One Therapist’s Experience with a Spouse’s Relocation
Anyone who’s ever been married knows it takes a good deal of compromise to maintain a healthy relationship with your spouse. And these days that extends to the job as well.
When one member of a couple gets a great opportunity that just happens to require a major relocation, the other member of the couple generally freezes for a moment. “Yikes,” he or she will say. “This means I have to quit my job.”
And then even more disturbingly, “Will I be able to find another one where we’re going?”
It can be quite unsettling to say the least. But sometimes that lemon in the room ends up making the best glass of lemonade you ever had.
Be careful what you say!
A little over five years ago, David Zobeck, MBA, RRT, was working as the clinical coordinator in the respiratory care program at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI, when his wife’s career change took them both halfway across the country.
“My wife had changed careers from being an ER RN to being a pastor,” explains the AARC member. ”When she finished her doctoral degree in preaching I said we would move if she ever found a position that could replace my university income.”
Zobeck says those words quickly taught him to “be careful with what you say!” Before he knew it he found himself out of work and in Harrisburg, PA. “My 25 years as a manager and ten years as a tenured assistant professor opened no doors for me,” he says. “At the same time, my wife’s new insurance would not cover her pre-existing medical problems.”
He needed a job and he needed one now!
Good things come to those who wait
Zobeck posted his resume and looked up hospital addresses and sent his resume directly to HR and RC managers. The only job he could find was a full time position managing ventilators in a long-term acute care facility. So he rolled up his sleeves and reapplied his skills back at the bedside. But that was just the beginning of his journey.
After he was on the job for a while, a local home care therapist told him a hospital in nearby Lancaster was in the process of starting a new respiratory educational program. Zobeck took the information down and checked out the hospital website to see what he could find out.
Nothing was posted about the new program at the time, but he kept digging and eventually came across the name of an AARC member who worked there and got in touch with him about the program director position.
“I learned where to find the listing and a brief description of the position,” he says. “Eventually, I was called for an interview and chosen to develop a new respiratory care program for the area.”
Experience of a lifetime
Zobeck says the opportunity to start an RT program from scratch was the greatest experience he’s ever had in the profession.
“I have been able do things that I could not do anywhere else,” says the program director at the Pennsylvania College of Health Science. ”Our students are at the bedside with their faculty from the very first month in the program and every semester after that. We incorporate hands on clinical simulation every semester. And we are proud of the graduates from the program.”