36. Hospital at Sea: How Travel Nursing Led Nurse Tessa to Mercy Ships

What if the thing that saves your nursing career isn’t leaving healthcare… but saying yes to a completely different way of working?In this episode of It Takes Heart, ED nurse Tessa shares how travel nursing transformed her life after hitting a wall with burnout in a busy metro hospital. Feeling exhausted, disconnected, and questioning her future in healthcare, she took a leap into rural contracts and everything shifted. From working solo in outback emergency departments to embracing the freedom of contract work, Tessa explains how flexibility, autonomy, and exploration reignited her confidence and clinical capability.She also takes us inside one of the most extraordinary chapters of her career: volunteering aboard Mercy Ships, a floating hospital delivering life-changing surgeries off the coast of Madagascar — and why sometimes the most powerful career move is simply saying, “If you can, you must.”This episode is for any nurse feeling the weight of burnout, curious about agency nursing, or wondering whether travel nursing could be the fresh start they didn’t know was possible.Tessa's organisation of choice is The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, a national charitable healthcare organisation providing primary healthcare and 24/7 emergency services to those in rural and remote Australia. RFDS uses advanced aviation and medical technology to deliver vital care where traditional services are unavailable. It Takes Heart is hosted by cmr’s Samantha Miklos and Kate Coomber and recorded at cmr’s head office in Brisbane.We Care; Music by Waveney YassoGet to know It Takes Heart & cmr better! Instagram: @ittakesheartpodcast and @cornerstonemedicalrecruitmentYouTube: @ItTakesHeartPodcast and @cornerstonemedicalrecruitment TikTok: @cornerstonemedicalrecLinkedIn: @cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment Facebook: @CornerstoneMedicalRecruitment