Starting to have second thoughts about travel nursing

NedRN · Dec 12, 2015

I think human nature and the internet combine to make negative and overblown posts outnumber positive ones by perhaps 9 to 1. With enough reading, you can find a few agencies that have darn few negative comments. The bigger the agency means more unhappy travelers who of course are inspired to post on social media - it doesn't actually mean that the agencies are horrible. They didn't get as big as they are if most of their travelers were unhappy. There are almost 400 agencies. How many can you name? They never hit social media because simply they don't have enough travelers to be noticed online or catch a buzz positive or negative. I will say that large agencies can feel less personal because you are often dealing with more people besides your recruiter. That also lends itself to disenchantment with an agency which leads to negativity online. When you become a seasoned traveler, you will no longer care and treat agencies like the commodities they really are. You are striving for a good business relationship, that is all.

Most issues can be avoided by following a few simple concepts.

1. Your recruiter is more important than the agency brand. If you don't communicate well with your recruiter, you are likely to have issues. Don't use such recruiters no matter the agency rep or the golden assignments they promise.

2. Don't waste your time if a recruiter is not upfront with you about assignments, compensation, and details unless you fill out lots of paperwork. Move on.

3. Talk to lots of recruiters and sign up with the ones you click with. Try to sign up with at least three so you have options if something goes wrong later in the process.

4. Never let a recruiter submit you to an assignment without your express consent - at least until you have established a working relationship and at least done a couple of assignments with that recruiter. Submission without consent can end up with more than one agency submitting you to the same assignment. That can result in not being able to work for that hospital (blacklist), or not working for your preferred agency.

5. Never give verbal agreement to a hospital or agency that you will take an assignment. Instead, always make it conditional. For example when you are interviewing with a hospital you can say you are very interested in taking the assignment (if true) but I need to confirm some details with the agency. To an agency, say also you are very interested in the assignment if the contract reflects what we agreed to and doesn't contain any deal breaker terms.

I'd also say that for smaller specialties such as psych where you perhaps depend on larger agencies, there may be less than 10 suitable agencies. For affected travelers to not burn otherwise good agency because of a bad recruiter for you, ask to change recruiters - keep it professional "bad fit for me", no specifics need to be mentioned. For other more popular specialties, don't throw more time after bad time spent on a bad recruiter, just move on to a new agency and a fresh start. Travelers are in a unique position to have several fresh starts a year! So if you have a recruiter who is no longer available to you after starting an assignment, lesson learned. Move on. It is or was only three months with a bad fit. Next one will be better if you follow the suggestions above.

DRZmaui · Dec 12, 2015

I was starting to question if I'm making the right decision.

Reading the reviews was eye opener. The internet does bring out a lot of negativity.

Your service to the site is very commendable; again, I can't thank you enough.

NedRN · Dec 13, 2015

BTW, we also only hear one side of the story online usually. While the stories seem credible to the reader, there is often a back story we don't hear about usually. Because I intervene from time to time on behalf of PanTravelers members in conflicts with agencies (and sometimes I reach out to agencies just based on what I read here to find out what is really going on), I do hear some compelling stories from the other side. While I certainly cannot comment on what percentage of internet gripes are completely without basis, I do know that it is human nature to be in circumstances completely of your own making and shift the blame to the employer.

pinktermite · Dec 13, 2015

Reading comments about travel agencies, while sometimes true, is not always. It's a little like reading comments on amazon about an item you want to buy. I have traveled for years with mainly three companies and have nothing but good to say about all three. Be a wise shopper and you won't have to worry about it. Most of the comments I read gives me a reaction like "what's the company's side of this?" All companies want to make a profit and they couldn't do it if they kept screwing their bread and butter, which is having good and loyal travelers. Just my opinion.

Therhapsody89 · Dec 13, 2015

What Nedrn said was right on. In my short experience traveling, your recruiter is most important! I feel they make or break an assignment. Also, my first assignment was psych. It was with a small company and actually paid more than my very stressful med-surg assignment with a huge hospital and huge company! I found my first job via Indeed and I also found that by asking a recruiter for a specific speciality they were able to find ones not always listed online. I say take the jump and try it. If you don't like it, it's only about 13 weeks to deal with! Good luck!