more thing I did was bought a small, wooden palm tree to affix to our front door.  We love the tropics and by adding this tiny detail it was so easy to spot our door from all the other identical doors in the building.

Cost of this project:

Green chair - $10.98 (Walmart)
Cushion - $12.00 (TJ Maxx)
Fabric Wall Panel - $12.99 (IKEA)
Palm Tree - $.59 (Joann Fabrics)
Floor Lamp - $19.99 (Walmart)

Result... home sweet home that folds up and fits nicely into our tiny car for the next place our assignment will take us to.

By the time we arrived in our new city to begin a new contract, I began searching for a store that might carry posters to decorate our white and lifeless walls.  We found NO short term leases under $2300/month in Los Angeles, so we ended up renting a room in someone's condo near the hospital. An overall weird and depressing scenario, but we are none the worse for wear now that we lived through it!

In Los Angeles, ironically, no store carries cheapie posters!  I discovered a few ways around this.

Renters can use your own photos to create your own posters in any size that meets your needs. Upload the photo to www.vistaprint.com and make a large poster of it to create your own artwork. Sometimes the site has a 50% off sale, which drops the price from $19.99 for a large poster to $9.98.  There are a few sizes to choose from so create your space with images you enjoy for each room.  Snapfish.com, CVS.com, and a bunch of other companies also offer this option online.

Another way around boring walls is to "starch" fabric to the walls.   There are recipes online detailing how to take any print of fabric and stick it harmlessly to walls making for damage-free "wall-paper" to change the entire look of the room.  With only a few weeks left here I didn't want to go through the effort, so I cut striped fabric into strips and pinned them up as a room border with white poster pins. The pins are barely noticeable and we love the change.

Another trick to kicking the white walls was to head to a paper store. There we found wonderful pieces of decorative paper in the travel theme for $3.95-$5.95 each.  We bought 4 different designs to create a grouping.  Glue dots (Zots) were used to hang them yet are removable.

If none of the above are within your budget or timeframe, find a roll of wrapping paper that you enjoy (about $1.00 to $3.99 for a roll) and use poster sized cutouts in shapes that appeal to you and make a collection on your wall.

Bathrooms can be a particular challenge.  Most of them do not have windows and they have depressing overhead lighting and are simply devoid of color.  Once again I found my answers in either TJ Maxx's clearance isle, Tuesday Morning store, Goodwill, or even the Dollar Tree.

For this pictured bathroom I bought one window panel (a yellow one) at Goodwill with tassles on it and used a tension rod to hang it. Then, I bought a floral hair clip with rhinestones and used it as the tie-back. Next, I bought a bright lime-green and white, square bathmat for the floor in front of the sink.  Next, I neatly tore out an oversized page advertisement that I visually liked out of our wine magazine, trimmed the edges, then hung it over the towel bar with Zots glue dots.  Finally, I purchased on clearance an over the door hanger that was black and had a whimsical feel. I hung colorful beach towels from it which added the final pop of color.  All of these were enough color to lift the mood of this dark and dreary bathroom. All fit in with our objectives (cheap, functional, portable, and colorful), too.

If you are staying in an Extended Stay or a hotel for your assignment, there are still things you can do to make your surroundings feel more like home.


For us, we brought our lime-green, fluffy bathroom rug, a kitchen rug, a digital picture frame for the table with a rotation of our travel photos playing, and a fuzzy blanket for the couch or chair in the room, and a pair of wine glasses that come in handy after a long day of work. I also don't like Extended Stay's headboards so I bought a piece of fabric and simply draped it over the headboard and tucked it in around the edges.  I also put our own sheets, blanket, and mattress topper on the bed. These are small, portable, additions that make even the most bland hotel rooms feel more personalized.


The latest apartment here on the east coast afforded us more floor space and a little more personality. I used a few more tricks to make these dead white walls and poor overhead lighting come to life.


First,I needed some color as a backsplash behind the stove. It serves 2 purposes; make cleanup easier and also add a focal point to the kitchen. I bought 2 colorful, plastic placemats at Target for $2.97 each and pinned them under the stove hood. Instant color! I bought a kitchen towel to match pulling out the brightest color in the new backsplash. Then, I used a bright plastic bowl I brought along with us. The next more helpful thing I did was replace the existing dim bulbs with brighter ones in the overhead track lighting. What a difference!