If you are a hospital or a healthcare professional, how do you choose the best travel nursing provider? What should you look for?

If you are a nurse, the most important consideration is how well the service cares for you as its employee. The staffing firms should be willing to listen to your goals and concerns. When something goes wrong, your staffing manager/recruiter should be there for you.

To find out how a company rates on these issues, you can ask the company for references from people who have used or worked for them in the past. Contact the references and ask them what their experience was like with the company. Did they get their paycheck on time? Was someone available to help if there was a problem? What was the quality of the healthcare professionals they provided?

Doing the research on companies is important because each is different with the benefits and services that it provides. You should ask each company if it provides medical and dental care, if it has a housing specialist to help employees and if that housing is at a low-cost. You should also ask if the company pays all of your licensing fees; if it offers a 401(k) retirement plan; and if the company provides credentialing assistance and continuing education help, professional liability insurance coverage and 24/7 employee support. Also ask if the company pays weekly with direct deposit and if the company pays for your VisaScreen and NCLEX-RN exams.

A top-notch company will offer these kinds of services.

It is a good thing to remember that nothing in this industry is free. You (the health provider) work for each hour of revenue paid to the agency. If you see “free housing,” “free healthcare,” etcetera… be cautious!

With each agency, you will most likely have a contract drawn up. Read it carefully before signing it. Ask a lot of questions, including hypothetical situations. For example, what happens if you call in sick or have to leave for an emergency? You should know ahead of time what you can and cannot do according to the contract.

If, on the other hand, you are a hospital or other healthcare organization, what should you look for in a travel nursing agency?

Naturally, you want to make sure the agency is sending you the most highly qualified candidates, making sure that they have been screened, tested and that references, educational credentials and certifications have been verified. You want to make sure the agency can provide you with nurses who can adapt quickly to the specific requirements of your facility. The agency should provide documentation to you in a timely manner, well before the start dates of their personnel.

You also want an agency that can provide you with traveling healthcare professionals in a timely manner; that the agency can get to work for you at a moment's notice.

Customer service is also paramount. The agency should be available to you at any time.

Whether you are a nurse or a healthcare organization, the agency that can offer you the best in service is Health Providers Choice. For professionalism, quality, and integrity, we are unmatched. Give us a call today.