The healthcare travel industry ebbs and flows throughout the year. The longer you are in the market, the more you will begin to pick up on certain trends and be able to spot upcoming changes.
As we are entering spring, Travel Nurses, Inc. wants to share some of the things we are currently seeing and how to prepare for what’s on the horizon.
What is normal for this time of year?After several years of abnormal circumstances, it appears we are still moving towards a new normal in the travel market. In the first quarter of every year, facilities tend to keep a close eye on their new budgets. Personnel are the largest expense of any organization, so we typically see rates and the number of contracts fall in the first part of the year.
In our experience, after going through the winter months, we see more healthcare professionals looking for work than there are positions available. This tends to peak in late February as we get closer to spring.
Once we start seeing spring breaks across the country, we slowly start to move more towards facilities having more needs. Once the summer hits, many people go on vacation with family and friends. Additionally, travelers with children are now on summer break and some travelers take the summers off completely.
Considering all of this, we often end up with more opportunities than we have travelers to fill them. If you’re considering traveling for the first time, the summer would be a great time to break into traveling.
Typically, in the spring, positions move quickly. Positions open, close, go on hold or can be filled within a matter of hours. We’re experiencing a lot of contracts reach their maximum number of submissions in hours if not minutes, so speed is of the utmost importance.
We have also noticed a trend among healthcare professionals accepting offers slowly. Recently, people have struggled committing to an offer in the time that a facility is needing a response. It’s becoming more common for facilities to retract offers if they don’t hear back from clinicians within 24 – 48 hours.
It is always best practice to honor commitments. This means, if you sign a contract, then get an offer from another facility (even if it’s through the same agency), you should not cancel one contract to sign a new one. We recognize that the industry is coming out of a handful of years of uncertainty from Covid, and no one knows what the future holds. This can be scary, but that is why it is important to find an agency with staying power like Travel Nurses, Inc.
If you haven’t locked in any plans for trips this summer, it is time to get those plans together. With summer being one of the busiest times of the year to take time off for vacations, it’s likely that staff members in the hospital are trying to take off, too. That being said, it is also a great time to talk with your recruiter about those places you would like to explore in the summer months so you can secure 13 weeks in a good, warm destination.
This year, facilities have been slower to offer extensions to travelers, if an extension is offered at all. As a traveler, it is important that you constantly communicate with your recruiter about what you are hearing on your unit. If you want an extension, talk to your manager to see if that’s a possibility. Ultimately, you should be prepared to look for a new assignment if you are four weeks away from your end date and you are still uncertain about an extension.
Since positions are opening and closing so quickly, flexibility is key. On average, we have seen that travelers need to submit to nine positions before receiving an offer. Sometimes it doesn’t require that many submissions, but sometimes it takes more. It really depends on how flexible you are.
If you are looking for a new assignment with a new agency, you need to be submittal ready before you see a position you’re interested in. Hearing back from references is often the most time-consuming part when you’re getting submittal ready. Start sending in all your information to your recruiter as soon as possible so that you are ready to go the moment you see something of interest.
We need the following items to make a submission profile:
At Travel Nurses, Inc, our recruiters will move as quickly as you move. We have seen people make first contact with us in the morning and have an offer by the next morning. This is rare, but it happens! It really depends on how quickly you move, and how flexible you are when looking for assignments.
To start your next adventure, connect with a recruiter today! Email us at thisisfun@travelnursesinc.com. Or to check out all of our open positions, head over to the Jobs tab.
