What to Know about Broadcast Services when Finding a Travel Nursing Company

With literally hundreds of travel nursing companies in business, travel nurses face the daunting task of finding which companies they actually want to work with. Of course, there are many ways to go about it. So, in this article we’ll provide details on an option we call the “Broadcast Service” so travel nurses know what to expect.

What is a Travel Nursing Broadcast Service?

A “Broadcast Service” offers to transmit, or broadcast, your interest in travel nursing to multiple travel nursing companies. Broadcast Services collect your name, email address, telephone number, information about your skills and the job you’re looking for. Then, they broadcast your information to travel nursing agencies.

In my view, there are three main types of broadcast services. The first is the Shell Broadcast Service. The second is the Lead Generation Broadcast Service. Finally, there is the Covert Broadcast Service.

It’s important to note that these are my terms and definitions. They are not common parlance in the travel nursing industry. I wanted to differentiate these services according to their main characteristics so that travel nurses can identify them and proceed accordingly.

“Shell” Travel Nursing Broadcast Services

Back in 2006 when I first started working in the travel healthcare industry, there was a type of broadcast service that I referred to as the “Shell Broadcast Service”. At the time, it was quite popular for a single large travel nursing company to own multiple “brands”. Typically, a larger company bought several smaller companies and kept the brand names and websites active.

Then, they would create a Broadcast Service website for only these brands. The website would say something like, “Enter your information to connect with the top agencies.” However, the “top agencies” were just all the brands that the single company owned.

For example, Cross Country had a website called rntravelspace.com. It had a blog and some basic information about travel nursing. Of course, it had various forms for you to enter your contact information as well.

TravelNursing.com was possibly the most popular Shell Broadcast Service. AMN Healthcare owns this one. The website still exists, but it appears to do nothing more than redirect visitors to AMN Healthcare’s website.

These websites rarely, if ever, have an account creation feature. So, you don’t come back later and login to access your information. You just submit the forms and you’re done.

I’m not certain why such services are no longer prominent. However, I believe it has something to do with the fact that large companies tend to shy away from managing multiple brands these days. Instead, they tend to roll any companies they purchase into the main brand.

The “Lead Generation” Travel Nurse Broadcast Service

A “Lead Generation Broadcast Service” is a broadcast service that runs independently of any travel nursing agency. Again, these services have a pitch like, “We’ll connect you with the top travel nursing agencies if you provide us with your contact information.”

These companies often provide useful information about travel nursing. The information also helps them rank for various search terms on Google so that candidates can discover the service. These companies often use social media and search advertising to get in front of potential candidates.

However, the main difference between the Lead Generation Broadcast Service and the Shell Broadcast Service is that the Lead Generation Service broadcast’s your information to multiple independent travel nursing companies.

How many companies get your contact information?

In some cases, they’ll transmit your information to a manageable number of agencies, like 5. In other cases, they’ll transmit your information to an overwhelming number of agencies, like 25.

When the broadcast service caps the number of agencies, it does so because it makes your information more valuable. Agencies are willing to pay a higher price for the information if they know they will be 1 of 20 companies with the information as opposed to 1 of 100 companies. The agency has a better shot at placing you if there is less competition.

Sometimes, they’ll transmit your information to a small number of agencies at first, but then make it available to other agencies as time passes. When this happens, you’ll end up receiving a slow drip of calls, texts and emails over an extended period of time.

Other features

In rare cases, Lead Generation broadcast services might have a job board. However, the jobs on a true Lead Generation Broadcast Service aren’t real. Instead, they’re just a marketing gimmick to lure unsuspecting travel nurses to enter their contact information.

These websites rarely, if ever, have an account creation feature. So, you don’t come back later and login to access your information. You just submit the forms and you’re done.

BetterNurse.org and TravelNursing.org are two of the currently popular Lead Generation Broadcast Services. Interesting how they both use .org domains.

Covert Broadcast Service

Covert Broadcast Services are trickier than the others. Essentially, these services have all the makings of a traditional job board. However, they’ll also broadcast your information to many, or all, of their agency partners.

Sometimes these services have landing pages with the standard broadcast lingo, “Connect with the top agencies.” However, in all cases they have a well-functioning job board. They also have account-creation features, meaning you can login to access your account.

I call them covert because most people do not expect a job board to release their data to companies other than the companies they actually apply with. It’s true that some job boards have a searchable database where employers can access candidate contact data. However, most of those services are “opt in”, meaning the candidate needs to explicitly agree to have the job board make the candidate’s data available.

Covert Broadcast Services do not abide by those standards. If you apply to one job with one company on covert broadcast services, then the service will release your information to that company and many others. They might give the company you applied with a head start, but they’re going to release your information to others no matter what.

Takeaways for Travel Nurses

Now I’ve gone and made these Broadcast Services sound evil. But they’re not all that bad. I just want you to know what you’re in for.

These services do indeed deliver on their claim. If you provide them with your information, you will get calls and emails from many different companies interested in your business.

You won’t have to do any digging around to find companies to call. However, there is no assurance that the companies that call you are great companies to work with. But this is also ok. You can simply do some internet research on any travel nursing company that contacts you to determine if you’d like to move forward with them.

The one negative that you can’t avoid with the Broadcast Service is the onslaught of calls, text messages and emails you will most certainly receive. If you meet the minimum criteria for a travel nurse or travel healthcare professional in a sought-after area of expertise, you’ll receive more calls and emails than you could possibly handle alone. You may end up changing your telephone number and getting a new email address just to get out of the loop.

But we’ve got you covered. You check out this article for tips on how to stop unwanted calls and text messages. Also, here is an article covering your rights under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act which the FCC recently updated.

As always, we hope you found this information useful!