Providence Health Care Staffing provided this article.
If you are a nurse who loves to travel or wish to begin your journey, you know that the first thing you need to do is find a travel healthcare recruiter. Finding a good travel healthcare recruiter is like buying a new pair of shoes. Some people try the first pair and get lucky. Others must try a few before they find one worth keeping. So, what should you look for in a travel healthcare recruiter? Believe it or not, there are a few key traits that make a travel healthcare recruiter a truly good one. Listed below are traits that you should be mindful of when finding a new travel healthcare recruiter.
- Personality and communication
- Knowledgeable and transparent
- Passionate
- Willing
- Accessible
Let’s break these down a bit more so that you can know why these traits will benefit your travel nursing journey when working with a travel healthcare recruiter.
Personality and Communication
As with many interactions, the first thing you notice about a person is their personality and how they communicate. This is true in your social and professional life. Some may say that fitting personalities aren’t important in a work life but – of course it is! Your recruiter is someone who you should be working very closely with, you don’t want your personalities and communication styles to clash. You and your recruiter should have the same goal: finding you the perfect job match! If you notice that the recruiter may be having other intentions, you may want to evaluate that. You also should both be respectfully communicating with each other while working together. Mutual respect in conversation will take you a long way and ultimately build a closer relationship. When personalities clash, working together gets harder – find someone who compliments your goals, and everything else will follow suit! A recruiter that you get along well with will more than likely be the recruiter that you keep throughout the majority of your career.
Knowledgeable and transparent
When you are planning your next travel assignment, you are putting your trust in your recruiter. You should be able to trust that they are knowledgeable and aware of the ins and outs of the travel nursing industry. The travel nursing market changes every day, a good recruiter should be aware of those things and how that will impact your specific situation. Along with this, you should ensure that your recruiter is transparent with you about the market. They should be able to tell you front-up what they are seeing and give you advice based on the information they know and see!
Passionate
With even the best recruiter in the nation, you will still be in situations where you are submitted to job after job with zero offers. These situations are out of your control and the recruiter’s control. It is, unfortunately, a part of the game. Your recruiter should be passionate about getting you a job – that should be their mission. A recruiter who keeps trying after each submission is declined is passionate about their job and yours. A passionate recruiter takes the time to find the exact right fit for you. Inevitably, if the fit is just right, you are more likely to extend the assignment for a while. Which is a great situation for you and the recruiter overall. It is reassuring to you to know that someone is dedicated to helping you and it is reassuring to the recruiter to know that you are trusting them to help you.
Willing
As many of you know, travel nursing can be quite the competition. Getting an offer is rarely an easy task. Many people don’t see all that is involved in submitting a nurse and what happens before and after an offer. This means that your recruiter should be willing to go to bat for you and contact the account managers for your job. Things like negotiating, requesting updates, and addressing any needs or concerns that you may have prior to and during your assignment can make a huge difference.
Accessible
Lastly, the travel nursing industry does not sleep. There is something constantly going on. As a nurse, you want to feel in the loop with what is going on, and you need security to feel like you can ask your questions. You will need a recruiter that is accessible to you. This means that your recruiter will text you back, email you at ease, and hop on a phone call with you when need be. A recruiter is the middleman between you and the Vendor. They will need to be in the know of what is going on with your assignment prior to your assignment, and even during the submittal stages. If you are unable to reach them or unable to just have a conversation, the process will become much more difficult.
Overall, you and your recruiter should have the same goals and passion – finding you something that fits perfectly for your specialty and lifestyle. You should be working as a team with complimenting personalities and shared communication. Knowledge, transparency, passion, willingness, and accessibility. Success can be shared if you are working with the right recruiter!
Our job board is a great place to search for your next travel nurse assignment. We have you covered with our housing page if housing is an issue. You can search for what you are looking for.
