American Mobile

BoiseRN · Jul 17, 2008

A co-worker of mine worked for them a few years back and she liked them. I talked to her recruiter and liked her a lot. She seemed excited to hear from me and had a lot of interesting travel possibilities. I have since been forced to talk to two other people who insist I have to talk to them so they can put my profile together and send it to the recruiter even though I told them I had already talked to a recruiter!! One lady tells me in an e-mail "you have to understand, it is pertinent you call me back immediately if you even wan to be considered to travel for this company".

It really made me shun away from them even though I really liked the recruiter. I even told the recruiter about it and she swore that I would be working only with her. Then that same day the other, rude, pushy lady called again. So I think the recruiter is great but the tactics of the company trying to get travelers does not sit well with me.

Also I am coming to the conclusion that everyone has thier opinion and maybe we will just know what company to go with on a gut feeling one day? I did do a search on this forum for American Mobile and did not find many positive things- once again, a lot of opinion. But I am also forming my opinion and I am pretty sure I will not be traveling with them...

BoiseRN · Jul 17, 2008

Also, so far I am really liking access nurses, RTG medical and medical express! We will see if they have anything that strikes my fancy! And good luck to you!

nbrody · Jul 17, 2008

Thanks for the info. I will look into other companies as well. :nuke:

beachgirl01 · Jul 19, 2008

I've been traveling with American Mobile since February and so far I have no complaints, they've all been very nice/helpful. Although at the beginning when I was having to get all my paperwork together, it was kind of frustrating because the lady takes care of all that was out sick for like a week and half, and I had to get all the stuff in quickly without the assurance that I was doing it all right. But then she came back and said everything was fine luckily. But I don't really fault the company for that or anything.

I think they may not pay as much as other companies, which could be why some people don't like them...but that was never a big issue for me.

nbrody · Jul 19, 2008

Thanks for the reply. So do you get to pretty much go where you want? What types of places have you been to so far? Are the accommodations that they put you in really nice? Do you know if there is a lot of job location options with American Mobile for a Labor and Delivery nurse?

amy0123, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2008

You get to go where you want. It also depends if the hospital has a need for travel nurses. If there is a specific hospital that you want to work in, you could ask what travel nurse agencies they use. I am told American Mobile has the best housing accomodations than other agencies. They are great to start out with. If you have a dog to travel with, CrossCountry would be great to join.

I know a friend who had assignments in Maryland, Georgia, Florida and California and loved it, no trouble with his recruiter. I've gone to Hawaii and loved it. They have many job locations for every nurse. It changes weekly depending what hospital has the need for them at the time. I chose AmericanMobile because they had positions for nurses with one year of experience and gorgeous housing locations. Now I just made 2 yrs, I qualify for Fastaff and OnAssignment! YAY

CARCAM75 · Jul 22, 2008

Hi Nbrody, :)

I wanted to send you a link to a post I responded to back in Jan about travel nursing in particular. https://allnurses.com/forums/f54/new-traveler-272264.html

You can also reach the link by clicking on my user name and click link 'posts that I've replied to'. The title of the post is called New Traveler. There are 2 responses there with that title. You can read both for some good advice about travel nursing.

Anyways, in terms of American Mobile, I travel with them. Yes there are many assignments for L&D & my housing has been delux so far. I was referred to them by a traveler who was on assignment at the hospital that I worked for at the time. I am a new nurse and an L&D nurse - graduated in 2006 and started right away in L&D. My recruiter is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!! She is the main reason why I stay with AM Mob. Many other agencies pay better, but in terms of reliability and trust worthiness in your agency and recruiter, Am Mobile gets the award in my opinion. My recruiter also specializes in L&D (which gave her extra pluses in my book). I just tell her where I want to be and she tells me which hospitals in that area are great in L&D. She gives me her honest advice - a few times she's told me that she wouldn't send one of HER travelers to this hospital or that for L&D. You will find many people who have experiences with different agencies, but i feel that most of the dissatisfaction comes from a bad recruiter-traveler relationship/connection.

I also feel that my specialty (L&D) is so different from other specialties in nursing and so it helps tremendously to have a recruiter who specializes in my field. What is important in an assignment to an ER or Med Surg nurse may not be important to an L&D nurse. (Just got a call from my agency as I was typing this - turns out my recruiter is out of the office for a coupe of days and her assistant was just calling me notify me of this and to see if there was anything I needed - is my assignment going ok, etc. Simple courtesy call - Don't know how many other agencies do that ) Getting back to my thought, yes, so to me if I'm talking to my recruiter and i'm upset that this doctor started pitocin on a vbac, she knows why I would be concerned. A recruiter not familiar with L&D may think I'm just having a bad day. Know what I mean?

SO, I would say, first think about WHY you want to travel then WHAT is important to you for an agency (more $$, a great recruiter, many locations to travel to [whether you want national travel only or international travel], great benefits). Once you do this soul search you can narrow down your search for an agency because your radar will be more specific based on what your requirements are. A person traveling for the sake of the highest rate, may not care too much about housing, or support from their agency, etc. and so will choose the highest paying agency.

I was just coming out of my first nursing job and so I wanted an agency/recruiter that would be readily available in terms of SUPPORT. So my requirement order was and is Great Recruiter, Good Money, Locations, Benefits. What's the sense of being in this beautiful place, making all this money, if when I truly need my agency to back me up, they aren't there?? I worked too hard for my license. L&D is a very shakey ground to walk on in and of itself! In American Mobile, I found an AWESOME recruiter, who loves what she does, listens to what I want to do and where I want to go and offers great advice to help make the best of my travel experience. For example, I tell her the 3 or 4 states that I want to travel to this year she will tell me what's a great time of year to be here or there so that I can get the most from my assignment/area. She stays in contact and is the center point for me - SHE does the work of contacting housing, makes the arrangements etc. I was speaking to a traveler the other day and she was having all this problem with her housing and at first I thought she took the housing stipend and just chose a crappy housing on her own, but she told me her agency provided the housing and is telling her SHE has to deal with all the problems the complex is giving her. THey totally left her hanging. My current assignment ends next week and I've already got my NY assignment lined up (again my recruiter knew my 3 locations for this year & @ the 8th wk mark, automatically started sending me options for NY). It will be my 3rd assignment with American Mobile and I truly don't intend on leaving them or my recruiter anytime soon.

By the way, you should also know that there really are only 3 Large travel nursing agencies: American Mobile Network, RN Network, Cross-Country Travel Corp. Many of these smaller companies work under one of these 3. For example, American Mobile, Nurse RX, Preferred Staffing, Medical Express and some others are owned by American Mobile Network.

Hope all this info helps. Let me know if you want my recruiter's information and I'll be glad to provide it.

-Carrie :dncgbby:

SheaOBRN · Jul 22, 2008

I work for Medical Express-a sub group of American Mobile. You will see a lot of negative comments about the company, but I have had no problems with them. My paycheck has always been correct and on time, the apartments have been nice and everything has been ready for us (utilities, furniture, etc.) And from other companies, I still have been able to get a higher hourly rate with them. My recruiter is great, if you would like her info-pm me!

Good luck!

amy0123, BSN, RN · Jul 22, 2008

I second the long post. American Mobile is very convenient for a new traveler and very safe to continue on assignments with. I've traveled with them for a year.

I was thinking of moving to a higher pay agency. But after talking to a few fastaff travelers, they really work 60 hours a week guaranteed in their contract to make good money. 60 hours a week for 3 months! Ack! I would rather not work myself too much. I like a few days off to enjoy the area that I am traveling to, tour around, make new friends etc.

sunshyne09 · Aug 3, 2008

This has been the most useful information I have found on this site since joining...which was a few days ago. However, I have been spending hours each day reading some of the information. My goal is to become a travel nurse for a few years before settling down into a more stable position. Although I won't start NS til Spring '09, already trying to map out a plan. Thanks again!!!!! :nurse:

Kingfish72 · Aug 22, 2008

This has been the most useful information I have found on this site since joining...which was a few days ago. However, I have been spending hours each day reading some of the information. My goal is to become a travel nurse for a few years before settling down into a more stable position. Although I won't start NS til Spring '09, already trying to map out a plan. Thanks again!!!!!

Before you can begin as a travel nurse, you're going to need at LEAST one year of experience as a nurse, two is the standard. I'd focus on getting that stable position 1st after nursing school, then consider travel nursing. That's just how it works. Hope I didn't rain on your parade too hard