Meet Landing’s Travel Nurses: Kelly Dimmick

By Landing | May 6, 2022

Happy Nurse’s Week! We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to share the stories of the travel nurses who are living with Landing and taking advantage of the freedom our furnished apartments and flexible leases afford them as they travel from contract to contract.

Kelly, a traveling ER trauma nurse, chose to live with Landing after dealing with less-than-safe hotels and neighborhoods in Baltimore, and hasn’t looked back since! Read more about how she started off in her profession and about her experience navigating travel nurse housing below:

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

My name is Kelly, and I am a travel ER trauma nurse working at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore and living in a Landing in Ellicott City, Maryland. I was in the Navy for four years from 2005 to 2009 and always wanted to be a nurse, but we were in the middle of a war and the Corpsman program wasn’t accepting female applicants at the time. When I got out of the military, I used the GI bill to become a nurse.

I’ve always wanted to do something with trauma, so now I do pediatric trauma and regular trauma. The ER is my specialty—I like the busy, everyday chaos. I tried to leave ER nursing once but I had to go back. It just wasn’t for me. I’ve been an ER nurse for 10 years but am doing travel nursing right now because I wanted to open up my options when the COVID-19 pandemic started.

I live in Maryland, but I live 75 miles away from where I work, so I rented an apartment from Landing for when I’m at work for half the week. Then, the other half of the week, I come back to my family and my son. It’s just too much of a commute when you’re working 12-and-a-half-hour days.

What made you become a travel nurse?

The money definitely attracted me to travel nursing. Hospitals offered a lot of money to traveling nurses during the pandemic, and it was kind of like a bidding market across the country as hospitals scrambled for staff.

My first contract was in New Jersey, which honestly was a really scary move. I wound up in a terrible living situation and kind of got scammed because the listing only showed me the home and not the street it was on, which was part of a sketchy neighborhood. I paid for three months so I stuck it out for three months, but I swore I would never do that again.

Then, I came back after that 13-week contract to my regular job, and when COVID struck again, I realized there was money to be made out there and that I should be utilizing this opportunity to pay off my student loans. So, I went back to traveling.

How did you come to live with Landing?

When I was working in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, I felt like I didn’t have a place to stay that was safe. By the time I got off of work at 7:30 p.m., it was already dark, and I didn’t feel very safe traveling around the area to get to my hotel. I felt unsafe going to the parking deck that time of day, and there were a lot of homeless people sleeping in the street nearby. I knew I needed to figure something else out.

I was doing some relentless Googling to find an apartment and saw Landing in what I knew was a good neighborhood only 15 minutes away from the hospital. And Landing was the quickest thing. I contacted them and they got back to me immediately, then all I had to do was apply for the apartment, pay my membership fee, and I was in the apartment about a week and a half later.

A host met me at my apartment, and when she was doing the walk-through and taking notes, she noticed I didn’t have a laundry basket. Then, a week later, a laundry basket arrived in the mail. And when I moved in, there were complimentary chips, coffee pods, laundry detergent, and even dishwasher pods. Little things like that go a long way. When you’re moving to a different town, there are a lot of times you forget you need certain things and have to run to Target, but everything was there for the first few days I was there, and I knew what I needed for the future.

I just love that apartment. It gets an A+. Sometimes I stay there when I’m not even working! The complex isn’t very noisy, overlooks a pool, has a gym, and even offers residents complimentary shovels when it snows! I just feel like everyone is working all day and it’s very safe. My fiancé came to visit me and said he understood why I say, “I’m tired. I’m just going to stay in tonight.” It’s just perfect. Not all places are going to be picture-perfect, but I got lucky this time.

What kinds of things do you do in your free time?

When I’m home, I clean, wait for my son to get home from school, go to my son’s baseball games, drink wine, hang out, and relax. I’m 36 years old, so I’m kind of boring at this point!

When I’m at my Landing, I have a roommate who is another travel nurse living with me. One woman was nine months pregnant and just left recently at the end of her contract. It was just like living with a friend. We’re both the same age and both have families at home, so it was like having a little bachelor pad! It was like a little getaway from the real world.

Now, another travel nurse from my hospital in my hometown is living in the other bedroom in my apartment. It’s nice because we can split the cost of the apartment and since she doesn’t have the same schedule as me, there’s always someone in the apartment. It’s nice for me, too, because I know her already.

Looking for travel nurse housing?

If you’re a travel nurse looking for somewhere to live during your contract, Landing offers fully furnished apartments in over 375 cities throughout the U.S., all with flexible lease terms that start at 30-day stays. Two weeks’ notice is all you need to move to your new home within the Landing network. Learn more about what a Landing membership can do for you, and browse our apartments today!

Interested in learning more about the other travel nurses living with Landing? Check out their stories here!

Landing

Ted may be the world's slowest typist and struggle to hold a pen, but he has mastered how to pursue a more flexible lifestyle throughout his airborne adventures around the U.S. Whether you're looking for more information before migrating to a new city or want to find an easier way to rent a nest—erm, apartment—Ted will always be here to share his best advice for where to live and how to thrive.