Today I talk with Marcus House, BSN, SRNA about his decision to live in an ambulance during remote clinical rotations in anesthesia school. Marcus is currently working towards completing his Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice at Missouri State University. He holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Education and Nursing, both from Southeast Missouri State University. Marcus worked for 7 years as a high school science teacher alongside his wife, Casey, also a high school teacher, before returning to nursing school. He spent 3 years working in a CVICU prior to pursuing his doctorate degree in anesthesia. He would like you to know that he “knows when to hold ’em, AND when to fold ’em, [he] once owned a Nintendo Power Glove and [he’s] comfortable being either ‘big spoon’ or ‘little spoon’.”
In all seriousness, choosing to go mobile for your housing arrangements during graduate school or residency, depending on your clinical rotations, may make a lot of sense. As Marcus points out in the podcast, he’s saving money compared to the cost of rent while enjoying a personalized home on wheels that will be his to keep after anesthesia school. With many graduate anesthesia programs sending their SRNAs wide and far for clinical rotations, it can be extremely challenging to find affordable housing on the fly in grad school while still maintaining rent or a mortgage at a home base.
You don’t have to look far on the internet webs to find a virtual plethora of blog sites, Instagram & Pinterest feeds and YouTube channels dedicated to #vanlife for ideas & guides on build outs.
I put a few photos of Marcus’ ambulance, Bernice, below and you’ll find several more at Anesthesia Guidebook’s Instagram page. I’ll also include some photos on Instagram from a Sprinter van build that my wife and I completed after we finished anesthesia school. While we were able to get through our program in traditional housing, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed having a van for weekend to multi-week road trip adventures after grad school.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to Marcus via Facebook or email (Marcus.House1@gmail.com) (that’s Marcus-dot-house, the number one, at gmail.com) or drop a question/comment below, on Instagram or directly to me via email (jon@anesthesiaguidebook.com) if you want to talk about van life in anesthesia school in more detail.
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