MedPro

If you have a travel assignment with a staffing service that has more than one traveler at the assignment’s facility – or even in the city – your staffing firm may double you up in your apartment with another traveler.

Some travel staffing services do this to save money; housing two travelers within the same apartment can save considerably on the firm’s housing budget. Or it may have you share an apartment because it’s hoping to make it easy for you to connect with other travelers in the area. (Note: Not all travel staffing services do this. It’s perfectly acceptable to ask if you’ll be sharing housing with another traveler when you’re offered an assignment.)

Below are some tips on how to share housing with another traveler.

1. First, remember that you’re dealing with another professional, not someone in your college dorm room. Chances are the individual is a great deal more mature than your college roomie. This is a good thing.
2. If possible, contact your new roommate before your arrival. If the person is already there, you can get information on what the apartment is like, where it’s located, what kind of amenities are there, and so on.
3. Either before you arrive or soon after, you’ll want to discuss how food will be paid for. Most adult (post-college) roommate arrangements are set up so that each person buys food individually, with each designating one or two cupboards and one or more shelves in the refrigerator as his or her own. This helps ensure that disagreements over who purchased what and who ate what are kept to a bare minimum.
4. Discuss in advance who likes to bathe/shower in the evening and who likes to wash up in the morning. If both of you prefer the same time of day, work out schedules.
5. What is your comfort level when it comes to noise? If one of you loves to hear music while getting ready for work or throughout the day, and the other doesn’t, you’re going to have to work out an agreement on noise levels.
6. The same for goes for television use. Some people love to have the TV on as background noise all the time. Others hate TVs as background. See if you can come to an agreement about how much it will be on and when.
7. If both of you have the same work schedule, will both of you want to cook and eat together? This may be fun a few nights a week, but it shouldn’t be “mandatory.” Work this out between you two, especially about cooking and cleanup duties should you be eating at about the same time.
8. Will either roommate’s family and/or friends be coming for visits? Work out a schedule beforehand. This is especially important if spouses/boyfriends/girlfriends will be coming for overnight stays. Discuss this in advance and be sure to be as respectful as possible.

Have you ever roomed with a fellow healthcare traveler? If so, what kind of ground rules did the two of you find helpful?

If you’re a healthcare professional with a couple of years’ experience behind you and you’re interested in learning more about the many travel assignments we have available, contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing today.

Many healthcare professionals pursued work in this career sector because they’re caring and compassionate people.

This often extends to their time off the clock, as well, when they volunteer with different organizations within their community.

If you’re a healthcare traveler you may think that you won’t have the time or the opportunity to volunteer while on assignment. But you still can volunteer your time. Read below for some tips on how to do so.

1. Rethink what it means to be a volunteer. Many people think of good volunteers as those individuals who work with an organization week after week, month after month. But running in a 5k that supports a cause in which you believe is a form of volunteering. So is approaching your assignment city’s local Humane Society to see if you could offer to walk dogs a couple of times a week either before or after your shift for the weeks you’re on assignment.
2. If you volunteer at home with a national organization, contact its local office once you reach your assignment city. Ask about volunteer opportunities for you while you’re in town.
3. Many hospitals and medical facilities have blood drives, fundraisers, 5k benefit runs, and other community events several times throughout any given year. Offer to help at these events while you’re on assignment.
4. Search online for non-profit agencies in your assignment community and simply call them up to see if they need volunteers. They’re certain to welcome even “short-term” volunteers.
5. If you attend church regularly and plan to do so while on assignment, many churches have plenty of volunteering opportunities available.
6. Don’t forget that many organizations need people to write to state and national – and even international – government representatives. If the only time you have available to volunteer in person would be at night and you haven’t been able to find a lot of non-profits that need help during that time, consider contacting your charity of choice to see if it needs letters written as part of a campaign. You could easily set aside an hour or two a week to write letters on the charity’s behalf.

What’s been your experience volunteering while on a travel assignment? Did you find it difficult to do? Were the charities welcoming, even though you were only able to volunteer for a relatively short time?

We’re always on the lookout for “volunteers” seeking work as healthcare travelers. If you’re an experienced RN, OT, PT, speech therapist, pharmacist, or other allied healthcare worker, contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing to learn more about our many traveling opportunities across the country. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you are looking for a healthcare staffing firm to work with, using one with a national reach can offer unique advantages.

The most obvious advantage is the choice of assignments that it can offer. Because a national firm works with hospitals, clinics and healthcare facilities throughout the country, it has access to many more jobs, and many more types of jobs than a smaller firm might have. As a result, you are much more likely to find a job that fits you and at a facility that is to your liking than if you are dealing with smaller firm.

If you are looking for a medical center that offers certain specialties of care or types of treatment, a national staffing agency will be better able to find what you are looking for. So, the range of choices is greater.

Not only that, a national firm can provide you the opportunity to work in a location that appeals to you. If you dislike cold weather, you can get a position at a hospital in a southern state. If you enjoy skiing, you can take a job at a facility in one of the Rocky Mountain states. If you like the beach, you can look for something in Florida or California – or even Hawaii!

Working with a national firm gives you the opportunity for travel that would be unavailable otherwise. You can take a job on the East Coast and then move to the West Coast.

Working in such varied geographical areas also provides you with the opportunity to see how different healthcare organizations operate. It gives you a much greater chance to learn best practices. You also have occasion to work with a varied group of people.

And, while all staffing agencies are familiar with the healthcare providers they work with, national agencies, because of their reach, are able to develop a much deeper and broader knowledge of how different providers operate, and what those providers need. This is knowledge that could be invaluable to a traveling healthcare professional.

National agencies also offer a range of benefits you may not find elsewhere, such as travel reimbursement, health insurance, life insurance, short-and long-term disability insurance, 401(k), continuing education, and referral bonuses.

MedPro Healthcare Staffing is a traveling healthcare staffing firm with a national reach. We have opportunities from Hawaii to Maine, Oregon to Florida (and also in Kansas and Missouri!).

Take a look through our job board, and then contact a recruiter to learn more about being placed in an exciting travel employment opportunity.

To make your travel assignment the best it can be, especially if you plan to travel with children, preparation is obviously important. You also need to research the area that you will be going to and talk things over with your recruiter. It’s also important to maintain a flexible mindset.

Healthcare professionals who travel with their families should pack lightly, but include comfort items. Traveling healthcare providers should enroll children in similar activities from one assignment to the next. Traveling professionals should carry an up-to-date medical record for each child. Communicate openly with your travel nursing agency recruiter.

You should work with your staffing agency recruiter, who can help you with childcare and educational resources, such as information on school districts, preschool and daycare options. Some agencies will also provide you with websites for various attractions in the area.

To prevent problems with schooling, some traveling healthcare professionals only take their children with them during summertime. Experts counsel that children need continuity, so if you plan to take your children along, you may want to consider an assignment that will extend for the entire school year.

Since continuity is so important, some travelers try to bring familiar things along for their children, such as favorite toys. Another way to maintain the feeling of familiarity is to bring photographs of favorite places and things.

To find the best housing, it is important to maintain good communication with your recruiter. The staffing agency will generally check out the feasibility of finding adequate housing at your assignment location before you sign up for the work. Some travelers decide to find housing on their own, and accept a housing allowance instead.

When you are packing for an assignment, again, preparation is key. Check to find out what the weather is like at your destination. What are the average temperatures for the time of year you will be there? Check your living facility to find out what items are provided and what are not.

Most healthcare travelers travel solo. But that doesn’t mean you can’t bring your family along for the trip! Talk to MedPro Healthcare Staffing’s recruiters to learn more about healthcare travel assignments.

No matter if you work as a traveling nurse, OT, PT, speech therapist, pharmacist, or other traveling healthcare professional, you’re going to learn new skills, therapies and technologies that you never would have learned on the job if you stayed with one facility as a full-time employee. That’s just one reason why working as a traveling healthcare professional can be so good for your career.

What are some other ways you can grow in your travel career? Read below for some suggestions on where your work as a healthcare traveler can take you.

Naturally, your first thought might be that you’ll use your traveling career as a springboard to a promotion in a full-time position at a hospital or other medical facility. This definitely could be the case for you, due to the fact that healthcare travelers learn how to deal with all manner of people, move gracefully through facility “office politics,” grow their flexibility “muscles” and their ability to embrace change. Plus, as mentioned above, your skills will increase exponentially.

Many experienced travelers can become mentors, or even trainers, to other travelers while on assignment. Many facilities need several travelers at the same time in the same departments; so if you’re interested in mentoring other professionals, speak to your staffing supervisor about being placed on assignments where there will be plenty of other travelers. You’ll probably be supervising/mentoring in an informal capacity, at first. But keep talking to your staffing supervisor; traveling leadership opportunities while on assignment – as well as higher pay – do come up.

You also could speak to your staffing company about training/mentoring new travelers before they head out on assignment. You could do this between your own assignments. You could hold seminars and workshops on how to succeed as a traveler at the staffing service’s office, or you could hold these seminars remotely via video conference technologies.

And don’t forget working as a travel staffing recruiter yourself! Our industry is growing, and experienced healthcare professionals who have “been there, done that” would make a great addition to any travel staffing service’s team.

If you’ve been working as a healthcare professional for at least two years and are interested in learning more about how working as a traveler can advance your career, contact a MedPro Healthcare Staffing recruiter today!

Working as a traveler offers you the chance to connect with many people as you travel to different hospitals or healthcare facilities.

But you may not be able to connect with your colleagues to the depth you’d like during your short-term assignment.

Social media such as Twitter can help you stay in touch with past colleagues and also expand your professional network.

Read below for tips on how to expand your Twitter network.

• Look for the names of people you know and follow them. They’ll often follow you back as a matter of course.
• Twitter actually makes this very easy for you. Go to the “Who to Follow” tab at the top of Twitter’s menu and then click on “Friends.” Choose your email provider and/or your network on LinkedIn, and Twitter will identify your contacts so that you’ll be able to follow them.
• Speaking of followers, follow the experts in your field. Look for those individuals in your field who have a lot of followers themselves and aim to interact with them. The idea is to engage in conversation with them and some of their followers. It may take a while to get a response from someone who has a lot of followers, but if you regularly comment, re-tweet their comments, etc., you should grab their attention. If you add something to the conversation, they’ll soon enough start “tweeting” to/with you. This could happen much faster than you think.
• When on assignment, tweet about it. That is, place the hashtag symbol (#) in front of the name of your facility (#CedarsSinai, for example) and others who are tweeting about the Los Angeles-area hospital will see it and perhaps comment as well.
• You also can do the same when attending a conference, seminar or CE program.
• Re-tweet the messages of those you follow. Many folks will follow those who re-tweet their posts.
• Patience truly is a virtue when it comes to growing your Twitter following. Engage with your followers and those you’re following regularly (you should spend at least 10-15 minutes a day on Twitter). Your influence and the number of your followers will grow exponentially if you do so.
• Remember the 80-20 rule. If you’re looking to grow your professional network, most of your tweets should be professional in nature (the 80 percent). The remainder could – and really should be – of a more personal bent.

For other great resources for travel healthcare professionals, please get in touch with us today!

If you’re a healthcare professional interested in working as a traveler within the United States, read below for a brief description of what you can expect during our visa screening and processing.

Be aware that you must have passed any and all U.S. licensing exams for your profession within the state(s) you wish to work before applying for a visa.

First, your employer (that would be MedPro Healthcare Staffing or another travel healthcare service) needs to get labor certification approval from the U.S. Department of Labor. We’ll then need to file what is known as the Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, Form I-140 with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). We most likely will file the Form I-140 that designates you as what is known as “Employment Third Preference (E3): Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Unskilled Workers (Other Workers).”

Once the USCIS approves our petition, they send it to the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC then assigns a case number to our petition. You – or your attorney – will then receive a “fee bill” that asks for payment in advance of all government processing fees for you. Once you pay the fees, the NVC will forward your packet to you or your attorney that contains biographical information forms that you’ll need to complete, as well as a list of documents you’ll need to submit.

Once you’ve submitted the forms, the NVC will schedule an appointment for an Immigrant Visa for you at the U.S. Consulate or Embassy in your country.

Applying for a visa here in the United States can take weeks or months. We’ll help you here from our end as much as we can, but the responsibility for applying for and working your way through the visa process is yours, not ours. You should research the process thoroughly. For more information, check out the NVC’s Immigrant Visa Processing site.

We urge any healthcare professional – nurse, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, pharmacist, etc. – from a foreign country who can obtain licensure here in the United States and is interested in traveling to different assignments within the U.S. to contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing. We’d love to talk to you about our many opportunities. Contact us today.

Traveling far from home (or at least at a location that’s too far to go home after your shift) is one of negatives of working as a traveling healthcare professional.

Aside from taking your family with you (which is hard), going home on weekends (costly and time intensive) or just accepting assignments that will bring you home at night (you may not be able to go on many assignments), read below for some ideas on how to stay connected to your friends and family while on a travel assignment.

• If you don’t have an account already, sign up for Facebook and ask your friends and family members to “friend” you. This will allow you to read all their updates and post your own. This is a great way to stay aware of the goings on in their lives and staying involved. Facebook has an app for smartphones, in case you don’t take a laptop with you.
• You’ll probably want to know what the weather’s like back home (especially if you live in Michigan and have an assignment in Florida in February; all the better to gloat). The Weather Channel has an app for your smartphone so that you can check the weather anywhere at any time.
• If you’re not a fan of Facebook, consider joining Google+. The app for the social media platform allows you to use what it calls Huddle to send quick group messages to everyone who is in your “circle.”
• Skype allows you to chat face to face for free with anyone who also has the Skype app on their smartphone. You also can call or text anyone with Skype’s low rates using Skype credit.
• Love Twitter. TweetDeck recently updated its mobile app. You can customize your news feed for updates from all of your Twitter, MySpace or Facebook contacts in one location.
• Want to schedule all your tweets and Facebook postings? You can using HootSuite’s mobile app.
• Take pictures with your smartphone and then instantly download them to your Facebook or other social media feeds with the Instagram app. This allows your family and friends to see what you’re up to pretty much just as you’re up to it.
• If you’d like to send instant messages to your family and friends, download the LiveProfile app. LiveProfile allows you to share updates in real time to your family and friends.
• Want to know what’s going on in your neck of the woods? Check your local newspaper’s website to see if it has an app for smartphones. If not, check out Patch.com’s mobile app, a site that provides news coverage and other information for more than 800 cities and towns across the country. If your town isn’t covered yet, just wait; Patch is growing.

If you’re an experienced traveler, what apps do you use to stay in touch with the folks back home? What other tips could you offer to help new travelers stay connected?

Whether you’re an experienced healthcare traveler or you’re looking to explore this exciting career, if you’re an OT, RN, PT, speech therapist, pharmacist or other allied health professional, send your resume/CV to MedPro Healthcare Staffing. We look forward to hearing from you.

You’ve applied to one or more healthcare traveling staffing services and you’ve been accepted to at least one. Now comes the important part: negotiating your salary and benefits.

Read below for some negotiating tips.

First of all, understand that the staffing service wants to hire you for as little as reasonably possible while you want to be paid as much as is reasonably possible. Your staffing supervisor knows this and expects you to, as well. Which means that your staffing supervisor expects you to negotiate, so you needn’t be afraid to do so. Also, don’t become too obsessed with your hourly rate. Look more at the entire package offered to you (health and retirement benefits, per diem rates, reimbursements, etc.).

Yet even while we say don’t focus entirely on your salary, we do believe it’s important. You’ll want to find out if you’re guaranteed a set number of hours. What about shift differentials? Ask about a completion bonus, etc.

What type of insurance coverage are you being offered? Will you (and your family members, if applicable) be covered on the first day you’re hired, or the first day of your first assignment, or on another date? What happens if you don’t have an assignment for a few weeks?

One thing to consider negotiating for is malpractice insurance coverage. Or is it provided automatically by your traveling service?

What about your traveling/relocation costs? These can be tax deductible (check with a knowledgeable tax professional), but if you don’t want to pay them out of pocket, could the traveling service pay for your traveling expenses?

Before you start negotiating, decide what you absolutely must have and what you can live without. You’ll then need to make a decision regarding whether you will walk from any particular agency if your must haves cannot be met. Your must haves should be no more than two items on your list.

When you’re negotiating your pay rate, aim to let the staffing manager give a salary range first. You can then say something along the lines of “That sounds great and I’m eager to work with you. I’m wondering if there’s any room to move up?”

If you feel you must give your number first, don’t give a number, give a range. Have a number in mind that you feel is the absolute least (say, $20 an hour) you will work for (and then keep it to yourself). Have a middle number and then your top. Give your range with your middle number at the bottom and the top at the top. For example, if your top is $35 an hour and your middle is $28, then you’d say “I’m looking for something in the $28-$35/hour range.” That way you have a great chance of at least getting your middle number. If necessary, you can negotiate down to your lowest number, but that’s only if absolutely necessary.

If you’re an experienced (one or two years) OT, RN, PT, speech therapist, pharmacist, or other allied health professional looking to explore the world of the traveling healthcare professional, contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing today. We look forward to hearing from you.

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.