Meet Kathy Babcock, New People and Their Experiences Fuel Her Passion
“What I love about working as a recruiter with Club Staffing is that every day is different, and there is always something exciting happening,” remarked Kathy Babcock, senior recruiter. “I enjoy meeting new people and hearing all about their different experiences.”
“Many of my travelers send me photos so I get to experience, vicariously, the places they visit,” she continued. “One of my favorites is a photo from a traveler in Alaska who visited a hotel that was made entirely out of ice--even the beds were made out of ice!”
Babcock has worked in Club Staffing’s office in Boca Raton, Fla., for more than nine years. She helps connect physical therapists, occupational therapists, medical technicians and imaging and lab professionals with short-term travel assignments in top medical facilities around the country.
“I think new allied health travelers often discover that working as a traveler really is different from working a permanent position,” she commented. “Also, they tend to be pleasantly surprised at how accommodating our agency is in the services we offer, and how we take care of everything so that almost all they have to do is show up and go to work.”
“I’d say my seasoned travelers really enjoy the flexibility of getting to choose when they work and many of them stay in it because they love the adventure. I have a medical tech who has been with me since August 2005. She often says that she just can’t stay in one place for long and that she likes the money,” Babcock added.
It is unusual to find allied health travelers who have been on the road for a decade, however, because many will eventually fall in love with a certain area and take a permanent position so they can stay. Babcock notes she has seen more travelers opt to stay in the San Francisco Bay Area than any other region in the country.
Babcock sees one of her main roles as a recruiter as helping people work through the small details that might otherwise stop them from achieving a big dream.
“Often, in the midst of such a big transition, people can be overwhelmed when they hit small bumps,” she explained. “A few years ago, I had a woman who was headed out on her first assignment call me in hysterics because she had learned that if the temperature in the plane was over a certain level, she couldn’t bring her dog on the plane. I helped her to think through the details and the unlikelihood of that scenario coming to pass. She later nominated me for an award because I helped her get through this and onto the traveling career she had dreamed of.”
Travel assignments offer an excellent opportunity for allied health professionals to experience new parts of the country and to expand their skills and their ability to work in a variety of settings.
“[Allied] traveling is definitely an adventure and it is a lot of fun,” noted Babcock. “But it isn’t for everybody. It takes a certain kind of person to get into different working environments and do their job. There will always be bumps in the road, and you just have to work through it a day at a time. I always like to be straight with my recruits: ‘You are going to have fun, but you’re also going to have to work.’”
Babcock grew up in Boca Raton and is married with two children. She enjoys painting, cooking and collecting antiques. She was Club Staffing’s 2007 recruiter of the year.
Send Kathy an e-mail or give her a call at (561) 314-4531, ext. 4531, to find out about the current jobs she has available for allied health travelers. You can also connect with Kathy online on the ClubStaffing.com Facebook page.