De Vore Recruiting Blog

This year’s autumnal equinox, or first day of the fall season, begins at 7:20 p.m. PDT on Sept. 22. (If you’re curious, you can find a converter here for when it will occur in your area.) And the onset of cooler temperatures means various things depending on who you ask: a new school year, Sunday Night Football, the early onset of the flu season.

For healthcare facilities, the fall and winter months typically yield more patient visits thanks to flu outbreaks and exacerbated respiratory issues, especially in the elderly population. And by extension, these facilities often need to bulk up their staff to accommodate seasonal needs.

Dr. Heather Wick, M.D., is a senior recruiter with De Vore Recruiting, a healthcare staffing agency that fills management-level positions via direct recruiting. In her 2.5 years with the company, Dr. Wick has noticed an increase in placement needs in the fall and winter months.

“Summer tends to be the slower season,” she said. “My first seven placements (with De Vore) were in the winter of (November) 2012 to (March) 2013.”

With more reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid coming in during these seasons, facilities are able to hire recruiters to manage the often detailed and time-consuming process of finding skilled candidates for hard-to-fill managerial positions.

Dr. Wick, a graduate of Dartmouth College and Albany Medical College, encourages professionals who may be looking to take advantage of the busier healthcare hiring season to polish their resumes in preparation.

“Everyone should always have an updated resume on hand,” she said.

As a recruiter for director-level positions, Dr. Wick is looking for candidates with compatible skills.

“They have to have experience already in the job that I’m trying to fill. I don’t think I’ve ever filled a job with someone who hasn’t had that job before,” she said.

Dr. Wick also looks for candidates with work histories that display stability and longevity. “Our favorite candidates have been at day jobs for 3 to 5 years and have a solid history of not leaving their positions (too early),” she said. “A superstar will stay at the same job for seven to 10 years.

In her experience, filling these positions can take as little as two weeks to upwards of two months.

To submit your information and/or resume as a potential candidate for current or future job openings through De Vore, click here. View the latest career opportunities through De Vore here.

It’s a sobering fact: One bad hire can cost a company an average of 30 percent of the new employee’s first-year earnings, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. There’s a loss in productivity as the new employee acclimates to a new working environment, not to mention the costs involved with training.

Sherman Oaks, Cali.,-based De Vore Recruiting — where healthcare recruiting specialists seek out passive job seekers to fill skilled, typically director-level positions for healthcare facilities — shoulders the burdensome weight of the challenging hiring process.

“We try to eliminate falloff, which is a big deal,” De Vore’s president Sean De Vore said recently.

One bad hire in the nursing field can be detrimental to a healthcare facility’s score in Medicare’s 5-star quality rating system. Negative surveys regarding a new hire can affect the score, which is visible for consumers’ benefit. Facilities also can be fined by their respective state as a result of a poor survey.

“When we try to find people, we make sure that those people are going to help that survey process,” De Vore said.

To minimize the pitfalls involved in hiring, De Vore’s healthcare staffing agency thoroughly vets candidates, focusing often on their soft skills. Making sure a company and a potential new employee are the right match, or entering into the “right marriage” together, as De Vore puts it, is of utmost importance.

“We’re like a matchmaker in that sense,” said De Vore, whose company searches for the best match, not the most available-right-now. “We shake the leaves out of the tree instead of shake (just for) something to come loose.”

When finding the right candidates for those challenging job openings within the healthcare industry, De Vore attempts to:

-Make sure the candidate is going to stick, which is important for all parties involved. “So what we do is we talk to them about their goals,” De Vore said. “Everyone says they’re looking for a long-term job, but are they willing to make at least a 1- to 2-year — hopefully 2 years, at least — commitment? So we talk about stability and why it’s important.”

-Match personalities between the company and future employee. Many times, the employer doesn’t have time to explore the personalities of their clients to ensure compatibility within the facility’s work culture. As a third party, De Vore Recruiting is able to delve into the other side of each candidate in addition to their skill set and experience.

-Determine where each potential new hire is at in her or his career, and how that relates to the needs of an open management position. “We really want to figure out what the candidate is comfortable doing. I don’t want them to go beyond their reach,” De Vore said.

While a lot of companies, no matter the industry, prefer pleasant and outgoing hires, De Vore said his healthcare recruiters make sure to listen closely to each facility’s particular requirements.

“Different facilities have different needs,” De Vore said. “We look for the right personality.”

You bring years of experience to the table, but perhaps it’s been a while since you’ve searched for a new job. As a skilled nursing professional, your experience is your greatest asset in any interview. Healthcare recruiters and nursing staffing agencies are looking for proven, skilled professionals. So have confidence in your workplace experience as you begin the process of finding a new employer.

But there are things that can be done to enhance how you present your skills. In general, it helps to think about the interview process as a conversation rather than a one-sided interrogation. Additionally, what you ask your potential future employer as a professional healthcare worker matters as much as what you will be asked. Your questions demonstrate preparedness and interest, but they also help you to discern if the job will be the right fit for you and your needs, as well.

The following is a checklist to help guide you through the process of preparing once again for the interview as an experienced nursing candidate:

1. Your resume should note your credentials, pertinent coursework, clinical experience, licensing and rewards, as well as your responsibilities and accomplishments.

2. Don’t forget to bring your immunization record, BCLS/ACLS card and any advanced training program certificates to the interview. Bring the original documents and some copies of each.

3. Include a current copy of your nursing skills checklist.

4. Bring copies of your references and any reference letters just in case. Make sure your references contain current contact information, of course.

5. Learn as much as you can about your potential future employer (i.e. their work culture, staff and procedures) through their website or current employees who may be acquaintances.

6. Practice for your interview. You may have the skills needed, but it’s been a while since you’ve had to sell them to someone else. Ask a nursing colleague for feedback. Also, remember to prepare for typical interview question: Are you a team player? How would you handle difficult patients, families and/or fellow nurses/doctors? Of course, “Tell me about yourself” is the time to highlight details and skills that qualify you as the best fit for the job you’re seeking. Practice answering these questions with someone who can critique you on your nonverbal delivery.

7. As with any interview, dress in professional business attire that is clean and pressed. Do not wear garish jewelry. A professional-looking watch is about the only accessory you should be sporting. Avoid perfume, as it may offend the interviewer’s senses.

8. Make sure to mention any professional memberships you’ve held or former committee positions. Of course, any research you’ve contributed to and published should also be brought up.

9. Make sure to ask your own questions at the end of the interview: What is the nurse-to-patient ratio? How do you go about scheduling? How much autonomy do you give nurses to decide what’s best for each patient’s care? What makes this facility unique compared to other hospitals/care facilities in the area?

10. Save questions about salary, benefits and financial support for continuing education until after you’ve received a job offer.

General interview reminders: Ask for a tour of the facility to check out the environment and to meet your potential future colleagues. Remember to always send a thank-you note, whether you’ve decided this is the job for you or not. A handwritten note that is mailed following your interview stands out the most.

If you’re thinking of looking for new employment, please visit De Vore Recruiting’s latest job postings. For skilled nursing positions, click here. And if you’re looking to stay informed regarding the latest career opportunities and health news from one of the industry’s leading healthcare recruiters, subscribe to our newsletter today.

As a whole, the health care industry has been — and, more importantly for today’s nursing employment seekers, continues to be — one of the more impressively solid fields in our economy in terms of job creation.

Since the initiation of Obamacare in March 2010, health care employers added more than 1 million jobs to the U.S. labor market. Additionally, health care fields, depending on division, have remained relatively unaffected or have seen growth since the Great Recession (December 2007 to June 2009), according to data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment Statistics program.

The New York Times’ blog The Upshot displays a helpful collection of graphs (based on the bureau’s data) illustrating how specific health care sectors like specialty hospitals, residential mental and substance abuse care, outpatient mental health centers, psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals, and blood/organ banks and health care screenings actually recovered and grew since the Recession.

Bottom line: Jobs in health care have a proven track record of being recession-proof — basically, still one of your safest bets, Students.

But there’s this: While employment in home health, outpatient care centers and doctors’ offices is doing quite well, job growth at hospitals grew anemic in the past year. This could be due to the fact that care is now being delivered in multiple environments, thanks in part to a growing demand for in-home care as populations are living longer and longer.

Also interestingly, baby-boomer nurses who were expected to retire, creating job opportunities for new nurses, are retaining their positions for much longer than anticipated. The U.S. government had predicted a nursing shortage due to the anticipated deluge of retirements. But according to a study published in Health Affairs, there were 500,000 more registered nurses in the workforce than was projected twelve years earlier.

According to this Bloomberg story citing the Health Affairs study, nurses may be facing steep competition as baby-boomers delay retirement and nursing education programs pump out graduates, doubling their number since 2002.

However, the Affordable Care Act and a growing population, among other factors, should continue health care’s growth. But the search can still pose its own set of problems. Location can be one of those factors

That’s where De Vore healthcare recruiting can help. We pride ourselves on matching top candidates with the right healthcare employer for him/her. Let us help guide you through the process. Contact us for more information at 877-411-4358.

Writing an outstanding resume doesn’t necessarily mean following the rules such as keeping it within one page or following a specific format. Every resume is a unique marketing tool and should be tailored based on your background and the position you are applying for. In this article, we are going to offer you some key principles of writing an appealing resume.

THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD

The good news is that, you are able to create a resume that makes you stand out from hundreds of applicants with some extra effort. Not one resume in a hundred follows the principles that stir the interest of prospective employers. So, even if you face intense competition, with a well written resume you should be able to get an interview more often than many people more qualified than you. The bad news, however, is that your current resume is possibly much more inadequate than you think. You’ll have to learn how to think and write in a style that will be utterly new to you.

THE No.1 PURPOSE OF A RESUME

The resume is a marketing tool with one specific goal: to win an interview. It is an advertisement, nothing more, nothing less.

A great resume doesn’t just present employers what you’ve accomplished but serves the same function that all great advertisements do: If you buy this product, you will get these specific, visible benefits. It presents you in the best light.It persuades the purchaser (employer) that you have what it takes to succeed in this position.

WHAT IT ISN’T

It is a misconception to treat your resume as a product catalog, a history of your past or a personal statement. Indeed, the majority of the content in any resume is about your job history. However, it’s vital to write with the purpose to create interest, and convince the employer to call you. If you write with that intention, your final product will be totally different from your present resume.

Most people treat writing a resume as fulfilling an obligation just like filling out some legal documents. If you realize that a great resume can get you the dream job you want, you may be willing to assemble some genuine passion to create one-of-a-kind work, rather than the lame products most people end up with.

The global healthcare system is experiencing immense changes: the traditional image of the doctor practicing “the art of medicine” is transferring to a new “science of evidence-based medicine” delivered by a digitally connected ecosystem, and to a great extent powered by large corporations.

Global healthcare cost $7.4tn in 2012, taking 10.1% of global GDP — and costs are growing faster than inflation. Since more people will have access, and an aging population needs more care, the demand will continue to grow. Nowadays, care is more data-driven, and with the automation of processes inefficiencies are extracted and outcomes enhanced. The two big technology opportunities supporting these changes are big data and mobile.

Big Data – The use of big data to create evidence-based medicine is fueled by the digitalization of clinical and administrative health records, as well as new technologies to integrate and analyze this information. Hospitals, doctors and administrators over time will more fluidly share and use information. This data allows for a quantitative analysis of care paths and their efficacy in ways never imagined.

Using a data-driven approach with predictive analytics, the number of sick managed by care professionals is tuned to an institution’s capacity. The lower risk portion of the population uses digital tools, while the most risky are taken care of by licensed professionals. These changes cannot be made operational without digital capabilities driving automation. The companies that enable the technology to create these groups of patients and supply the workflows to manage populations will prevail in the marketplace.

Mobility — and the cloud-connected mobile app, is changing how consumers conduct their lives. Mobility is infusing wellness and health — as of December 2013, there were more than 40,000 mobile applications servicing the mobile health industry. It is easy to see a future where using the phone as a hub for connected monitoring and manage one’s health.

Doctors already are prescribing apps. A continuum of consumer-driven health apps will merge with prescribed apps that become part of a provider or payer’s formulary. Consumer companies such as Google, Apple, Samsung and Microsoft are jumping into this game and want to become important hubs of personal health information connecting consumer tools such as Fitbit with electronic medical record and personal health record repositories.

Telehealth — the delivery of remote care using a computer and or phone — has become a very important part of the mobility revolution. The trick to tele-health is to make the virtual community and tools operate as if they were at the bedside. New physician-led global care delivery companies such as vRad are emerging that virtualize care with higher quality and lower cost, one specialty at a time. In the future most of us will routinely use these companies that supply virtual medical care.

Overall, the healthcare industry’s model is shifting to one of large corporations, investing significant capital to develop care solutions. These companies will dominate the care delivery landscape. Want to find the right person to lead the changes of the healthcare technology? Contact De Vore Recruiting at 877-411-4358.