Iron Sharpens Iron: Behind the Noise of Healthcare Staffing with Chris Sund

In the fast-moving world of healthcare staffing, it is easy to get caught up in the numbers, the tech, and the day-to-day hustle. But if you strip away the noise, what actually keeps this industry moving forward?

In the latest episode of On the Clock // Off the Record, we sat down with Chris Sund from Uniti Med to talk about leadership, navigating budget cuts, and how an encounter in a small hospital brought his entire career full circle.

Leading a staffing agency today looks completely different than it did even a few years ago. While the current market mirrors the grit required a decade ago, there is one massive upgrade: transparency.

With so much information—and noise—out there, how does an agency stand out? According to Chris, it comes down to balancing the push for modern data with old-school relationship building.

When it comes to the candidate experience, Chris’s philosophy is simple: identify the friction points and remove them.

By streamlining the process and keeping it helpful, agencies can protect the human connection that technology often dilutes.

In a data-driven market, it is easy for agencies to fall into the trap of “submitting just to submit.” Chris challenges that mindset. While speed matters, quality matters more. Flooding facilities with unmatched resumes hurts everyone. Instead, the focus should remain on placing the right clinician in the right unit.

Where is the industry heading? Chris believes that the next five years will see an even deeper reliance on data. Agencies and facilities alike will use data to truly understand what is working, where to invest resources, and—just as importantly—where to stop wasting money.

If you only know Chris as a healthcare executive, you are missing half the story. Before diving into staffing, Chris spent years in the restaurant and beverage industry. He even helped to start Omaha Beer Week!

He actually fell into healthcare recruiting only by taking an interview to appease a persistent friend. Despite taking a pay cut and being worried about what his wife thought, he felt a spark. He wanted to make a tangible difference.

True leadership requires vulnerability, and Chris doesn’t hold back when sharing a mistake or two. During a tough economic stretch for the industry—the kind that forces hard calls and leaves you needing to step away from the noise just to catch your breath—he continues to learn from others, the past, and moves forward.

We talk a lot about the fact that our travelers are real people with real goals, but it’s easy to forget that the ultimate end goal of our work is patient care. Chris shared a deeply personal story from years ago. While saying goodbye to a loved one in a small healthcare facility, he looked up and recognized a traveler that his team had placed there. It was a profound, full-circle moment. In the quietest, hardest hour, the work mattered. The right person was in the right place.

To stay grounded in an industry this demanding, Chris relies on simple conversation—whether talking shop or completely escaping it. He is incredibly proud of his family; his wife is a force in the healthcare space herself, and they are raising three boys into good, genuine humans.

He leaves the industry with a final, vital reminder: healthcare staffing would be fundamentally better if everyone cared more about the total experience. When agencies care deeply about the experience of their internal employees, that care naturally trickles down to the travelers, and ultimately, to the hospitals, and patients.

At the end of the day, Chris and Rich operate on a collaborative mindset: “Iron sharpens iron.” He would rather be friends with the opposing team than enemies. When agencies push each other to be better, the entire industry wins.

🎧 Want to hear the full conversation? Tune into the latest episode of On the Clock // Off the Record on your favorite podcast platform to hear more of Chris’s insights on leadership, industry trends, and the power of human connection in healthcare.