By Darren Carlson
Being the grandchild of a pastor and the son of a nurse helped forge the servant’s heart that makes Trevor James so passionate about his work in healthcare. He currently serves patients and communities nationwide as an ER travel nurse with Medical Solutions. With a strong affinity for travel, family, and service, Trevor answers the call to care in his own unique way.
He credits his mother for demonstrating to him what sacrifice means.
“I was born in Alaska. But my mother later moved to Texas where she became a nurse, raising a family as a single mother. Her sacrifice to make a better life for me made a lasting impression on my heart, and I have never met a more giving person than she was,” Trevor says.
A Rolling Stone
After mission work in West Africa with his wife, Trevor started his career as a paramedic. He later became an RN and has now been a travel ER nurse for five and half years. He says he went into travel nursing to explore, as so many do. But it was also because he already felt so comfortable living life on the move.
Trevor and his mother moved often while he was growing up.
“Sometimes it was to a different state, sometimes just down the street,” he says. “I always felt more comfortable on the move, so, for me, traveling just made sense.”
Traveling still makes the most sense to him, as Trevor travels the country in an RV with his wife and four daughters. The family follows his travel nursing assignments as they crisscross the U.S.— from North Dakota and Montana to New Mexico and Missouri, out east to New York and Connecticut, and down south to Tennessee and Louisiana. The family aims to stay in each place for about nine months at a time.
“They love it,” Trevor says of his daughters. “They get to experience new communities and places.”
Serving Communities, Honoring Nurses
While the travel nurse lifestyle is a big draw, travel nursing isn’t merely an adventure for Trevor. He understands the role that traveling nurses and clinicians play in helping hospitals and communities. This has been especially true during the pandemic.
“Places everywhere have just been extremely overwhelmed. My goal with every assignment is to do more than required,” Trevor says. “I know as a travel nurse that everywhere I am being sent is an area of great need.”
While he understands the often-temporary nature of his assignments within units, Trevor keeps his new colleagues in mind as he works.
“I approach nursing as a privilege and a service. I am not only capable of service to my patients, but I am capable of serving nurses as well,” he says of his intended positive impact on fellow nurses. “You’re coming into an already overworked facility … you can not only brighten your patient’s day, [but] also make a difference to the other clinicians around you.