Meet the 27-year-old frontline nurse who is a travel influencer in her spare time – Insider – INSIDER

For many, being a travel influencer is a full-time job, and not an easy one, but somehow Ebony Thyme, 27, does it in her spare time, when she isn't working as a nurse practitioner.

Currently, she's battling the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic at a hospital in Brooklyn and staying in a hotel so as not to put her family at risk.

Despite being a somewhat little-known job, travel nurses are not actually that uncommon. Created in response to worldwide nurse shortages, travel nurses are essentially free agents that step in when hospitals need experienced nurses to fill in for someone on maternity leave, because their population fluctuates by season, or because they require a certain skill set, among other reasons.

"I work pretty much wherever the need is," Thyme told Insider.

Flights and housing are usually paid for, and contracts typically last between eight to 26 weeks.

"I love it," Thyme says of the job, saying that the biggest perk for her is that time off is negotiated in advance of signing on to a new role. This is a big part of what allows her to travel so frequently, though her trips usually take place between jobs. She says she usually works three to six month-contracts, takes a month or two off to travel, and repeats the whole thing. She adds that in working for a staffing agency rather than a hospital, she can pick and choose assignments, as well as when, and for how long, to take a break between them.

"I just like the flexibility that I have between both my lifestyle, traveling for leisure and traveling for my occupation," she said, adding that as a travel nurse she doesn't have to worry about seniority or who asked for days off first, something most regular nurses must contend with.

She explains that the nurse practitioner job is more similar to that of a medical doctor, in that they can both prescribe medication. Nurse practitioners, versus registered nurses, also require a master's degree.

Being able to do both jobs gives her more opportunities, according to Thyme. And she says that working at a range of different clinics, practices, and hospitals in different states means that she learns a lot of new skills and methodologies.

"Because I have more of an outgoing personality, it doesn't bother me to start from scratch, make friends, and figure out a new environment," she said. "That's the reason why I travel."

In fact, she says being a travel nurse and a travel influencer have a lot in common: She's always learning new things, immersing herself in different cultures, and meeting people.

Thyme usually travels solo, and offers coaching on how to travel solo as a woman, as well as how to plan post-pandemic travel.

Thyme said she has a new contract starting soon, in which she'll be doing COVID-19 antibody testing.

She admits to being "a little bit scared" working on the front lines, mostly because so little is still known about the novel coronavirus. She also says that nursing during the pandemic is very different, as nurses have to adjust certain practices to keep themselves safe and prevent exposure. For example, if someone's going into cardiac arrest, rather than rushing to their side to perform CPR immediately, she says nurses need to suit up first.

"Nursing is not practiced that way at all," she said. "This is new to us, in general. I don't want to say it's not as quick to save lives, because that's still what we do, but it's like we have to take an extra precaution to protect ourselves first."

She adds that protecting loved ones at home is an added stressor for many healthcare professionals. "I'm staying in a hotel in Brooklyn right now because I have loved ones at home that I don't want to get sick," she said. "I don't want to bring the exposure to them, so I'd rather stay away for now."

"A lot of people see me as a travel influencer, and also as a healthcare advisor," she said. "I think I resonate with a lot of my audience."

According to Thyme, she never used to post about being a travel nurse: as a travel influencer, she gained her thousands of followers simply by posting gorgeous, colorful photos of herself in exotic locales, from Egypt to Colombia. But she said people kept asking if she ever worked, so she started posting about being a nurse practitioner, and that "it came together perfect."

While she was worried that the dynamics of her page might be thrown off by including her professional life, she says that "it really didn't, because it's really still a traveling lifestyle. It's really still promoting living your best life."

She encourages lots of advance research, using social media to find places to stay, and calling hotels and rentals to make sure they're in safe areas. She also likes following the blogs of female travelers who have been to the places she's planning to visit, often emailing them for their recommendations.

"As a travel influencer and a healthcare provider, I don't encourage traveling right now," she said. "We don't have a treatment or vaccine yet it's not completely under control. I still have COVID cases in the hospital. I still have a fair amount of deaths in the hospital. I still see patients that come in walking and then the next day they're on the vent, basically trying to live. Even though a lot of people from the outside world don't see it, I see it."

While Thyme also has the travel itch and can understand people that are rearing for a change of scenery, she's hoping they'll wait it out just a little longer to see how things play out.

Initially, she says she is going to stick to domestic travel, maybe do a road trip, but remains positive, and wants everyone else to remain positive, too.

Nonessential travel within the US and internationally is currently not recommended by the Centers for Disease Control; for more information, you can check each state's health and travel advisories here as well as the CDC's travel recommendations for international destinations.

"I kind of felt like the world was going at a fast pace anyway, and honestly this has really slowed me down," she said, saying that this "pause" has allowed her to save money and really think about what she wants from life.

"I'm hoping that people utilize this time to actually try to figure things out that they want to do, that they have been having doubts about, or that they haven't gotten to because of the fast-paced world that we were in," she said.

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Meet the 27-year-old frontline nurse who is a travel influencer in her spare time - Insider - INSIDER