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This week’s Making Rounds spotlights Jessica Swanson, director of recruitment at ProMed Staffing Resources, a medical staffing agency that recruits nurses, allied healthcare workers (basically anyone in a hospital who’s not a doctor or a nurse, like a medical assistant), and other workers for all the major hospitals in the New York City metro area.
Swanson spoke about her career path, becoming a nurse recruiter during the pandemic, and hospitals taking their recruiting in-house.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
I’m curious how someone gets to your role. Can you tell me about your career history and how you got to where you are now?
I started in a technology recruitment startup, where I did everything from sales to business development. When I came to ProMed in November 2019, I came to the company to build a technology division. Then Covid-19 happened and everyone needed nurses, so I became a nurse recruiter. I had no background and I didn’t really understand the difference between an ER nurse and an ICU nurse, so it was a great learning experience. That’s the thing about recruitment: There’s always something to learn. It was really exciting to be able to play a major part during that crisis. From there I built out our administrative allied and social services divisions.
What is the purpose of your role as director of recruitment?
I lead a team of five recruiters. None of them had prior recruitment experience when they started, so I implemented goal-setting and created all the training material for the staff. It’s really amazing to see the staff grow and progress in their career and start to manage the accounts directly.
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What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job?
That recruiting is easy. I think a lot of individuals who are not in recruitment think, “Oh, you just call someone and get them a job. That sounds fun.” There’s a lot more involved. Something I learned early on in my career is that it’s so important to really understand what’s important to the individual you’re working with and what they want as far as their career goals. It’s a lot about understanding from the candidate’s side, and then also we have to do due diligence for our clients as well, understanding what is necessary for their business to succeed.
What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
Watching my team advance. When I first took on the director of recruitment role, we had about 40 external staff in the field and now we have over 150. So, it’s seeing all of these recruiters who had no recruitment experience now have staff that they manage, and seeing them play a major role in the organization. I like to see them succeed and meet some of their career goals.
What healthcare trend are you least optimistic about, and why?
I have read that some organizations are trying to move the recruitment function in-house, and I’m not sure that will last. We are so niche and specialized in each modality. When you recruit everyone in-house—it’s definitely possible—but I don’t see that you’re really getting the best match because you’re not speaking to the same volume of candidates for a specific role. I also see the trend of Nomad Health and all these companies that are technology-driven, so it will be interesting to see how artificial intelligence will play out against the personal touch of working directly with a professional.