Interviewing for a travel-nursing job? Six tips to help you prepare

Interviews for travel nursing jobs are very similar to interviews for other nursing positions, with one major exception—you'll more than likely interview with a travel staffing service recruiter rather than someone at a hospital.

This is because, when you work as a traveling RN, you're employed by the travel staffing service, not the hospitals or medical facilities at which you'll be assigned.

There may be times when you'll interview with a hospital department head. But these interviews are rare and usually only take place for assignments that will be several months long (at least six months or so). Most travel assignments are 13 weeks in length.

Another difference between interviewing for travel jobs is the likelihood that you'll interview with a recruiter via phone or video chat.

Here are some tips that will help you ace the interview:

• Gather your credentials and any other pertinent paperwork before the interview. Take them with you if you're going to interview in person and have them handy if you'll be interviewing on the phone.
• Dress in a professional business manner, not in scrubs, if interviewing in person. If you're interviewing via video chat, wear a blazer/tie or nice jacket/blouse for the camera.
• Try to anticipate questions the interviewer may ask. Remember previous interviews and have your answers ready. In addition, a travel service recruiter will want to know how well you handle change, etc. Be prepared with strong answers.
• Don't forget to have a list of questions you may want to ask. While it's not appropriate in the first interview to ask about salary and benefits (these can wait until a second or third interview or if you're offered employment), you should have some questions prepared that you'd like answered. Appropriate questions could include information about the staffing firm, types of assignments you could expect, etc.
• Your interviewer may ask if you've applied to other travel staffing firms. It's perfectly acceptable to apply and work for more than one travel staffing service, so long as you act professionally with each and don't try to “play” them off of each other. A recruiter shouldn't see the fact that you're applying to other travel staffing firms as a red flag and not hire you.
• At the end of the interview, reiterate your desire to work for the travel-staffing firm and ask what the next steps are. Let the interviewer know you look forward to your first assignment.

June 11 to 17 is National Nursing Assistants Week, and there's no better time than now to take your nursing assistant skills on the road as a traveler. If you're a nursing assistant or RN with at least two years of professional experience and you'd like to learn more about job opportunities as a nursing traveler, contact a Health Providers Choice recruiter today.