Celebrating 6 Incredible Recruiters on the GHR Team: National Healthcare Recruiter Day 2024

Mary Wright — Managing Director, LTC Nursing Recruitment

7 years as a Healthcare Recruiter | 3 years at GHR 

 

Q: As a specialized nursing recruiter, what is unique about your recruitment process for these individuals, and what drew you to this area of healthcare recruitment?   

"At GHR, our recruitment process focuses on tailored candidate matching and individualized communication. Each candidate’s skills, clinical experiences, and career goals are closely aligned with the specific needs of the healthcare facility. As a recruitment leader, I collaborate with our recruiters to ensure they have regular, personalized communication with nurses to provide updates, feedback, and support throughout our recruitment process. 

My strong personal interest in healthcare and desire to support the industry grew tremendously after my daughter was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was five years old. Healthcare workers helped our family adjust to a new normal where we relied on an insulin pump, continuous glucose monitor, and finger pricks to keep our daughter alive. Since her diagnosis, recruiting and placing the best talent in the right roles within various healthcare facilities has become my passion." 

 

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being a healthcare recruiter, and how do you envision the future of healthcare recruitment evolving?   

"Helping nurses find positions that match their skills, career goals, and lifestyles is rewarding to me, as it often leads to significant positive changes in their professional and personal lives. Because our recruiters play a crucial role in placing nurses where they are needed most, we are also positively impacting patient care and community health outcomes. By ensuring that healthcare facilities are staffed with qualified and reliable nurses, our recruiters contribute to the overall efficiency and quality of the healthcare system, which is incredibly rewarding. 

In my opinion, the future of healthcare recruitment will be shaped by technological advancements. GHR is increasingly investing in new technology and our employer brand to attract top talent, highlighting our culture, values, and benefits to stand out in a competitive and evolving market. As healthcare recruitment evolves technologically, we help our recruiters improve their qualifying and relationship-building skills by providing ongoing training and offering new technologies for sourcing, recruiting, and onboarding candidates." 

 

Q: How do you prioritize candidate experience in your recruitment process, ensuring a positive and seamless journey from initial contact to placement? How does this look different for your specialty in nurse recruitment? 

"At GHR, it is crucial for our recruiters to provide a positive and seamless candidate experience with a focus on clear communication, feedback, and support from initial contact to post-placement. Each recruiter also ensures personalized interactions, a streamlined application process, an efficient and detailed interview, candidate resources, career guidance, and post-placement follow-up. 

Providing an encouraging and smooth candidate experience during the recruitment process for nurses is vital. It not only helps attract and retain top talent in a competitive job market but also sets the foundation for long-term job satisfaction. By focusing on clear communication, respectful interactions, and efficient processes, we enable healthcare facilities to build a strong, committed, and professional nursing workforce." 

 

Q: What advice do you have for new healthcare recruiters? 

"For new healthcare recruiters, I recommend they learn as much as possible about the nursing profession; the various roles, and specific skills/requirements for each position. New and seasoned recruiters should also stay informed and up to date on trends, challenges, and changes in the healthcare industry and nursing profession. Additionally, all recruiters must perfect their communication and relationship-building skills while focusing on the candidate experience and leveraging technology." 

 

Q: As we celebrate Healthcare Recruiter Day, we'd love to know something fun about you outside your professional life. Can you share a hobby, interest, or a story about your life when you aren't on the job?     

"Outside of the office, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends in Cape May, NJ, and the Adirondacks. My son and daughter play soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and baseball, so my favorite hobbies include coaching or cheering them on from the sidelines!" 

 

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Ashley Rosati — Managing Director, Interim Advanced Practice

Over 13 years at GHR 

 

Q: As a specialized advanced practice provider recruiter, what is unique about your recruitment process for these individuals, and what drew you to this area of healthcare recruitment?  

"The recruitment process for advanced practice providers requires an advanced understanding of the differences in utilizing an APP in different clinical settings, capacities, and regions throughout the US. What drew me toward this focus was truly the demand in the market and the desire to continuously support our client's mission to provide accessible healthcare services for the patients they serve. With the physician shortage, Advanced Practice Providers are in demand more now than ever before. Having built many long-lasting relationships with these providers over the years, I feel it has given us a unique advantage in understanding both sides of the recruitment cycle - the organizations hiring these providers and what is important to our candidates as they embark on a job search with GHR.  

 

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being a healthcare recruiter, and how do you envision the future of healthcare recruitment evolving?  

"Being a recruiter can be a very rewarding career; who wouldn’t enjoy the opportunity to help someone achieve their career objectives and goals while also helping their clients fill those key vacancies to ensure continued success of the organization?

What I find to be the most rewarding about being a recruiter in the healthcare industry is that a successful placement goes well beyond individual career satisfaction and closing a vacant role. Knowing that these providers we hire for clients will be making an impact on patients’ lives in the community and bringing value to the overall quality of life and patient care outcomes is really what's most rewarding. We are making a true impact on healthcare delivery overall. That is so much bigger than filling a few jobs for a client.     

Healthcare recruitment will continue to evolve as it has over the last 13 years. I think what is most interesting about healthcare is the trends are always changing, creating a demand for new skill sets, or opportunities for healthcare professionals to make an impact in unique ways. When I first started out in 2011, Telehealth was hardly a common part of patient care delivery.  EMR systems were the new thing and paper medical records were becoming a thing of the past. Nurses were starting to embark on IT-focused education, like informatics. There will always be a need for healthcare recruitment and support, while year after year the demands and shortages will change and continue to evolve."   

 

Q: How do you prioritize candidate experience in your recruitment process, ensuring a positive and seamless journey from initial contact to placement? How does this look different for your specialty in APP recruitment?   

"The candidate experience is EVERYTHING!  My goal when connecting with a new candidate is to first understand fully who they are beyond their resume. Why did they pursue this area of healthcare? What makes them tick? What are their short-term and long-term career goals? And how can I best support them in their job search? If I don’t fully understand their pain, motivation, and desire for the future of their career, I will not be equipped to provide them with the individualized, consultative approach that I use with my candidates. I genuinely care about making a positive impact on their experience throughout the recruitment process and after they have accepted their role. APP recruitment can be different in the process with the level of credentialing and documentation required to get someone onboarded. Ensuring that I communicate effectively and efficiently throughout the entire recruitment cycle is crucial to ensuring a positive outcome for everyone involved. Communication, follow-up, and follow-through are all important pieces to the puzzle when it comes to the candidate experience." 

 

Q: What advice do you have for new healthcare recruiters? 

"Be empathetic, realistic, and educate yourself on the industry. Don’t make assumptions, ask questions, and communicate effectively. Healthcare professionals are a unique candidate pool in the sense that they care for patients and are in a clinical environment most of the time. Make yourself available based on THEIR schedule, sometimes that may require taking a call after hours or on a weekend. Build relationships, make connections, and foster those relationships. Healthcare professionals will be able to tell immediately if you are treating them like just another placement or if you genuinely care. Understand your audience and tailor your approach as such. Stay current on industry trends and shifts in the market!  You never know when you might have to pivot."   

 

Q: As we celebrate Healthcare Recruiter Day, we'd love to know something fun about you outside your professional life. Can you share a hobby, interest, or a story about your life when you aren't on the job?     

"Outside of my professional life, I enjoy spending quality time with friends and family, snowboarding in the winter, and being a beach bum in the summer. I am an avid Philly sports fan (Go Birds!), and I have a rescue dog named Prince who I love dearly."

   

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Peter Hladish — Managing Director, Perm & Interim Healthcare Leadership

9 years as a Healthcare Recruiter | 5 years at GHR 

 

Q: As a specialized healthcare leadership recruiter, what is unique about your recruitment process for these individuals, and what drew you to this area of healthcare recruitment?

"An individual may be a great fit for the role but may not align with an organization’s mission, values, or long-term goals. What’s unique about our process is creating a network of qualified candidates to fit the role, and then performing a deeper analysis of who best aligns with the organization. From there we then refer these individuals to our client partners. What drew me to this area of healthcare recruitment is the conversations I’m fortunate to have with some of the brightest minds in the healthcare industry. I enjoy learning from them, discussing the industry, and understanding what they want to accomplish in their careers." 

 

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being a healthcare recruiter, and how do you envision the future of healthcare recruitment evolving?

"What’s most rewarding as a healthcare recruiter is watching healthcare leaders continue to grow within our client partners and celebrating their 3-, 5-, and 10-year anniversaries with these organizations. I also enjoy hearing how rewarding their work is and the greater impact they’re having on their patients and outcomes. The future of healthcare recruiting will require healthcare recruiters to be able to provide more value to candidates and client partners through industry knowledge and experience, specialization and expertise will become more valuable."    

 

Q: How do you prioritize candidate experience in your recruitment process, ensuring a positive and seamless journey from initial contact to placement? How does this look different for your specialty in healthcare leadership recruitment?  

"I prioritize candidate experience by full transparency and communication of the process in their intake call, sharing all information I have on the client, hiring manager, and team. We then offer thorough pre-interview preparation and post-interview follow-up, ensuring the candidate’s and client’s expectations align through offer and acceptance. We stay in communication with candidates through their placement and thereafter. This process is similar to healthcare leadership with additional rounds of interviews." 

 

Q: What advice do you have for new healthcare recruiters?  

"New healthcare recruiters can find success focusing on several key strategies and best practices: 

1. Identify their specialty or niche and what roles they would like to focus on.
2. Understanding the industry by staying informed on trends, demands, and changes.
3. Build a strong professional network and an online presence through social.
4. Identify the top billers and emulate their work ethic, learn from them, and how they run their desk. 
5. Automate what you can and continue improving your process to increase production.
6. Treat your desk as your own business and build long-term relationships."

 

Q: As we celebrate Healthcare Recruiter Day, we'd love to know something fun about you outside your professional life. Can you share a hobby, interest, or a story about your life when you aren't on the job?     

"I enjoy traveling, spending time with family and friends, and spending our summers in Stone Harbor! Real estate has also been a longtime interest in both short-term and long-term rentals, an industry like healthcare that is always changing!"

 

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Sara Sprague — Senior Recruiter, Revenue Cycle Management

19 years as a Healthcare Recruiter | 11 years at GHR 

 

Q: As a specialized revenue cycle management recruiter, what is unique about your recruitment process for these individuals, and what drew you to this area of healthcare recruitment?   

"Revenue Cycle Management roles play a critical part in the hospital’s financial and operational efficiency by ensuring accurate coding and timely billing. I enjoy connecting individuals with opportunities where they can make a meaningful impact within healthcare organizations." 

 

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being a healthcare recruiter, and how do you envision the future of healthcare recruitment evolving?  

"Recruiting is about building relationships. Developing trust and rapport with candidates and guiding them through the recruitment process can be immensely rewarding, especially when I see them succeed in their roles and make positive contributions.  

Technology will continue to play a significant role in healthcare recruitment. This could involve the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline candidate sourcing, screening, and matching processes. Ultimately, providing an exceptional candidate experience will be critical for attracting and retaining top talent." 

 

Q: How do you prioritize candidate experience in your recruitment process, ensuring a positive and seamless journey from initial contact to placement? How does this look different for your specialty in RCM recruitment?   

"Clear and transparent communication, a personalized approach to better understand the candidate’s background, skills, and career goals, as well as providing continuous feedback." 

 

Q: What advice do you have for new healthcare recruiters?

"There are a lot of components within the RCM space - familiarize yourself with them and don’t be afraid to ask candidates questions if you don’t understand, they are the professionals in the industry doing the job and are usually more than willing to help."  

 

Q: As we celebrate Healthcare Recruiter Day, we'd love to know something fun about you outside your professional life. Can you share a hobby, interest, or a story about your life when you aren't on the job? 

"I enjoy spending time with family; especially with my niece, Olivia (19), and nephew, Aiden (15)."

 

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Michael Slattery — Managing Director, Acute Care Nursing Recruitment

3.5 years at GHR 

 

Q: As a specialized nursing recruiter, what is unique about your recruitment process for these individuals, and what drew you to this area of healthcare recruitment?   

"Recruitment for acute care is unique because no day is the same, it’s such a fast-paced industry and there is always a new urgent need we are pushing. I love it because it keeps the job fresh and intriguing, and I find myself excited to see what each new day brings."

 

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being a healthcare recruiter, and how do you envision the future of healthcare recruitment evolving?

"The most rewarding part about being a healthcare recruiter is being able to form a deeper relationship with the nurses. Getting to walk the nurses in on the first day and meet them puts a face to the name and helps me deepen our relationship. From there, the trust I have with my nurses is so strong, it’s so exciting when my nurses will call me randomly just to give me the good news of them buying a house, getting engaged, getting a dog, etc.  

I envision the future of healthcare recruitment to become more skill-based – all hospitals are looking for strong nurses that they can treat as part of their team. It’s been a great change to see how this has become the new normal coming out of the pandemic craziness."    

 

Q: How do you prioritize candidate experience in your recruitment process, ensuring a positive and seamless journey from initial contact to placement? How does this look different for your specialty in nurse recruitment? 

"I pride myself on doing whatever it takes to create the best experience possible for nurses in the recruitment process. Whether it be bringing a mask to the urgent care, helping them find housing, or meeting them on the first day, I always strive to go above and beyond to make their experience memorable, so they continue to extend through us. The overall aspect that goes specifically for acute care nursing is constant communication, any nurse you speak to always reiterates that the more communication the better!" 

 

Q: What advice do you have for new healthcare recruiters?

"The advice I have for new recruiters is don’t be afraid to make the call. There are so many instances that turn into learning experiences just because you put yourself out there and make the call. Calls are always better than texts. But most importantly when you are just starting don’t be afraid to ask questions."  

 

Q: As we celebrate Healthcare Recruiter Day, we'd love to know something fun about you outside your professional life. Can you share a hobby, interest, or a story about your life when you aren't on the job?   

"When I am not in the office I can be found at various sporting events, Sea Isle beach, running on the Schuylkill River Trail, or traveling – especially on a cruise.  

Fun Fact: I enjoy working at GHR so much I recruited my own brother to work for GHR, he joined our team last summer!" 

 

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Kirsten White — Director of Recruitment, Allied Health

7.5 years at GHR  

 

Q: As a specialized allied health recruiter, what is unique about your recruitment process for these individuals, and what drew you to this area of healthcare recruitment?   

"I knew I always wanted to be in healthcare at some point in my career, but I did not want to be a clinician. Allied health is the most fascinating business because it allows me to work with a wide variety of allied professionals which provides autonomy so we can never get bored. Every day is different; I am not spending my days working with the same specialty for every job order. I have become an expert in our various service lines that we specialize in." 

 

Q: What do you find most rewarding about being a healthcare recruiter, and how do you envision the future of healthcare recruitment evolving?     

"The most rewarding part of my role is knowing that I am finding quality clinicians to care for the patients.  I love helping candidates find their dream jobs by matching them with the perfect role that meets their needs and skill set.  

Over the past several years, I have helped hundreds of clinicians grow their resumes and get the most out of their licensure and/or certifications which makes them more marketable. It’s such a special moment for me when the clinician expresses how grateful they are for the opportunity I found them; especially when candidates have been trying to get into specific health systems and have not been successful on their own, and I’m able to help them get placed in their preferred hospitals. It makes me feel so good to see my candidate’s excitement when I give them the news that they received an offer. 

I also love building strong relationships with the clinicians I work with. I receive multiple calls each day from allied professionals who were referred to me by clinicians who I’ve worked with over the years. And, when I hear from clinicians that their experience with other agencies does not compare to their experience working with me/GHR because of the attention and customer service we provide; there is nothing more important to me than the candidate experience and reputation of GHR allied. Allied right now is booming which is extremely exciting. There are always waves with recruiting, but I can see this being consistent."   

 

Q: How do you prioritize candidate experience in your recruitment process, ensuring a positive and seamless journey from initial contact to placement? How does this look different for your specialty in allied health recruitment?   

"I love speaking with candidates in general, learning more about what they do, but most importantly I want to know what’s important to them when looking for a new contract. I also try not to be transactional, at the end of the day they’re people too! They want to work with someone who treats them with kindness and listens to them – not someone who just wants to make a placement. My candidates are experts in what they do but I am an expert in what I do, and I offer my expertise and knowledge in the allied health space, and I am always transparent with what is going on in the marketplace as it relates to their profession. Candidates want to work with credible, knowledgeable, and trusting recruiters who truly care. 

 

Q: What advice do you have for new healthcare recruiters?

1. Don’t be afraid of people saying ‘no’. Instead, ask ‘why’ so you have a better understanding, and this will lead to a ‘yes’ next time.
2. Texting and email are the way of the world now, but to build a long-lasting relationship with your candidate/client, you must pick up the phone and have a live conversation.
3. Don’t stress over things/situations you cannot control. Keep moving forward, stay positive, and always have confidence in yourself.
4. Move with urgency, the market is super competitive.
5. Go where the money is! Always go after ROI tasks first.
6. If you are lucky enough to be a part of a team like mine, I recommend working closely with your team members, leaning on one another for support and encouragement, having strong communication, and having fun while doing it!

 

Q: As we celebrate Healthcare Recruiter Day, we'd love to know something fun about you outside your professional life. Can you share a hobby, interest, or a story about your life when you aren't on the job?    

"The biggest fun fact is that I’m getting married this week! Outside of work, I love hanging out with my fiancé and our friends, going to the gym, planning trips (obsessed with traveling), and finding new spots for dinner and drinks." 

 

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