Where Do I Fit in as a Healthcare Recruiter?

By Andrea Peet

Working remotely as a nurse/healthcare recruiter with a large hospital group, you sometimes ask “where do I fit in?” I know that I am sourcing, interviewing and presenting the best of the best to my hiring leaders, but, where do I fit? In 13 years of healthcare recruiting I have never seen the big picture like I just did a week ago. Yes, I have always known that by hiring the best of the best nursing professionals it makes an impact on the hospital. It helps with retention, turnover, high patient satisfaction scores and meeting hospital standards.

Recently, I received an email from one of my favorite hiring leaders offering sincere thanks for all that I do. I get emails often from leaders thanking me for the great nurse that I found them or the quantity of candidates I presented for them to screen to find that one superior nurse. However, the email that I got last week made me realize where I fit in!  The email stated, “I want you to remember that every time one of the nurses we have hired together changes the life of a family or infant, you were part of it”. Never did I sit back and view my role like this. I am part of the bigger picture, but I never thought of it that way. I work remotely and rarely on-site, so I don’t get the luxury of looking at those patients when they have a smile on their face from their satisfaction with the care they received from a nurse I hired.  The hiring leaders, nurses and support staff get to witness this every day.

I am proud to be a nurse/healthcare recruiter and love my job. I just never knew where I fit in. Now I do!  I also help change lives of our patients, just in a different way.