Trust your gut - it's usually right.

By Rich Smith, 07-19-2017

The past few years have been very good in the temp staffing community. That includes us in the travel nursing business. Our industry has seen tremendous growth, which is a great thing...but it brings its share of bad with the good. Social media has given people a chance to connect in ways we never imagined. A proliferation of information followed. That's the double edged sword of places like Facebook or LinkedIn. Anyone can position themselves as an "expert". (I suppose in some ways this applies to me too, huh?) So how do you weed out the good information from the bad? Here are a few tips (or suggestions, I'm not an expert...)

• Read as much as you can. Good, bad and otherwise. The truth will present itself through this exercise more often than not. • Ask questions. You've heard it before, and you'll hear it again. There are no dumb questions. There could be dumb answers...but you'll know those when you hear them. The more questions you ask, the more information you'll acquire. Keep a list of questions so you don't forget. Sometimes good questions come up when you least expect them or at times when the answer isn't clear. • Life isn't 140 characters or less. Be cautious of flashy headlines or over dramatized clickbait articles. These tend to exist only to sell advertising or gain page views. • Finally, understand everyone has an agenda. Everyone. No one is giving you information simply because they want to out of the goodness of their heart. For example, my agenda with this blog, and all my other blog pieces, is to give you insight in to what my company, Atlas MedStaff does and how we operate as a business. If you like what you read, I would hope you'd visit our website or maybe look at our open jobs. But I've always been pretty clear about that with my writing. There are others out there in the social media outlets, self-proclaimed experts or "middle" middle men that seem to fill your news feed, that won't tell you why they are really there or why they are doing what they are doing. Those are the ones you need to be wary of. Their agenda isn't sincere, no matter how much it seems like it might be.

I want to be clear though. There are actual experts out there that have very valuable information. Nurses that have worked in this industry for years, and websites like Highway Hypodermics. Or personalities like ZDogg MD. He's funny and informative at the same time. I've really grown to like his insight and humor. People and websites like that are key to the health of the travel nursing online. That's where you can find information you can trust.

Our industry has never been stronger, it's a great place to be right now. Both on the agency side and the nurse side. You are your own best judge when decisions are to be made. Trust your gut! Get out there and make the best of it!