To say that things have changed a lot since we began our travel therapy journey in 2015 would be an understatement. Starting out as new grad travelers back then, there was limited information available on the internet to help us figure everything out. There weren’t the “social media influencers” of today. We had to learn a lot of things “the hard way,” such as choosing travel therapy companies and recruiters to trust, figuring out how to handle our job searches, applying for all of our state licenses, and managing all of our credentialing documents.
Fortunately for new travelers starting in the 2020’s, things have come a long way. Not only are there many experienced travel therapists such as ourselves out there to teach you what we’ve learned along the way, there are new and innovative technologies available to travelers to help make our lives easier!
One of the new technologies that we love is Kamana, which offers a secure digital wallet for travelers to keep up with all of their important credentialing documents, as well as allows travelers to safely send their entire profile to any recruiter at any company. Kamana’s goal is for us travelers to have one universal profile that will be accepted by all travel companies, instead of having to fill out separate ones when we work with different agencies! Best of all, their services are totally free for travelers. As financially savvy travel therapists ourselves, we love tools that don’t cost us anything and make life easier!
Understanding the Credentialing Process
If you’re new to the travel therapy world, you may not yet be aware of all the different credentialing documents you have to keep track of as a travel healthcare provider. If you’ve been in travel therapy for a while, you may already have developed the frustration of trying to keep track of everything.
As a traveler, here are some of the things you’ll need to maintain:
- Resume
- References
- State licenses
- CPR certification
- Specialty certifications
- Copy of driver’s license
- Copy of Passport
- Annual physical exam
- PPD tests
- Vaccine records
- Drug screens
All of these need to be kept up to date, and you need to have them easily accessible in case you need to send them to your recruiter when searching for a new contract, or often to a different recruiter if you decide to search for jobs at another company on your next contract. The recruiters need these documents in order to keep your profile up to date and submit you to jobs. Often, hospitals and other facilities won’t accept your application if these documents aren’t up to date.
When we first got started as travelers, one of our recruiters recommended keeping a physical binder/folder with all of our documents that we could carry around with us from assignment to assignment. We actually still have this old school, 2015, over-stuffed and mangled file folder, and truly have carried it everywhere. But in reality, where you need those documents is not in physical form, it’s in digital form. So at some point or another, we’ve taken photos or scanned these documents, saved them to our computers, uploaded them to email, and sent them to everyone and their coworker.
Looking back now, this seems so archaic. Not only is it an absolute mess to keep track of everything in these various physical and digital folders, but it’s also not secure at all. We should not be emailing or texting these important, sensitive documents back and forth, knowing that these forms of communication are not very secure.
Luckily, we now know that there is a better way.
Streamlining the Credentialing Process with Kamana
Here is how you can utilize Kamana to make this process easier and more secure:
- Create your free Kamana profile here
- Fill out your profile with your demographics & information
- Upload your credentialing documents to the secure digital wallet
- Keep all your files here for easy access (you’ll know where to find them instead of hunting them down next time!)
- Watch your email for updates on expiring credentials so you won’t forget to renew something important!
- Choose to send your full profile to your favorite recruiter(s) with one click, so they can receive it via a secure link, not regular email
- Choose to send your limited profile with only some of the information to recruiter(s) who are new to you and you’re not sure if you want them to have access to everything yet (also sent via a secure link)
- Let your recruiters know you’d rather send information this way if at all possible to keep it secure, and let them know they don’t have to register or pay to use Kamana in order to receive the file
Moving the Travel Therapy Industry Forward
As experienced travel therapists, we are so excited to see companies innovating and pushing our industry forward. We are so glad that the founders of Kamana, one of whom was a travel nurse himself, are finding ways to use technology in order to make all the processes easier for travel healthcare providers. That way, we can focus on doing what we do best: providing great care to our patients and exploring the country along the way, without having to get bogged down by all the logistics! We can’t wait to see what else is to come in the future with healthcare staffing technology!
Fellow travelers: have you started using Kamana yet to manage your credentials? Let us know in the comments! If you have any additional questions about Kamana, feel free to message us, or visit their website at kamanahealth.com to learn more!
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This post was sponsored by Kamana Health. All information is original and reflects authentic viewpoints from Travel Therapy Mentor.
