Hamsters and Travel Nurse Recruiting

Good morning! Well, it's another day here at HSN, and it feels like-- well, here's an analogy I like to use. I remember one day when I was in a hurry to take my baby hamsters to a pet store, and the top accidentally came off of their cage, so I suddenly had all these little baby hamsters running in every direction while I chased them around trying to scoop them up and get them back into one place.

(I know, the "cage" part of it, we have to overlook.) What I mean is that sometimes travel nurse recruiting feels like I felt at that time-- you have people whose assignments are beginning, people whose assignments are ending or extending, and you're trying to manage new clients. All the while, new assignments are coming in and it's kind of like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole-- say, someone wants ER in Denver, and the only assignments coming in are for Cath Lab, ICU, and Tele.

Then you have the assignments that only last for a day, and there's the endless struggle to get paperwork in order- skills checklists, copies of certifications, work history, references before ten other travelers get there first-- It's like playing Beat the Clock. It can be an adrenaline surge, that's for sure. There's that push-pull I can really understand-- travelers don't want to fill out paperwork until something's a sure thing, but when that sure thing comes along, it comes and goes in the wink of an eye, and then it's too late.

Sometimes the most challenging part of it is, we all work so hard to get everything together, travelers, recruiters, hospitals, and then... the interview waiting game: "hurry up and wait". Well, in this big gamble, the main part is to stay positive and remember that some seeds are being planted, some seeds are being harvested-- some of them grow quickly, and some of them take forever to flower. HealthCare Travel in its' basic form is often a leap of faith-- So it's Friday morning, and here we go: we're jumping!