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How to Make Your Travel Nurse Profile Stand Out
You found the perfect travel nursing job.
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The location works.
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The pay works.
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The shift works.
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Your recruiter submits you and then...
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What exactly does the hospital see?
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As a travel nurse recruiter, I spend a lot of time behind the scenes putting together traveler profiles and trying to make my nurses stand out.
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And there are absolutely things you can do to make my job easier and your profile stronger.
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So let’s pull back the curtain.
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What Is a Travel Nurse Profile?
Think of your travel nurse profile as a giant, supercharged resume.
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When your recruiter submits you for a job, the facility isn’t just getting your name and a traditional resume.
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Depending on the agency and facility, your submission may include things like:
Your nursing experience
Travel experience
Specialty
Certifications
Licenses
Work history
Education
Skills checklists
References
Requested time off
Desired start date
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Your recruiter takes all of that information and packages it in a way that helps the facility quickly understand:
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Who is this nurse, and why should we hire them?
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Your Experience Matters
Your work history tells a much bigger story than simply where you’ve worked.
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Facilities may want to know the size and type of hospitals you’ve worked in, trauma levels, unit sizes, patient populations, and which charting systems you know.
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The more varied your experience becomes, the more versatile your profile can become.
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Worked in both large and small hospitals?
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Great.
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Used Epic, Cerner, Meditech, or multiple EMRs?
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That can help too.
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Have experience floating to different units?
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Make sure your recruiter knows.
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Don’t assume something isn’t worth mentioning.
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The thing you barely think about anymore might be exactly what a particular facility is looking for.
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Certifications Can Help You Shine
Those letters after your name?
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You worked hard for them. Use them.
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Keep your certifications current and make sure your recruiter knows about all of them.
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Depending on your specialty, additional certifications can help demonstrate your experience and give a facility more confidence in your clinical background.
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And if something is going to expire during your assignment, deal with it early whenever possible.
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The easier your qualifications are to verify, the easier it is for your recruiter to present a clean, complete profile.
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Take Your Skills Checklist Seriously
I know.
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Another checklist.
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But your skills checklist can be an important part of your submission.
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It tells a facility which procedures, patient populations, equipment, and clinical situations you actually have experience with.
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The key is to be honest without underselling yourself.
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If you’ve never done something, say that.
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If you’ve had exposure but aren’t independent with it, answer accordingly.
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But if you regularly perform a skill and feel confident doing it?
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Give yourself credit.
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This is not the time for imposter syndrome.
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Your recruiter can also use that information to highlight your strongest skills when presenting you for jobs.
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Keep Your References Fresh
Don’t wait until you desperately need a reference to start hunting down a charge nurse you worked with two years ago.
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Get into the habit of collecting references as you go.
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When you finish an assignment or staff position, ask someone appropriate whether they’re willing to serve as a professional reference.
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Recent references are especially helpful because they show facilities what you’re like right now as a nurse and coworker.
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And as a recruiter?
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I LOVE when someone leaves actual comments about one of my travelers.
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If your reference says something fantastic about you, that gives me something real I can highlight when I submit your profile.
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Be Strategic About Requested Time Off
Need time off during your contract?
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Tell your recruiter before you submit.
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If you already know about a wedding, vacation, family event, or another commitment, it needs to be part of the conversation from the beginning.
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At the same time, flexibility can make your profile more competitive.
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If you can schedule longer vacations or bigger blocks of time off between assignments instead of during them, that can make things easier.
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But never hide requested time off just because you’re worried it will hurt your chances.
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Getting the job and then announcing that you need a week off isn’t the better strategy.
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Be upfront.
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Help Your Recruiter Help You
This is probably the biggest takeaway.
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Your recruiter can only market the experience they know about.
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Tell them about your certifications.
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Tell them which units you can float to.
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Tell them about specialized equipment you’ve used.
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Tell them about charge experience.
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Tell them about the charting systems you know.
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Tell them about the great feedback you received at your last hospital.
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And if there’s something in your professional history that a facility is likely to see or ask about, talk to your recruiter about it before you submit.
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You and your recruiter are on the same team.
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Give them the information they need to make you look as good on paper as you are at the bedside.
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Want the Full Story?
This bonus episode of Travel Healthcare 101 is a little different because you’re getting the recruiter side of the story.
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I walk through what actually goes into a traveler profile, including the cover sheet, resume, work history, certifications, skills checklists, references, license verification, requested time off, and the little details I look for when I’m trying to make one of my nurses stand out to a facility.
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Watch BONUS Travel Healthcare 101: How to Make Your Travel Nurse Profile Stand Out
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And if you’re brand new and looking at this list thinking you don’t have enough yet?
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Everybody starts somewhere.
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You don’t need 15 travel assignments and every certification known to nursing before you can become a traveler.
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Start with the experience you have.
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Keep building.
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And find a recruiter who knows how to help you put your best foot forward.
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Explore the complete Travel Healthcare 101 series →
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