Welcome to Navigating Travel Healthcare, where we explore the dynamic world of travel healthcare. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just starting your journey, understanding the timeline is key to a rewarding experience. At Anders Group, we partner with facilities nationwide to staff travel allied, nursing and therapy needs. Travel offers an exciting opportunity to work across the US, experience new places, and advance your career.
One of the most common questions our recruiters receive is about the traveler timeline. When to connect with an agency, when to submit, when jobs are offered.
It's truly never too early to start a conversation with a company, even years in advance!
If you're considering travel healthcare, you'll want to know all the details before making a decision. This early engagement allows you to understand:
- How travel healthcare works
- The current job market
- Compensation and stipends
- Licensing requirements for desired locations
Connecting early gives you ample time to prepare and obtain any necessary licenses too, ensuring a smooth transition when you're ready to commit to travel. Use agencies as a resource to understand the ins and outs of traveling.
Two Months Out: We are Hitting the Gas
While early conversations are crucial for understanding the landscape, the process typically becomes more "fast and furious" about two months before your desired start date. This is when we really "hit the gas" to get your profile in order.
The typical Profile Documents are: resume, skills checklists, and references. While we can discuss these a year or two in advance, many facilities require recent references and updated resumes, so we typically finalize these closer to your submission date.
Six Weeks Out: Submitting, Interviews and Calls Begin
The "sweet spot" for actually getting interviews and calls usually begins around six weeks before your start date. At this point, facilities are more eager to consider candidates as their start date approaches. Most travel openings need asap help and start dates, so looking at candidates months in advance is tough, since contracts are only 13 weeks. However, travelers also can’t likely start tomorrow- need compliance, housing, travel to job. Thus, six weeks out tends to finally spark the interest of facilities looking for that asap help. We'll start actively submitting to job opportunities in your preferred locations.
Four Weeks Out: Offers and Compliance Hustle
This tends to be the ultimate sweet spot for receiving job offers four weeks out. We try for 6 weeks in hopes to get that early offer plus ensure job market producing opportunities or if we need to consider a pivot. At four weeks, this is when you're most likely to receive a travel contract offer to accept.
Once an offer is accepted, the compliance process kicks into high gear. Though our ideal is for everything to start "ASAP," in the healthcare field, a true "ASAP" is often unrealistic. Healthcare compliance takes time. We'll need to complete drug screens, background checks, and gather all necessary documents to meet Joint Commission certification requirements both for Anders Group and the facility. Many compliance documents have expiration dates, which is why we don't complete them too far in advance.
Simultaneously, you'll typically be looking for housing. While we have housing vendors, many travelers choose to arrange their own housing to control costs and location preferences (e.g., near the beach, a walkable area).
The Week Before: Final Clearances and First-Day Information
In the week leading up to your start date, we'll be getting the final "all clear" on your compliance. Usually this is when the final compliance items are received (drug screen results, background check results). As well, when the facility is verifying all documents with their needed list to finalize clearance on their side.
You will also likely be traveling to the location. We usually recommend waiting for the all clear before hitting the road to ensure no hiccups.
With the all clear, the facility will also send your first-day information. Facilities often wait until closer to the start date to provide this finalized information to ensure they have the correct assigned team member meeting you, times, etc..
Beyond the First Assignment: Continuous Support
Once you start your assignment, the timeline continues.For the first few weeks, we want to ensure you are settling in well with the team and received appropriate orientation so your Recruiter will be checking in often.
Then since most contracts are 13-week, and knowing around 6 weeks we want to be submitting, pretty quickly we are checking in to see your potential next plans (extend, start a new contract right away, take time off). So if starting a new contract follows, in 6 weeks, we'll already be looking and submitting. This emphasizes the importance of a strong recruiter relationship, as we're constantly in touch to ensure a seamless transition between contracts.
This sped-up timeline closer to the start date is a unique aspect of the travel healthcare world compared to the traditional permanent job market Understanding this timeline hopefully lessens the fear of jumping into travel, since although you can’t usually lock in travel contracts months in advance, it is standard to the industry Travel is an amazing way to work, but also very unique compared to permanent opportunities. Please reach out anytime to our team to learn more or visit us at andersgroup.org.
Watch the full episode of Navigating Travel Healthcare: An Anders Group Podcast – "Traveler Timeline: When to Start Your Next Assignment" – to learn how the travel healthcare timeline really works.
We hope today’s insights inspire you to continue your travel healthcare adventure. Anders Group is your partner in success, ready to connect you with the opportunities you seek. Don’t forget to follow us on social and visit our website for more information. Chat soon!
Find out about immediate opportunities with Anders Group and tell us… Where Do You Want to Go Today?
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