Here are two more tips for those times when a travel nurse must deal with recruiters:
#1: Have more than one recruiter. This may not make sense to some travel nurses, but it’s good advice. Some travel nurse staffing agencies are only able to place travel nurses in specific hospitals in specific parts of the country. Also when you work with multiple travel nurse staffing agencies, you increase your negotiating leverage by being able to compare similar opportunities. If you’re not actively negotiating your salaries, why not? Travel nurse placement companies need travel nurses. No travel nurses = no money for agencies. Some operate like used car salesmen: If you let them take advantage of you, they will. If you put on your game face and get your facts straight, they’ll back off and play ball with you. One story I’ve hear involves a recruiter telling a travel nurse she had to pay $90 per month for the washer and dryer in her apartment. But when the travel nurse called the facility directly, she was told it was included in the rent. Needless to say, the travel nurse called the recruiter on his ‘miscalculation.’
#2: Make it crystal clear to your travel nurse recruiter that they are prohibited from sending your file to any hospital without your explicit consent. This means in writing. We all know in this business of travel nursing that if it isn’t in writing, it never happened. Travel nurses have told me stories of managers calling from various hospitals stating they received a nurse’s file, and the travel nurse had never heard of the position. These kinds of tactics on the part of a recruiter only make YOU look unprofessional. If something like this happens to you as a travel nurse, I suggest leaving that recruiter and agency and either finding a better agency, or even better, negotiate deals with hospitals on your own.
Being a travel nurse is a business, and you have to put on your business hat (and bring your game face) when looking for positions.