There is no “BEST” agency
There are agencies with good reputations and agencies with not so good reputations.
No agency can be the best in every situation all the time. No agency can offer you the highest pay for every contract.
For example:
1. HealthTrust is the best agency for HCA facilities but not good for non-HCA facilities.
2. Accountable health staffing, Premier Healthcare Professional, Ally Healthcare Staffing and Randstad Healthcare have contracts with lots of hospitals in Georgia.
3. Aya, AMN, Cross Country, Medical solutions are all very large staffing companies that are the MSP for lots hospitals all over the U.S.
4. Nomad and Trusted are recruiter-less staffing agencies. They are sometimes able to offer higher pay rates than traditional agencies but have less support for travelers due to not having recruiters.
5. Nurse First Staffing agency is founded by nurses. Nurse First might be less profit driven and more moral driven than some of the bigger staffing agencies. Meaning they might be be less willing to take advantage of you compared to some of the other companies. However, keep in mind all businesses are created to make a profit.
6. Fastaff offers high paying crisis contracts but terms of the contract are not very negotiable and start dates are usually ASAP.
7. TNAA and Aya spend lots of money on advertising and marketing to attract travel nurses to their agencies but don’t always pay their travel nurses well.
8. Some agencies primarily staff specific regions. This is often true for smaller agencies.
9. Krucial Staffing offers high paying crisis contracts through deployments. The pay is usually very lucrative but some travelers have described the operation as militant due to assigned housing and strict rules.
I mentioned several agencies above but this is only a very small percentage of the staffing agencies in the U.S. It can be very overwhelming trying to figure out which agency is the best when there are hundreds of agencies to choose from.
There is not a single agency that is the "best." Each agency has their own pros and cons. The agency that is best for me at this time might not be the best for you and vis versa. Also the agency best for you right now might not be best agency for you in 3 months.
For all the reasons mentioned above, it’s important to work with several agencies. Working with multiple agencies gives you more options of available contracts to choose from and more leverage when negotiating pay rates. A great agency is only as good as the contract they have available to offer. If a great agency does not have a good contract you are interested in then that agency is useless to you at that time. This is why I tell travel nurses to "search for good contract not good agencies/recruiters."
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