Meet Melissa Dingee, Providing End-to-End Support for Her Allied Travelers
“When asked to be a recruiter, I jumped at the chance. It was something I knew I wanted to do.” Melissa Dingee is employed as a senior recruiting consultant at Club Staffing, an AMN Healthcare company that places allied health professionals in temporary job assignments.
Dingee’s job responsibilities include locating and matching the best candidates for each available job at healthcare facilities around the country. To meet this goal, she helps candidates update résumés, requests references and creates pay packages. She also assists allied travelers with housing needs and travel arrangements. “It’s also my responsibility to make sure our clinicians have the information and support they need while on assignment,” she said.
“Each person is different and each one has individual motivators for traveling,” Dingee noted. "Some want to experience new locations while others try to find the best way to support their families. Helping clinicians to meet their career goals has been a rewarding experience for me.”
“Once our allied health professionals start an assignment, I make sure things are running smoothly and I am a point of contact for them as issues and questions arise,” she continued. It’s important to be good listener and to know how to ask the right questions because sometimes what is not said is just as important as what is said, Dingee pointed out.
“During phone conversations with travelers, I try to engage everyone to find out what their particular concerns may be,” she said. “Are they nervous about being away from their families? Do they need more training while on assignment? Travel can be lonely at times and everyone wants to feel they have someone they can call about issues and concerns while on the road. As a recruiter, you have to let your travelers know you’re willing to listen and you’re on their side.”
Win–win stories
An MRI technician was urgently looking for work as he’d lost his job, filed for bankruptcy and his house was in foreclosure. “He called me and I was quickly able to find work for him in another state, Dingee said. “He traveled with our company for two years and just recently found an assignment he enjoyed so much he ended up staying on permanently. Traveling completely changed his life around and now he has a successful career.”
Some allied travelers find love while on assignment. “There have even been a few marriages,” Dingee said.
Others share photos and tales about local attractions. “I worked with a medical laboratory technician exclusively for seven years, and she shared slide shows or videos about her assignments and the people she met. She traveled with her husband and while assigned to rural areas they’d attend local attractions like farmers’ markets. I looked forward to seeing their adventures when they were posted online.”
Traveler tips for allied health professionals
“For potential travelers, I’d say be open and willing to work anywhere, any shift,” Dingee advised. “After you have a few assignments under your belt, you can be a little more selective. For current travelers, I would say to be open to a new location. Try a place you would not normally choose because you never know what you could be missing.”
Dingee said she loves to travel and enjoys meeting new people and seeing how things are done in different parts of the country.
“I think meeting new and different kinds of people changes who you are and how you see the world--in a good way,” she concluded.
Send Melissa an e-mail or give her a call at (866) 719-3302 to find out about the current allied health travel opportunities she has available. You can also connect with Melissa online on the ClubStaffing.com Facebook page.