She currently is working as a certified registered nurse anesthetist at Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital here, until someone is found to fill the position permanently. Davis started July 1. "I'll stay until they find somebody, unless some fabulous job comes up," Davis said.

Davis, who is 48 and single, is a health care professional who has realized that she can make more money if she takes her skills on the road.

Since Davis began working as a "locum tenens," Latin for "to hold the place of" in 1999, she's put patients under anesthesia in nine states. She does it for two reasons: money and the ability to set her own schedule.

"There's 50 more jobs that I could have in an hour," Davis said.

There are more than 30,000 nurse anesthetists nationwide, according to Marlene McDowell, a spokeswoman for the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. They administer 65 percent of the anesthesia administered in the United States, according to the association.

And the number of health care professionals taking temporary assignments is growing. In 2000, $1.25 billion was spent in the U.S. on temporary health care workers, according to Billie Wickstrom, director of public relations for the placement company Locumtenens.com.

By 2003, spending had increased to $2.6 billion, she said. She estimated that there are about 3,000 to 4,000 nurse anesthetists working in temporary positions nationwide.

Moving around suits Davis' lifestyle, she said. An artistic woman who makes mixed-media collages in her spare time, she jumped at the chance to work for a few weekends in Taos, N.M., a few years ago.

"The whole time I'm not working, I'm seeing the sights," Davis said.

For now, she's living in her 38-foot Coachman motor home at a Franklin County campground, with her cocker spaniels, Hopi and Rosie. Davis said she generally likes to remain within five hours of Sparta, Tenn., where she owns a home.

Moving around the country is not exactly new to Davis. Her dad was in the Navy, and her family moved around some when she was growing up. She was born in Rhode Island, lived in Illinois and California, then moved to Alabama to be closer to her parents.

She went to nursing school and worked as a registered nurse in Alabama for about 10 years. Then she went back to school and graduated in 1991 with a master's degree in biology and a certificate in nurse anesthesiology. After Davis completed her schooling, she worked long hours at jobs in Georgia, California and Texas.

Then in 1996, Davis decided that she didn't want to work for a doctor anymore. She learned how to do her own billing, and starting in the late 1990s, worked for several years as an independent contractor at a small hospital in Sparta.

Meanwhile, Davis had been hearing that she could make more money if she worked in temporary positions. At a full-time job, she got a salary but said she was on call a lot, and vacations were parceled out by a lottery system, which she didn't like.

In 1999, she left the position in Sparta and went on the road. Since then, she's worked in Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, Virginia, Ohio, New Mexico, North Carolina, West Virginia and Tennessee.

Being self-employed, Davis said that she can put a lot more money into her retirement accounts. Many of her living expenses are covered. Though she pays for her own malpractice insurance and health care, she can write them off as business expenses, because she is an employee of her own corporation, she said.

Davis estimates that nurse anesthetists working at hospitals can make about $190,000 to $200,000 per year, including their benefits package. Last year, she said she made about $240,000 working freelance.

For a while, she lived in hotels or apartments arranged for as part of the position. But she got tired of that and bought first a trailer, then a motor home.

"Every time I get in it to drive it, I learn something," Davis said.

She takes about five weeks off per year, and generally uses the time to go home to Tennessee. After traveling so much, a vacation for her is spending time at home, she said.

Her dream destination is Alaska, but she doesn't think it would be worth the drive unless she gets a job for at least six months.

Davis plans to keep traveling for about two more years. Then she's going to get a job closer to home, even if it means a pay cut, she said.

Unless, of course, she decides to go after what she now thinks she may have been destined to do all along.

Veterinary school.