MedPro

If you’ve decided to pursue work as a traveling pharmacist, read below for some tips on how to ace the interview.

First, remember that, even though you’ll be interviewing with a recruiter at a healthcare travel staffing service, you still should treat the interview very seriously. The recruiter and his or her colleagues will be looking to see if you’re trustworthy and if you have the skills and wherewithal to succeed in a position as a traveling pharmacist.

Your interview with the recruiter can make or break your traveling career before it even gets started. Take it lightly at your peril.

You should research the healthcare travel service as much as you can before your interview. This will a) show the interviewer you’re interested in the company itself, and b) you’ll know how many pharmacy positions the service offers.

Your interview may take place over the phone or via video-conferencing software. Many travel services hire pharmacists and other travelers who live far from the service’s office, making a face-to-face interview difficult. If you’re going to be interviewed via video conference, dress as you would for a face-to-face interview. Wear a blazer or suit jacket, or professional dress or blouse to the interview. The interviewer may only be able to see your face and no other part of your body, but it’s best to dress completely professionally, just in case.

You’ll naturally be asked how much you know about work as a traveling healthcare professional and why you’re interested in the career. You’ll want to be sure your answer includes the fact that you’ve done your due diligence on the positives and negatives of working as a traveler. You also don’t want to say you just want to get a chance to travel to see the country.

Instead, you’ll need a thoughtful answer about your knowledge of the profession, the benefits to pharmacies/hospitals/patients and the benefits and drawbacks to your career. In other words, you need a well-thought-out answer!

If you’re interested in assignments that last longer than the typical 13 weeks, you may be asked if you’d be amenable to interviewing with the client hospital or pharmacy in person. These probably would be for travel assignments of at least a year, however.

Feel free to ask your own questions, such as how much information you’ll be given about an assignment before you must accept it. What types of pay rates does the service provide pharmacists? What about other benefits provided to travelers? Can you turn down an assignment if it’s offered to you? What happens if you’re at an assignment and you find it’s not a good fit, what then? (Note: many of these questions will be answered on a service’s website, so check there first. But it’s perfectly OK to ask for clarification or if the answers can’t be found on the website.)

If you’re a pharmacist or pharm tech with at least two years’ of professional experience and you’re interested in learning more about our traveling pharmacy positions, contact a MedPro Healthcare Staffing recruiter today. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you’re an experienced pharmacist (at least one or two years of professional experience behind you) and have ever wanted to explore the career of a traveling pharmacist, now is a good time to do so.

You’re going to need a resume, of course, so we’ve put together a short primer on how to write a great resume to make you attractive to traveling healthcare staffing services.

One thing you want to remember as you craft the resume – as well as your cover letter – is that you want to emphasize how flexible and adaptable you are and that you’re extremely comfortable with change and working with many different people of different backgrounds and personalities.

Once you start to write, consider using this “formula”:

1. Your headline should be brief and describe you in a handful of words. An example: “Licensed Pharmacist with PharmD and MBA – 10 years’ Retail Management Experience.”
2. Next comes what some people call your Summary or Qualifications Summary. This is a short paragraph that describes your career history as well as accomplishments within that career. You want to make sure you mention the software or systems with which you’re familiar, any management experience you may have as well as any awards/citations you may have received.
3. Next comes your employment history. You present your work history in reverse chronological order (your last or present employer/position goes first). It’s here that you’ll describe your job duties as well as your accomplishments. (Be as specific as possible: you improved workflow by 25 percent, you saved your employer 10 percent because of a process or system you developed, you cut back on wasted inventory by 15 percent, etc.).
4. Next you list your educational degrees and credentials, with your most recent degree listed first.
5. You’ll then list your specialties, such as nuclear pharmaceuticals, ICU, retail, etc., and then your primary skills (pharmaceutical research, dispensing/compounding, medication therapy, etc.).
6. You may add other headings, as applicable, such as language skills, published articles, community activities (that are more professional than personal in nature, such as Rotary memberships rather than being a member of your choir at church), technical skills, etc.

Once you have a first draft, put it away for a day or two (at least overnight). Then come back to it with fresh eyes to revise it and to ensure there are no typos or misspellings. Ask a friend or family member to proof your final draft.

One important note, don’t be afraid to revise your resume slightly for every employer. No pharmacy position – and certainly no travel staffing company – is alike and if you can show that you’ve looked at the employer’s website and have researched his needs, all the better.

You may not be able to personalize each resume, but you definitely should (must!) personalize each cover letter.

Once you’ve crafted your pharmacist resume, send it to a MedPro Healthcare Staffing recruiter. We have many travel pharmacist and pharm tech positions at hospitals, pharmacies and medical centers all across the nation. Contact us today.

When you think of participating in a mentoring program, do you think you need to work at a hospital or other healthcare facility for months or years in order to do so?

Or do you believe that because you’re an experienced healthcare professional that you’re “too old” to be mentored?

You may want to rethink these assumptions. Continue reading below to learn why.

First of all, let’s discuss your belief that you may be too old for mentoring. Most traveling healthcare professionals have at least two years of professional experience behind them, if not considerably more, before they start traveling. So it’s understandable if you’ve been working for several years that you might feel you know too much to be mentored (“I should be the one who mentors!”).

But, according to Cynthia Hnatiuk, RN, in a July NurseZone.com article, “[m]entorship is something that never really stops, and something each person has to take responsibility for themselves…. You will have many mentors through your career, and more than one mentor at one time, depending on what you are trying to gain skills in.”

To look for mentoring opportunities, you need to look no further than a) your assignment supervisor and/or b) your fellow travelers (those who have traveled more than you).

The experienced travelers can mentor you in the fine “art” of traveling, helping you score the best assignments from the best travel staffing services, as well as helping you learn the ropes of the travel lifestyle: how to pack well, how to acclimate to a new living and working environment, etc.

But your on-site assignment supervisor also can be a great source of information for you. He or she knows “how it’s really done” at your assignment and can help you navigate the written, as well as the unwritten, rules of your assignment workplace.

Many people work as travel healthcare professionals because of the new skills they’ll learn, as well as the new tools and technologies they’ll undoubtedly encounter. Your assignment supervisor more than likely is the go-to person and the one to provide you with access to these new technologies, as well as the person who will train you in techniques unique to his or her department or your assignment facility.

You may not be able – or even want – to forge a formal mentoring relationship while on assignment, but that doesn’t mean you won’t receive some mentoring. We recommend that you seek out any type of mentor-like relationship you can while on assignments. You’ll gain more skills and knowledge if you do, skills and knowledge that will be put to good use while on assignment, as well as later in your career.

Are you a PT, OT, speech therapist, Registered Nurse, pharmacist, or other allied health professional with an itch for travel? Why not scratch it with our help? Contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing today to learn more about our many travel opportunities.

Working as a traveling healthcare professional is an exciting career choice. You’ll meet new people, learn new skills, explore new cities and, most importantly, practice your much-needed skills on patients who are desperate for them.

But not every assignment is right for you.

The first thing you must have is complete trust in your travel staffing service. How can you know you can trust a service and its recruiters? Rather than give you tips on how to spot a trustworthy recruiter, read below for tips on how to spot the untrustworthy ones.

If a recruiter works aggressively – and we mean aggressively ­­– for you to take the first assignment offered to you, this could be a sign that the recruiter doesn’t really care about your needs and career goals but is more interested in ensuring he or she receives a fee for your placement.

In addition, an aggressive recruiter may ask you to agree to some parameters right away, with little discussion. The recruiter will ask you to agree to certain salary ranges, types of medical facilities in which you’ll work, the length of your assignments, and where in the country you’ll accept assignments.

You need to be careful of recruiters who try to pigeonhole you into a salary parameter. This often means the recruiter is aiming to ensure that you receive the lowest amount in the salary range, thus providing the recruiter’s travel assignment staffing service with higher margins.

This is understandable – everyone wants to make as much profit as possible – but you don’t need to be railroaded into anything. Be aware.

To help weed out the over-aggressive services, ask each one with which you speak to give you a list of the hospitals with which they have contracts. You can then ask the travel staffing firms to only send you to their client facilities that meet your salary needs. You also can ask for what are known as “compensation quotes.”

Please note that compensation isn’t the only thing to look for. You also should take a look at the relationships the service has with its hospital clients, as well as the levels of service the staffing firms provide.

But perhaps the most important thing to consider is your relationship with your recruiter. Do the two of you “click”? Do you feel that the recruiter has your best interests at heart and will work hard to find you assignments that meet your needs? If not, you can ask to work with another recruiter or you can take your much-needed skills to another travel staffing service.

Speaking of taking your much-needed skills to a travel staffing service, don’t forget to send your CV/resume to MedPro Healthcare Staffing. We’re always on the lookout for dedicated and experienced (minimum of one year of professional experience) RNs, OTs, PTs, speech therapists, pharmacists, and other allied health professionals. Contact us today.

The editors at PharmacyTimes.com put together a list of several must-have smartphone apps for pharmacists. We liked it so much – and think some of the apps will be very helpful to traveling pharmacists – that we thought we’d share some of the apps they listed for you here.

1. Epocrates: This app (available at different price points ranging from free to $299), provides you with access to a drug interaction checker, medical calculators, formularies for health plans, medical news, and more, as well as the feature for which it’s best known: a database full of OTC, brand and generic medicines, all illustrated by images of the drug’s imprint code, color and shape – and this is really nifty – searchable by those images!
2. Micromedex Drug Information: Wired magazine has praised this app for its usability. The app, Wired says, has the best interface of “all the prescription drug apps.” The free app contains generic as well as trade names of medicines, warnings, adverse side effects, toxicology reports, the proper dosage for adults and children for generic and brand name drugs.
3. Redi-Reader: Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) are critical when it comes to making clinical decisions. The Redi-Reader (free) allows you to find evidence-based recommendations via your smartphone or even iPad (it’s only compatible with Apple phones and tablets). The app includes guidelines as set by the Infectious Disease Society of America, the American Diabetes Association, the American Thoracic Society, the CDC, and more.
4. Google Translate: This is a great tool for pharmacists who work with people who don’t speak English! This free app translates words and even phrases from more than 60 languages, including English, Chinese, Spanish, German, French, Croation, Czech, Russian, Vietnamese, etc.
5. Monthly Prescribing Reference: Another free app from Monthly Prescribing Reference (MPR) that includes a handy drug interactions checker as well as news and alerts. It offers information on more than 4,000 OTC and prescription drug monographs that are listed by disease, or brand/generic name, pharmacological class, or even manufacturer. The app is edited by pharmacists and gives you safety alerts, drug news, recall info, and even features more than 30 medical calculators.

Are there handy pharmacy apps we or PharmacyTimes.com missed? If so, mention them here in our comments section.

If you’re a pharmacist or pharmacy tech with at least one year of experience (two is better), with a hankering to travel the country serving hospitals, pharmacies and healthcare centers and their patients who need you, contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing. We look forward to receiving your CV/resume and talking to you soon!

An interesting read from one of our association partners – American Association of International Healthcare Recruitment (AAIHR). The article touches on a variety of topics relating to immigration issues regarding foreign-trained healthcare professionals. A snippet of the Executive Summary with a link to the full text are listed below.

The U.S. Congress and the executive branch have failed to establish immigration policies that would allow a
sufficient number of foreign-born doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to work in the United States. At a
time of tremendous need in health care, the United States is saddled with an immigration system designed to
prevent, not facilitate, the entry of highly skilled physicians, nurses, physical therapists and other foreign-born
medical personnel. The aging U.S. population, the demands of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the potential
benefits brought by medical advances and increased specialization mean America must tap the global talent pool
in health care or see its citizens suffer the consequences.

To read more, download the white paper here:

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/22488496/1275517538/name/NFAP_Policy_Brief.Health_Care_and_Immigration.November2012.pdf

August 19th, 2012 is “World Photography Day” and MedPro wants your help!

We are calling on all of our traveling heathcare professionals to send us your breathtaking, wacky, or down-right interesting photos you have collected on assignment.  The theme is “Travel” and we will collect the photos on our Facebook page, so be sure to to post yours by August, 17th 2012 for a chance to win a $50 American Express Gift Card!

It’s a big world out there (and we want to see it), so be sure to submit your photo today!

The Fine Print: Must have a current signed contract with MedPro Staffing. Open to employees in the United States only. Pictures must be posted no later than 5:00PM on August 17, 2012. Winner will be announced on August, 19, 2012.

According to major news organizations, healthcare careers and allied health professions have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country right now. A recent Yahoo blog post listed two healthcare majors in particular as having unemployment rates below 2%: pharmacology and medical technologies technicians.

Pharmacology

Pharmacology turned up as 5^th in the list of all college majors that have the lowest unemployment rates—with effectively 0% unemployment for those studying pharmacology. Talk about recession proof! There are two major areas that pharmacology majors can go into: research and clinical. Clinical pharmacologists work in pharmacies (of course), hospitals, and clinics; research pharmacologist work behind the scenes, in labs or private institutions.  Both areas are experiencing excellent job growth, making a degree in pharmacology a great choice for those ready for a challenge.

Pharmacology Education

Pharmacists who are trained in the United States must earn a Pharm.D. degree from an accredited college or school of pharmacy—the program typically lasts about 4 years, often with 1-2 additional years of residency. Pharmacology students can choose from a wide variety of specializations.

Medical Technology

For those looking to work in allied health, a degree in medical technology is another can’t lose: med tech majors are estimated to have an unemployment rate of 1.4 %. Those with med tech degrees often work in laboratories, performing complex medical testing, working with state-of the-art equipment. They may work in large hospitals or private laboratories—the flexibility of the degree accounts for its excellent job outlook.

Medical Technology Education

In contrast with pharmacology, a 2 year associate’s degree is the typical education of an entry level medical technologist, with advanced education opportunities available all the way up to the doctorate level. Advanced education specialization areas include hematology, immunology, genetics, computer science, lab management, and education, making medical technology a flexible profession with room for advancement.

These are just a few of the healthcare careers that offer great job security. And as a healthcare professional, partnering with MedPro for travel assignments can help you gain valuable experience at premium wages. Contact MedPro today and find out more about travel opportunities for pharmacologists and allied health professionals.

If you’re currently working as pharmacist, you chose a terrific career: once again, USNews.com has ranked the job of pharmacist as one of the Best Jobs 2012.

If you’re thinking of getting the training necessary to become a pharmacist (four years or more of post-graduate training after college) you’ll find that, according to USNews.com, “[j]ob prospects should be excellent in the field in the years to come, and the earnings potential remains relatively high. While the market has cooled a bit from several years ago, experts say an aging population and increasingly complex medicines will keep industry growth healthy for years to come.”

Employment opportunities should grow by a whopping 25.4 percent between 2010 and 2020, USNews.com reports, siting Bureau of Labor Statistics data. This growth, plus the fact that pharmacists tend to be well-paid (the BLS reports that the median salary for pharmacists in 2010 was $111,570), make the career the number 3 career in USNews.com’s Best Jobs of 2012.

Earning your pharmacy degree (the Doctor of Pharmacy, or the Pharm.D.), isn’t easy. Not only will you be undertaking a rigorous four-year post-college program of study (see above), but you’ll need to pass one or more tough exams. A one- or two-year postgraduate pharmacy residency wouldn’t hurt, either, especially if you want to practice in a pharmacy specialty such as in a clinical practice or a research lab.

Many pharmacy students wish to pursue an MBA while in their pharmacy program or afterwards. Others look for pharmacy programs that also offer a master’s in public health (MPH).

Another benefit to working as a pharmacist is the opportunity to serve as a travel pharmacist. In this capacity, you’ll travel to different communities and pharmacy facilities all over the country. MedPro Staffing, in fact, has a contract with the U.S. Veterans Administration, and we’re a regular provider of pharmacists in VA hospitals.

Contact us today for information on pharmacy positions in your current community or in a city across the country!

USNews.com has ranked the top jobs for 2012 and the career of nursing sits in the top spot.

The website compiles its “Best Careers” list each year based on the Labor Department’s employment projections.

The top 10 careers are:

1. Registered Nurse
2. Software Developer
3. Pharmacist
4. Medical Assistant
5. Database Administrator
6. Web Developer
7. Computer Systems Analyst
8. Physical Therapist
9. Computer Programmer
10. Occupational Therapist

U.S. News based its rankings on “for the Best Jobs of 2012 on professions that should hire abundantly over the next several years.”

Nursing, it continued, should see a growth of more than 700,000 jobs this decade (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics), rising by about 26 percent.

The article goes on to say that “[f]or a better chance at landing a nursing job, you’ll want to determine your niche early, consider using virtual networking tools, and look for employment outside a hospital setting.”

The only other health professions position that made the top 25 jobs for 2012 was paramedic, at No. 15.

U.S. News said it based its rankings by

“…comparing their projected growth up to the year 2020 with the current employment rates of the industry to which they belong. Other components that contributed to each job’s overall score and rank include its average salary, predicted job prospects, and a quantitative assessment of the job satisfaction of those who are currently or have previously worked in the profession.”

If you’re a nurse, physical therapist, occupational therapist, pharmacy professional, etc. and are interested in looking into our many healthcare travel assignment opportunities, contact a MedPro Staffing recruiter today. We look forward to hearing from you!