Ask a Recruiter Anything

Thank you to readers that submitted questions to ask a recruiter! I have partnered with LocumTenens.com to have the questions answered by one of their amazing recruiters. I have personally had a great experience working with LT.com and recruiter, Elizabeth Prater. Check out the article below for the answers to your questions:

https://www.locumtenens.com/news-and-insights/blog/a-look-into-locums-top-questions-from-travelingnpcom-answered-by-a-recruiter

Summer Break – part 2

We spent the last month of our summer break in France. We started in the French Riviera in Nice. We used that as a base to visit other towns such as Cannes and Monaco. Nice was wonderful. There are many beautiful beaches nearby, within a 20-minute bus ride. It was probably the warmest Mediterranean water I have ever swam in (not sure if it’s just climate change). Nice has its own beaches too but they have large pebbles instead of sand, which are slippery and the water isn’t as good. I liked the mixture of old town and new town. It is pretty diverse when you leave the tourist area. Monaco was disappointing! Not much to do there, I do not recommend.

We spent a few days in Corsica, since it was nearby. It is the island where Napoleon Bonaparte is from, so I’ve always wanted to go. Fortunately, it also has gorgeous beaches. It was cool to see Napoleon’s house and relics of him everywhere.

Afterwards, we flew into Bordeaux, France so that we could travel to the Loire Valley. I have always wanted to see some of the chateau’s there. I narrowed them down to Chateau Chenonceau and Chateau De Chambord. They were different from each other but absolutely incredible! I highly recommend. I had just finished reading a book about King Louis XIV and he lived in both of those chateaus at some point.

We ended the trip with 5 days in Paris. It was probably my 6th time in Paris. Paris is always a good time. We did a day trip to Chateau Fontainebleau which is 40 minutes away via train. What an amazing chateau! It was beautiful inside and I loved seeing the “Napoleon Apartments” with some of his personal items. I am not sure why it isn’t as famous as Versailles, it is just as nice!

I enjoyed seeing other parts of France. We really liked Nice and wouldn’t mind living there for an extended period of time, especially since I love living by the beach. However, when we made it to Paris, we both thought “there’s just nothing like Paris”. So of course I would love to live in Paris for an extended period as well.

Summer Break – Part 1

I have been a bit MIA on the blog as I enjoyed my summer. My husband received his green card in April so we soon left to Europe. We spent almost 3 months abroad, and just returned to the USA.

We spent about one month in Italy. I hadn’t been to Italy in the last 10 years. It became a popular place after covid, and everyone’s Instagram made it look better than I remembered. We started the trip in Rome, which actually WAS better than I remembered. I think going in May when the weather was perfect made a big difference compared to the last time I went in the heat of July.

We continued the trip to the Amalfi coast, which was my first time. I highly recommend it for a ‘romantic’ trip! Definitely rent a private boat for views from the water. We continued onward to Florence and Venice. Venice was also better than I remembered! I think it was because we stayed locally instead of rushing in on a tour like last time. This time, I was able to go inside San Marco Basilica which was incredible. My favorite part was seeing the original Triumphal Quadriga.

We also visited Milan, which was my first time. I didn’t get the memo that people go there for luxury shopping. I had a better experience in Italy than the last time I visited, but I don’t see myself “living” there for a long period of time like I had in Barcelona.

The second month, we spent in Morocco, which is where my husband is from. We spent about 2 weeks in Fes, where his family lives. It was my first time in Fes (not in morocco), but I wasn’t a fan. Mostly because it lacked greenery and was more conservative than I expected. We did a trip to the North of Morocco which was my first time.

We stayed in the famous blue town – Chefchaouen, right in the mountains. It was beautiful, and a nice break from the summer heat. My favorite town was Tetouan. It is modern, clean, and lots of greenery. People are more modern and less conservative there. They also have a popular beach town called Cabo Negro, with nice clear water.  

We continued the journey to Tangier. I expected to like Tangier the most from what I’ve heard, but was actually disappointed. It was cool to see how close Spain is from there – you can actually see Spain across the water. It has a beautiful beach and boardwalk, however the air wasn’t clean, and there were a lot of homeless people.

It was also my first time in the capital of Morocco, Rabat. I really liked it! It is also clean, with a lot of greenery. There is public transportation such as a tram. There aren’t many motorized scooters like in Fes, so it feels less overwhelming. It also has a gorgeous beach! If I had to live somewhere in Morocco, it would probably be there.

Locum Tenens Strategy Change

As I mentioned in previous posts, my partner moved to the USA from Europe at the end of 2024. Since then, we got married! We eloped but plan to have a small wedding celebration at the end of this year or next year.

For the time being, my husband wants to settle in Miami, so I have been working telemedicine. Of course, I still want to do locum tenens but I don’t want to be away from my husband for 3 months at a time. Recruiters are still contacting me constantly regarding locum tenens opportunities that I’ve had to pass on.

That got me thinking – locums is all about flexibility. I can change my locum strategy, and instead of providing 3 months coverage, I can do only short-term assignments. Shorter assignments range from 1 day, to 1 week, to 1 month. Shorter assignments, however,  aren’t as common for family practice/primary care. They are more common for acute care providers and even more so for local clinicians.

As a seasoned travel NP, I am comfortable jumping into a shorter assignment. This means there is relatively almost no training. I have done short assignments before such as a few days in California, a week in Florida, and in month in Miami; and they were fine.

There won’t be as many job options compared to providing 3 months coverage, but at least I can still travel briefly and have new experiences when the opportunity arises. That’s the great thing about being a travel NP, you can tailor your work life to your personal life.

Having a Long-term Car Rental for Personal Use

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I gave up my personal car almost 7 years ago. Since I was doing locum tenens full time, I didn’t see a purpose in having my own car anymore. As agencies/sites provide a car rental while on assignment. Additionally, I didn’t want to drive to assignments that were cross country.

When I was not on assignment, I was usually traveling abroad. When home for a week or two, I would just borrow a relative’s car or rent my own car through free car rental certificates I accumulated from National (from being a travel NP).

When my partner moved to the USA, and I committed to staying in Miami for at least 3 months, I debated if it was finally time to get my own car again. I thought about purchasing a car but didn’t want to commit right away, because I actually enjoy being car free. It is one less thing I have to think about and one less bill I have. I enjoy living in Europe, because I can easily use public transportation there.

My partner and I, planned on spending 3 months in Europe once he got his green card, so it didn’t make sense to have a car payment while we were abroad. I looked into renting a car monthly on Turo. The cars are affordable, but the problem is you have to purchase car rental insurance separately. Your regular car insurance like Geico, does NOT cover Turo rental cars. By adding the car insurance, the cost to rent the car doubled. My original budget was ~$1000/mo, so adding the car insurance would make it cost $2000/mo, which was way too much.

I looked at renting with National for a month, the way my agency does, but it would have cost about $2000/mo. I remember before covid it was closer to $1000/mo, but the price has definitely gone up since then, and it depends on the location.

Fortunately, one of my friends told me about Sixt Subscription. Pretty much, you can rent a luxury car through them for 30 days at a time in many large cities. You can cancel your subscription at any time. And it was actually affordable! I decided to rent a BMW x5 for $1000/month. I was able to use my regular car insurance through Geico which was only $120/month.

Score! And – I got to have a nice car! I have always loved cars so even if I purchased one, it would likely be a luxurious German car. In fact, my parents ended up purchasing a BMW x5 after I rented mine, and their car payment was identical to mine, except I didn’t have to give a down payment. I was given 1000 miles per month, but could purchase extra miles for a reasonable cost.

Using Sixt Subscription ended up working out really well. Essentially, I was able to drive a car I like, without having to commit to years of payments. They have some cheaper options such as a Volkswagen or Toyota Corolla closer to ~$700. I wanted to share my experience in case you are also carless by choice and are looking for ways to have a car in between assignments.

High Yield Savings Account

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Hopefully you are not keeping your savings in a regular checking or savings account earning 0.01% interest. If you are looking to park some short term and long term savings into a high yield savings account, I highly recommend Wealthfront. They offer 4% interest on your account balance each month. This definitely helps keep your money from being devalued from inflation. And whenever you need to use your money, you can transfer it to your checking account instantly.

I have easily earned $700+ per month just from having this account alone. I keep my emergency fund in there, along with other long term savings such as purchasing another rental property. I also like that you can have multiple savings divided within this account. For example: you can allot $10k listed under “House” and then $5k listed under “Vacations”. This helps keep things organized.

I have a referral link below that offers you an extra 0.5% interest in your first 3 months of being an account member:

Apply Here

Tracking Licenses

Many readers have asked me how I keep track of my 15+ state licenses. Previously, I just kept a list on excel with the expiration dates and set a reminder on my calendar, when it is time to renew. Then I would look up required CEU’s on the board of nursing website to see if I am missing any.

LocumTenens.com had me review a licensing tracking software they planned to provide as a benefit to their providers. This is a paid program called Mocingbird. LT.com was nice enough to add in my state licenses for me upfront, so I didn’t have to do the manual uploading myself. After going through the product and using it over a few months, I thought Mocingbird was beneficial. It sent email reminders when it was time to renew state licenses. It also listed specific CEU requirements which saved me time in having to go to individual board of nursing websites to look up which CEUs were required upon renewal. It also has a hub allowing you to centralize documents for credentialing or when needing to apply for other licenses.

Mocingbird provides a 30-day free trial if you want to see what it is like. It is quite pricey at $199/year, but beneficial to streamline CME tracking and compliance. It would be a nice benefit that agencies can offer their providers for free. Mocingbird offers other services for an extra charge such as completing licensing applications for you, which your agency can do for you at no cost to you.

On the other hand, the telemedicine company I work for uses a different paid program called Medallion. This is more of a credentialing platform which also requires you uploading copies of all of your state licenses. The benefit is that the information is streamlined to payors similar to having a CAQH profile. The telemedicine company pays for this, so there is no extra cost to me. However, they send me reminder emails 90 days out when my licenses are due for renewal. It will keep reminding me until I upload an updated license on the platform. It’s an added bonus to prepare me for license renewals ahead of time.