Travel Medical Technologist Named Allied Achiever
Like many healthcare professionals, Sherry M. is driven by the desire to help people. She’s the kind of person who has made it her mission in life to use her skills and abilities to help others as a clinical lab scientist. She revels in it, in fact.
And her colleagues and supervisors have noticed. As a travel medical technologist with Club Staffing, Sherry never stays in one place for too long. Yet managers at her assignment facilities often try to convince her to stay after seeing what she can and does bring to their organizations.
In fact, Sherry’s reputation as an excellent worker and a great team player is so well-known that the Club Staffing recruitment team voted her as the winner of the agency’s Allied Achiever Award. Winners of this award consistently go above and beyond in the course of their work throughout the year—and that describes Sherry in a nutshell. Her selection coincides with this year’s National Allied Health Professions Week, which takes place November 6-12, 2022.
“I’m honored that I’ve been recognized by my peers and colleagues,” Sherry says. “I’m thankful for them telling me that I’m doing a good job.”
How Sherry became a Travel Medical Technologist
Sherry has logged 32 years in this field, so she’s learned a few things along the way. In addition to her many years as a medical technologist, she’s also been a quality assurance manager and a laboratory supervisor for a diagnostics lab. She’s always found a way to keep moving, to keep learning, and to keep growing.
“You have to broaden your horizons,” Sherry says. “Doors won’t open for you unless you open them for yourself.”
And for Sherry, that included traveling. She became intrigued with travel medical technologist jobs in 2015. The idea of being able to do the work that she loves, using the skills that she’s honed, while also traveling was irresistible. Plus, her son was grown, so she didn’t have to worry about arranging care for him.
“I thought, I can travel around and see the world,” she remembers. “I can see new places and meet different people and help those people, too. I said that would be absolutely ideal.”
She tested the waters, so to speak, with her first assignment as a travel medical technologist not far from her home in Kentucky. Since then, she’s worked with Club Staffing, taking travel assignments in North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Washington, DC, and most recently, Arizona.
Since arriving at her current assignment in Phoenix, she has already attended a wine festival, enjoyed a jazz festival, and enjoyed dining at countless restaurants—and she’s still making plans for the rest of her assignment. The hospital recently asked her to extend her commitment, so she’ll be staying through April, which gives her lots of time to explore and have fun during her time off work.
Sherry’s also grateful for the opportunity to make new friends in her assigned cities. “I’ve met a lot of good people that I’ve connected with and stayed connected with over the years,” she says. “That’s been a blessing, too.”
The verdict: a big thumbs up for the healthcare traveler lifestyle. It allows Sherry to work, explore, and even take a little time off around Christmastime to enjoy the holidays at home with her family and friends.
Advice for Allied Health Travelers-to-be
Sherry’s advice for people who are weighing the benefits of taking a medical technologist travel job or another assignment in the near future: just do your best, starting the moment you arrive on the job. Remember that your presentation matters. How you comport yourself when you walk into the lab or clinic will tell others a great deal about you and set the tone.
“You have to go in there without the mindset that you are a godsend,” she says. “You have to be a good worker. You’ve got to go in there and work just as hard as they’re working.”
She also advises would-be travelers to be open-minded and flexible—and to always be prepared for the unexpected, just in case. She once arrived in Atlanta for a new travel assignment, thinking that she would be working at a hospital but wound up in a position at a cancer center. “But I learned from it, and it was a good experience,” she says.
Sherry has learned another important lesson that she can share: you must know yourself and discover your passion before you can truly reach your potential. For example, she knows that helping people motivates and energizes her, and she lets that guide her.
“You don’t become who you are unless you learn who you are first,” she says.
Want to Explore the Traveler lifestyle?
Check out a wide selection of travel medical technologist jobs with Club Staffing, or learn how to get started as an allied health traveler.