It’s National Nurses week, so we want to focus on how we support nurses. Specifically, we want to recognize a few of our professionals that help with credentialing, recruiting and many of the other necessary services our team provides to travel nurses who are licensed nurses with years of experience as practicing clinicians. Today, we share the stories of five of our AHS team members who are nurses and use their experience to help our travelers further their careers, travel the world, and achieve their goals.
Natalie’s Story
Natalie Hill is Vice President of Credentialing and Quality Control here at AHS and brings with her several years of experience as an RN as well as in other roles in healthcare facilities. She has been in healthcare in some form or another since she started working at age 15, when she began as a medical records clerk in an optometrist’s office where her mother worked.
She says knew she wanted to work in healthcare and considered becoming a doctor at one point. However, she says she was drawn to nursing because nursing had the connection with patients that she wanted.
Natalie has been an RN for 18 years and has worked in a variety of different facilities. She transitioned to a leadership-focused role in nursing after being asked by someone who was like a mentor to her. She has 12 years of experience in this type of role.
Because her husband was in the military, they moved a lot, which allowed her to gain a lot of knowledge and experience at different facilities across the country. Eventually, she joined a staffing agency and says she “geeked out over staffing.”
However, working in a large healthcare staffing agency had her craving a more personal connection and a way to better impact change. She went searching for a position that would allow her to keep doing what she loved in an environment where she felt a tighter bond with her team.
Joining AHS
Natalie joined AHS and quickly found that it was exactly what she was looking for. She is so happy to be in a place where she feels like she can make real changes. One of her favorite things about AHS is the ability to be creative and try different things while not being afraid to fail. She says this is like a breath of fresh air after working in a big staffing company that felt more corporate than personal.
How Natalie Helps Travel Nurses
Natalie says her years of working as an RN and in various leadership positions in hospitals really helps her understand what travel nurses with AHS need. As Vice President of Credentialing and Quality Control, she is responsible for making sure that nurses and clinicians we place have the credentials and experience needed for each assignment so they can thrive in every environment we recommend for them.
Natalie sees her experience as a nurse as a huge benefit for her role here at AHS.
“I’ve been there and walked in those shoes of a clinician and I understand what that world looks like. I can speak that language and translate it to people who don’t understand that world.”
She mentions that one of the things she loved working as a nurse was the feeling of support among everyone in a healthcare environment, and she strives to bring that to her role as well. She wants nurses to know that she understands and really knows the inner workings of what they are experiencing.
Natalie’s Message for Nurses During Nurses Week
Natalie has a special message for nurses this Nurses Week. She says she understands that nurses all over the country have been through so much in the last two years, with everything changing so quickly before and during the pandemic. Here’s her message to nurses:
“Stick with it. We were all called to this for a reason.”
She says the thing about nursing and healthcare that she really loves is that there is something for everyone, whether you want to serve patients through bedside care or want to make a difference for other nurses like she does at AHS.
We love Natalie’s encouraging message for nurses and everyone in healthcare and are proud to have her on our team making a difference for travel nurses.
Kim’s Story
Kim Ladd is a Credentialing Specialist with AHS and offers 28 years of experience working as an LPN. Kim worked as an LPN in a hospital environment for years before her mother-in-law became terminally ill. To better take care of her mother-in-law and her needs, Kim moved from the hospital setting to being a school nurse to be close and available for her family.
When her husband was transferred to Nashville, she looked for a position that would allow her to work remotely. This eventually led her to joining the AHS family.
Joining AHS
Kim had been looking for a position for about three months that would fit her needs and skills. She found the AHS website one night and decided to reach out.
“I thought, ‘Okay, this is God sent, because I had been searching for a while and within three days I got a response from AHS.’”
Kim’s favorite thing about AHS is that she doesn’t feel alone. She says she was originally skeptical of working from home, as she might miss out on the connection she had with her colleagues and patients as a practicing nurse. She quickly realized that wasn’t a problem. She says she never feels alone and knows she can reach out at any time. Kim says she loves that everything at AHS is a group effort.
How Kim Helps Travel Nurses
As a Credentialing Specialist, Kim helps travel nurses make sure they have the credentials for each assignment, from obtaining a nursing license in a different state to any specialized training a facility might require for any given assignment. She says her experience as an LPN helps her a lot as she assists AHS travel nurses.
“I know what it takes to get somebody ready to go for a job. I know the things you have to have.”
We are so happy to have Kim on our credentialing team, helping travel nursing professionals with their dream jobs.
Nathan’s Story
Nathan Questelle is Senior Vice President of Client Services and has been a registered nurse since 1995. He has taken an amazing journey since his graduation 27 years ago, which has led him to our AHS family.
Nathan says healthcare was kind of like a family business for him, with many of his family members working in the healthcare field. His grandmother worked as a nurse for years and his uncles were doctors when he was growing up. He says he always knew he wanted to work in healthcare. He also always knew he wanted to travel.
After becoming an RN, Nathan was a traveling nurse for several years, including traveling with his wife throughout the Carolinas after they were married. In 2002, he started his own travel nurse staffing company with a colleague named Independent Healthcare Staffing.
Joining AHS
Nathan’s staffing company was acquired by Advanced Med in 2011, which then merged with AHSG in 2017. As such, Nathan has been a part of the AHS team for five years, though he brings with him over 20 years of experience in the travel nurse staffing industry, as well as his many years of experience as an RN and a travel nurse.
Today, he is Senior Vice President of Client Services and also still acts as a recruiter to over 20 travel nurses. Despite wearing these many hats, Nathan loves being able to get to know the nurses he works with and their families.
How Nathan Helps Travel Nurses
Nathan is happy to have all the experience he does, as he says it allows him to see things from everyone’s side and bring a unique perspective to every situation. One of his favorite things is helping travel nurses provide for their families.
“It’s knowing that you’re a step in getting what they need for their family. It’s looking at it as ‘Hey, this benefits your family the most.’”
Nathan is an important part of the AHS family and is deeply committed to serving our travelers.
Leann’s Story
Leann is Lead Credentialing Specialist at AHS and is an experienced RN, with her passion being labor and delivery. She became an RN in 2006 and was a practicing nurse for 14 years.
She says she loved labor and delivery so much that she would have worked without pay. Most of her experience as a practicing RN was in the L&D side, though she did practice in hospice for a period of time.
When COVID-19 hit in 2020, she realized she needed to step out of scrubs and explore different career options due to severe asthma. It was during this time that she found and became a part of the AHS team.
Joining AHS
Leann found AHS through her friend Tonya Thompson, Vice President of Human Resources at AHS. Tonya mentioned to Leann that they had an opening in credentialing and wondered whether she would be interested. Leann found that she had an amazing experience that led her to becoming Lead Credentialing Specialist for our team.
“I just fell in love with the people at AHS, and I tell you that is my favorite thing about AHS – the core values and the way people live them out every day from the top to the bottom. That’s what keeps me going.”
She says that she loved nursing, but really fell in love with the core values at AHS and how we all treat each other like family.
How Leann Helps Travel Nurses
Leann draws on years of experience as a nurse to help guide traveling nurses through the credentialing process. She is happy to be able to help nurses, facilities, and patients by helping travel nurses as they take assignments all over the country.
“I can’t be doing the patient care right now, but I can get really good people out there doing it.”
Leann says she is happy that she can affect so many patients and families by helping travel nurses get their credentials ready for assignments where patients who need their care. We are glad to have her on our credentialing team, making a difference daily for our travelers.
Victoria’s Story
Victoria Anania is a Credentialing Specialist here at AHS and offers several years of experience in healthcare. She became a CNA at age 18, received her LPN license by 20 and began working in a skilled nursing facility. She continued to work in healthcare throughout nursing school before becoming an RN and practicing in hospitals, primarily in surgical and cardiology units.
When her husband joined the military as a pilot, they had to move based on where he was stationed, including to Texas and then Louisiana. When Victoria and her husband welcomed their first child, she realized she wanted a position that would allow her to work from home while caring for her baby.
Joining AHS
Though Victoria wanted to work from home, she loved the idea of still having a connection to healthcare and continuing to work with nurses. When she found AHS, she knew this was the perfect place for her. She loves being able to help other nurses and bring her valuable experience to the table to help with all the credentialing needs of our travel nurses.
How Victoria Helps Travel Nurses
Victoria’s number one focus is to make credentialing as simple and convenient for travel nurses as possible. She says her experience gives her an added layer of perspective that is helpful for understanding what travel nurses are going through and what they really need.
“I feel like I can be sympathetic to their situation. I always try to be available, respond right away, make sure they have what they need. I try to make their life a little easier.”
Victoria thinks she can help nurses better because she has experienced firsthand what it’s like to provide patient care and be on the front lines in healthcare as a nurse. She understands that travel nurses are often going to facilities that desperately need their services and she is here to help make that process as smooth as possible, which is exactly why we love having her on the team!
AHS: A Team that Understands You
When you work with AHS to find your dream job, you know that you get a team of professionals that truly understands you. Many of our experts are nurses and have years of experience at the bedside, just like you! We know about the joys and the challenges of nursing and use that knowledge to help you pursue your dream career as a traveling nurse. Discover a community that really appreciates and supports you when you work with AHS to find assignments tailored to you and your goals. Get in touch with a recruiter now to start looking for your next job!
