Nurse Manager deciding which traveler to hire

How a Nurse Manager Decides Which Traveler to Hire

Insight into the decision-making process of an RN hiring manager - how to make your resume stand out.

Your dream travel nurse job was just posted. It’s your opportunity to work in a Magnet facility, or to get to Hawaii, or to make even higher travel nurse pay than usual. You know that the more appealing the job, the more applicants will likely apply. What do you do to improve your chances of securing the travel assignment?

To find out, we asked Bonnette V., RN, BSN, PCCN - who was an Assistant Nurse Manager for eight years and a Clinical Manager in a Telemetry unit for three years.

5 Tips for Standing Out on Your Resume and In Your Interview

#1 - Demonstrate flexibility.

Nurse managers hire travel nurses because they have critical staffing needs. Sometimes the staff nurses have already been stretched thin for a long time. One of your greatest selling points as a travel nurse is your willingness to go where you are needed and do what is needed.

So how do you show the hiring manager you’re ready to work? Tell the manager you are flexible on:

Start date
Shift
Floating
Scheduling
Working holidays
Working overtime

If you won’t need scheduled time off during this assignment, let them know. It’s a selling point!

Did you know?

Your American Traveler recruiter puts together a snazzy cover sheet for your profile, complete with a snapshot of your professional highlights. Make sure they know if you’re flexible about any of the bullet points above, and we’ll make sure it’s communicated on the front page!

#2 - Make sure you can provide excellent references, preferably with comments.

Your ability to interact in a positive way with patients as you provide excellent healthcare is another top concern for your nurse manager. According to Bonnette,

“Hospitals are becoming more and more focused on patient satisfaction, quality, and customer service. Hiring quality healthcare practitioners is vital to a facility’s success and reputation. Each individual who works in an organization carries that organization’s name, and every action that worker takes will reflect back on the facility. As a travel nurse, when your wear a hospital’s badge, you wear their name.” - Bonnette V., RN BSN PCCN

How does a nurse manager judge your ability to provide patient care in a way that fosters patient satisfaction? Since they don’t get to see you in action, they largely have to rely on the references from your previous nurse managers or nurse supervisors. This means that have excellent references is vitally important!

What can you do to help the odds of having great references?

Beyond the obvious answer of “earn a great reference,” make sure that your supervisors know they will be receiving a call and/or email for a reference. A blindsided reference is rarely good! Additionally, consider mentioning to your reference that after the standard rate-the-employee-on-a-scale type questions, they’ll be given a chance to comment on you as a nurse.

Remember that nifty cover sheet for your profile we mentioned above? Your recruiter will put your stellar reference front and center.

#3 - Be ready to go.

It’s one thing to tell the nurse manager you’re available to start as soon as possible. It’s another to actually be ready.

Make sure you have the required state nursing license in hand already, medicals done, and turned in to your recruiter or document specialist. The reality is there will probably be a few hospital-specific things for you to do after you secure the new travel nurse job, but if you have your standard documentation on file, it’s a huge selling point with the nurse manager.

Odds are at some point the nurse manager has had an eager nurse say they’ll be ready ASAP, only to wait, and wait, and wait as the paperwork drags on. But not in your case! We’ll make sure to note in your profile that you have documents on file - which also demonstrates your initiative and organization.

#4 - Hold certifications.

As with your customer service skills, your new nurse manager doesn’t have the ability to see you demonstrate your clinical competence. The hiring manager usually relies your clinical references and your certifications. Nursing certifications show that you strive for excellence and that you're willing to put in extra work. Not sure which certifications you should be pursuing? We’ve put together to help.

#5 - Be prepared to speak to your experience.

This is one is obvious, but there is truly no substitute for experience. That being said, don’t despair if you only have a year or two as a staff nurse. Find ways to sell your experience. Have you provided any specialized care? Maybe you’re a tele nurse who floated to the burn unit, or a med-surg RN who cared for oncology patients. Bring those points up in the interview!

It’s also a good strategy to find ways to relate your experience to the job posting, like mentioning you’ve used their same EMR system, you’ve worked in a similar size facility, you have experience working the posted shift, or even something as simple as you’ve lived lots of places and have experience jumping into life in a new city. It’ll help sell that you’re ready for this new travel job!

“Travel nurses are often given limited hospital orientations, and most facilities are not intending to provide extensive training. This means having experience in the needed specialty and in the EMR system of the healthcare facility is very important.” - Bonnette V., RN BSN PCCN

At the end of the day, nurse managers are looking to fill travel jobs as quickly as possible with the top possible candidate. In the words of Bonnette, “Nurses wear the uniform of caring, kindness, and compassion. When a manager is looking to hire a travel or staff nurse, the top priority is the overall quality of the candidate.”

Last Modified On: Jun 28, 2019

The next stop on your travel journey awaits.