Calls From Travel Nursing Agencies

Thurstle Mullen RN

Today I sent a whole bunch of them an email from me, telling them why I won't fill out their paperwork and challenging them to offer me something that I can't get staying right where I am currently at.

I'll post the letter.... perhaps many of you feel the same way I do.

Hi everyone,

As you can see, this message is going out to a lot of recruiters... people who have over the past year contacted me about signing up with his or her travel nursing agency. I'd like to share a tidbit with each of you so that you will then know what it's like on this end of the phone call, email, or text message that each of you send out to nurses like myself.

First let me give you a little bit of history on my current status and then I'll challenge each of you to do something that you have never done before in trying to recruit a nurse to come work for your agency and as many of you claim, work for the best recruiter in the business.

Way back in August of 2014 I was sitting at home and decided to update my profile on Careerbuilder.com. I had decided to give travel nursing a try. As soon as I hit the enter button and posted my update and intent, my phone started ringing. Within 20 minutes I had 4 calls that I answered and spoke with the recruiter on the other end. The first recruiter to convince me to log on and fill out the information he was sending to me was ****, a recruiter with The Quest Group. While I was working on the stuff he sent to me I answered 3 other calls, each a new recruiter wanting me to fill out their stuff that he or she was emailing to me. I told each one of them that I would, thinking that it was a great idea to apply to more than one agency so I would have options.

Then reality hit me..... 4 hours later I finally finished doing the online stuff that **** of Quest had sent to me, from the online application to the skills checklists to the tests, and including the emailing of copies of all of the documents he needed.

After 4 hours of working on one agency's paperwork I then clicked over to the next guy's that I had promised I would work on.... and what did I see? The exact same template for all of the what had by this point turned into "crap" that I had to check off once again. Needless to say, when I saw that I was going to have to repeat myself for a number of frustrating hours to apply to a second agency, I decided that it was not worth my time to waste on filling out applications for more than one travel nursing agency..... after all, what can or what is one willing to do for me that the other can't do? Each agency staffs the same hospitals in most cases and therefore it only makes sense that the pay is about..... the same.

Sure, there are some agencies that have certain advantages and benefits that others do not.... but to listen to each and every one of YOU.... the people on the other end of the phone, you are all telling me the exact same thing... that YOU are the best recruiter out there, that YOUR agency is the best agency out there, and that NO other agency will have my back like your's will.

To say that I would expect to hear you claim anything other than that would be wrong, after all.... you make your money by convincing me that you are the best to work for.... but measured by who's standards, verified by who's audit, backed up by what warranty?

Obviously, there's no way to validate any of your claims without experiencing it first hand. So.... guess how I ended up working for Quest? They were the first agency who's paperwork I completed. By the time I was finished with theirs, there was no way I was wasting my day off on anyone elses, not without compensation.

Since October 2nd, 2014, I have worked for Quest and Dallas is where I have been. Quest Staffing is all of those things that ***** told me they were. I have great recruiters, great owners, great pay, and yes.... Quest has my back.... so everytime I get a call or a text or email from someone else, guess what I always ask him or her?

What can you do for me that my current agency is not capable of or willing to do?

It seems to me that the business of travel nursing, agency nursing, is just like the business of selling cars. Each saleperson, each manager, each dealership and each brand claims to be something better, have better this or that, will take better care of the buyer's vehicle, better service, better staff, better price, better cars. How does a buyer know the difference? How does a buyer find out the actual facts? That's easy.... as some point the buyer decides to "buy" the sales pitch.... buy the product.... and the buyer always finds out later down the line whether or not they got as good a deal as it sounded at the beginning.

That's what each of you are.... car sales people.... car dealerships.... each vying for that customer, trying to convince that customer to buy your agency over the competition across the street.

Now..... how do you get the sale?

In other words, how do you get me, the savvy shopper, to decide to sign on the dotted line and buy your product? The first time around ***** got me to sign and buy because he was the first person to call, the first person to email me the links and passcodes, the first person to get me excited about signing up and doing my very first travel nursing contract..... but that was when it was easy.... he was just the lucky person who called me first after I hit enter on careerbuilder.com. Luck is the only reason I am working for Quest right now. It could just have easily been YOU......

Now that I am working and have been working for Quest for over 5 months, sitting in one place in one hotel room, I am itching to see what else is out there. My dilemma now is WHERE do I go and WHO do I sign with. Obviously I am not interested in wasting my time filling out every travel nursing agency's paperwork.... I easily have the option of just staying with Quest.... I could do that or I could sign with someone else, Why would I do that? That's what I am asking each of YOU.

Every single day I get 3 or 4 phone calls, 3 or 4 texts messages, 3 or 4 emails from different recruiters, some from the same agencies, most from different agencies. Some of them send me something about the money.... leaving out most of the details... promising a "net take home pay" but not explaining the housing options.... leaving me to guess about those... which is not the right thing to do, after all, I do have to sleep somewhere.

Every take home pay sent to me I figure I could get from the agency I am working for already.... so again, why should I sign with you?

The "billing rate".... every hospital has a cap on how much they are willing to pay out to an agency... then that agency decides how much they are willing to offer to a nurse to work "for them".... and here's the kicker.... every single penny is really earned by ME. It's the RN that earns the money, the travel nursing agency just keeps a portion of it for being the middleman. The only difference between your agency and another agency is how much you keep vs how much you give to the nurse that really earned the money.

One agency owner spent an hour on the phone with me not too long ago trying to convince me that since he was a nurse and used to work at that before buying an agency meant that he could relate better with his nurses and that he paid more money out to his nurses because of that. Sure.... of course that makes sense. Based on his unverifiable word... I should jump at the chance to sign with his company.

So, recently I sat down with one of the managers of my company and told him what I thought he should do to recruit nurses. I started by saying that in all of the contacts I have received, I have never been asked this one simple question........

"What do you want?"

As for us nurses, what could it be that we want? Here's a few priorities... each nurse sorts them according to what it is specifically that he or she wants to accomplish.....

Obviously the maximum amount of money we can get.
Location. Some nurses want to go to specific states, cities, or hospitals.
Lifestyle.

During my conversation I told my manager that one of the main desires of mine was lifestyle. When I first started looking at all of your websites the one thing that stood out the most to me was the lifestyle that you were promoting.... however, since I have been in the Dallas area, and worked along side many many travelers.... I've noticed that the lifestyle pictured on your websites is NOT being the lifestyle that I or the other nurses here in Dallas are living. No offense to my current agency but when I got to Dallas and saw where I was supposed to be lodged.... I called and said I was headed back home in 30 minutes unless they found me a better hotel. They did.... and I've been there since October 2, and ain't leaving until March 27 but even though it's nice, I'm still not living the lifestyle that I thought I'd be living... based on the pictures and promises that all of you are making.

Some of us, the travelers, want the maximum amount of money that we can get our hands on... we'll stay at the crappiest places as long as it's cheap.... allowing us to keep most of our housing stipends in our pockets.... Some of us want to go to certain locations... locations where the cost of living is sky high.... meaning that we have none of the money left over.... and then some of us want to stay in "premium lodging"..... living the lifestyle of the rich..... and like with everything, if you want nicer, sometimes you have less in your wallet after the bills are paid.

I want the lifestyle. I want to live in premium places.... I want YOU to make all of the arrangements so that I don't have to do any of that when I get there but unpack... and sit back and enjoy the luxury lifestyle that can be obtained if YOU use the power and influence of your company to find that kind of lodging for me.

And I want all of that UP FRONT.... before I waste my time filling out the 4 hours of paperwork for each of your companies.... tell me what you can do for me that none of the others are willing, or capable of doing. Convince me that everything I want is in the contract and I'll sign with your agency.

There is one other way to recruit me if you are interested...

My time here is up at the end of March. I am going home for a few weeks to go fishing with my dad.... I

Calls From Travel Nursing Agencies

About Thurstle Mullen RN

More Like This