With the last three blog posts focusing on the role of a travel sonographer, it is about time I talk about the next job assignment. This particular time, was as close as I care to get to New York City – at least in a working / living arrangement. Don’t get me wrong, New York City is great, but it is a place I prefer to visit rather than live, due to the population and size of the city. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I gravitate to small to mid sized cities when it comes to taking a job assignment and prefer to reserve the bigger cities for traveling to as a tourist. At the time I took the job in this area, it was a time when there really weren’t a lot of great options on the table. This can happen in travel work. Even when you work for a large and very successful agency, the jobs available that you may have a strong interest in, or are a good fit for, may only be available when you are mid assignment and therefore unavailable to you, given your timetable. You have to be patient and wait until you are in a respectable timetable (usually 4 – 6 weeks before you are able to start) before you can put in for your next job. So there will be times when what is available at the same time you are available, doesn’t always meet your expectations. This was one of those times.
I put in for the job and was accepted and due to start in the spring. I was so apprehensive about starting a job in such a congested area, which happened to be in northern NJ, just across the Hudson River from NYC. I found a sweet little rental over the northern border in Nyack, NY. My commute was less than half hour and on a road that was not heavily traveled, much to my surprise for this area. This made the apprehension of commuting to work in a high population area, pretty do-able. And in my downtime, Nyack was a GREAT place to live! My rental was so close to the cozy little downtown area, which had everything you could want in the way of bars, restaurants and entertainment, that it made living in this area not only fun, but also convenient. I was able to leave my car at my rental and just walk or ride my bike to get around. I will reserve my next blog post specifically just for Nyack, but for now, let me focus on northern New Jersey, where my job was actually located.
The workflow tends to be more intense in the north. Higher patient volumes, shorter exam times, greater pressure to complete all the images on every patient, despite the challenges that arise. This was something I never realized about the northeast, until I experienced jobs south of the the Mason-Dixon Line or jobs in the midwest. In my personal experience, jobs in the south and the midwest have often provided a workflow and schedule that reflects an understanding of the limitations and problems that sonographers are up against every day on the job. This compassion and acknowledgment of the perils of the job, help to ultimately benefit the employer by allowing time for their sonographers to produce higher quality images, protecting them from injury by having even just a few minutes to rest their wrist, arm and shoulder between patients (ultimately reducing injuries and a loss of manpower) and providing better employee job satisfaction, which often translates to a higher retention rate among their vital staff. This New Jersey job was one that did not fit in this category. As a result, it was not a job I found to be sustainable in the long term.
This area was very expensive to live, and coupled with a significantly lower rate of pay than I had in recent prior assignments, factored into my inability to stay longer than the contracted 13 weeks. But despite the dissatisfaction of the job, I did find some interesting things to enjoy about this location. Although much of my time off was spent exploring activities in New York State where I was renting, there definitely were some noteworthy places to mention in northern New Jersey that were not far from the job, and often within 30 minutes to an hour from my rental in Nyack, which I have listed below.
- Shopping at the outlets in Bergen Town Center in Paramus
- Tommy Fox’s Public House in Bergenfield – this place is a nice pub that offered an opportunity to catch some live music while enjoying my dinner of Shepherd’s Pie
- Hiking trails along Rte 9W in Alpine, NJ, etc., which are situated close to the Hudson River
- River Edge Farmer’s Market at Memorial Park in River Edge, NJ – not only did I get to pick up some fresh locally grown produce, but there was live music, a brewery vendor and food trucks to boot
- Hudson River Waterfront Walkway in Hoboken allowed me to take in some really nice views of NYC across the river – food trucks on the pier was an added bonus
One of the best parts of doing travel work however, is meeting people wherever you go. And with that in mind, reflecting about my stay in this part of the country would not be complete, if I didn’t include in the above list an activity that I looked forward to: the free summer outdoor concerts at Veterans Memorial Park in Westwood, NJ. This was a fun respite after a long day at work in a challenging environment, and was conveniently en route to my rental. Whether it was a Billy Joel, Elton John, or other tribute performer, that was only half the fun.
On my very first time, after picking up some takeout and sitting down at a picnic table to eat my dinner while listening to the music, I met the nicest couple, and to this day still maintain some degree of contact with them through social media. We shared many laughs together, coupled with some great conversation, that I truly looked forward to seeing them the following week. It was literally right up there among some of my favorite memories of this area. Sometimes you meet people that you instantly feel completely comfortable around and that you “click” with, and next thing you know you are exchanging contact info because you don’t want to lose touch with them – even after only one or two brief interactions. That was them … that is rare … and that was pretty special! People are what makes this job even better and this lovely couple (they know who they are) certainly proved that to me!