For over six years, Riley Blanton has written stories about mental health, women’s rights, as well as pregnancy and postpartum. She is passionate about maternal mental health and founded the site, Postpartum Brain, to educate and encourage people about perinatal mental health. Riley’s articles are published in verticals like Healthline, Motherly, and more. Read more of her work on perinatal mental health here.
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Axis Medical Staffing Travel Nurse Agency
We recommend Axis Medical Staffing because of its accessibility, beneficial pay structures, and reliable, considerate recruiters.
Does not list pay ranges
60-day enrollment period for insurance benefits
Axis Medical Staffing Travel Nurse Agency
Founded in 2004, Axis Medical Staffing is one of the oldest agencies in the industry, but the agency has one of the more creative marketing and branding approaches. Between calling their nurses “rockstars,” allowing users to search for “gigs,” and referring to recruiters as “talent scouts,” the agency creates an enthusiastic atmosphere for healthcare practitioners looking for adventure.
Travel nursing agencies work with hospitals or clinics to provide temporary staffing from their directory of healthcare practitioners. Typically, these locations face a shortage of nurses or other practitioners. We reviewed Axis Medical by doing independent research and interviews with current and past employees. The details that follow are based on factors like benefits offered, ease of job search, reputation, and customer service.
Axis Medical Staffing is a medical staffing agency that offers per diem staffing, contract assignments, and direct-hire positions to health practitioners looking to travel throughout all 50 states. Ryan Skjonsberg and Adam McKinnon wanted to start a travel nursing agency that ran differently, and they founded the Seattle-based company with that goal in mind. However, they have yet to detail what “differently” means. The agency does not have a specific mission statement but rather emphasizes its determination to prioritize adventure, not waste your time, and limit the amount of required paperwork. They mention they want to put in the “legwork other agencies weren’t,” such as directly visiting placement sites.
Although their reach has yet to expand internationally, health practitioners who have used the agency speak highly of their experiences. Axis caters to a wide range of travel nurses, with 26 specialties highlighted, including cardiology, corrections, dialysis, hospice, mother/baby units, oncology, triage, and more.
The homepage for Axis Medical Staffing contains dark shades of red, immediately drawing your attention to its white-colored logo and the words “Rock Stars!”—a label meant to bolster their travel nurses. You will find two action item options on the homepage: apply to the agency or search gigs they offer. While these are clear calls to action, the overall site is not as user-friendly as its competitors. The menu options are confusing and repetitive, and use agency-specific jargon, including "Not to Brag But…“ and "#Rockstars.” All this may be overwhelming and potentially offputting to a prospective travel nurse researching agencies. That said, the agency’s unique branding is consistent and adds a personal touch.
It is worth noting the homepage took about six seconds to fully load. As I navigated their menu options, multiple pages were also slow to load. In addition to their homepage, the website contains a page on their COVID-19 Crisis Response, pages to apply or search for travel nursing jobs, a contact form to speak with one of their nurses, resources pages, blog posts, and a page outlining the agency’s recognitions.
Prospective employees cannot create an account on the website. Instead, they must apply for an available contract and wait for a recruiter to reach out to them. The inability to create an account along with the agency’s limited search filters can create a complicated, and perhaps limiting job search process.
Prospective employees can search for travel nursing jobs on the website prior to applying to the agency, though Axis’ search filters are lacking. You can only search based on keywords, profession, specialty, zip code, and state. Once you enter the search criteria, a list of relevant contracts appears on the left-hand side of the webpage. Each dark gray box contains the profession, specialty, and city of the contract in white-colored font, which can be difficult to read. Users must scroll down the page to the list of gray boxes. After clicking on one, a brief description of the job is displayed, including the requirements, profession, specialty, city, and shift length. Below each job description, prospective nurses will find information about Axis Medical Staffing, such as their benefits and awards.
Once you find a contract and description that interests you, you can fill out the application for the agency. When applying to Axis Medical Staffing, you are prompted to enter your name, discipline, specialty, and contact information, as well as upload a resume. A recruiter, or talent scout, will reach out to you after submission to set up a call.
“During the initial call, we ask several questions to get a sense of what’s important to the candidate, and make sure that we are a fit for them, and they for us,” explains Director of Recruitment Charity Crawford. “Our goal is that travelers will want to work with us long term and feel confident referring other clinicians to us. The way we do that is to build trusting, supportive relationships with our travelers.”
That said, the company did not confirm a timeframe for expecting to hear from a recruiter.
Language preferences are not built into the search filters. In fact, languages are not specified on the job listings at all. Practitioners will have to reach out to a recruiter and ask if they have a preference for a language besides English. I reached out to the company to ask if their recruiters or customer service representatives speak any other languages. A company representative confirmed they have one Vietnamese-speaking recruiter and one Spanish-speaking recruiter.
If your initial recruiter is not a good fit, Axis Medical Staffing confirmed that switching recruiters is easy, though they did not detail the process.
While the agency does not specify the contract pay on their website, upon further research, we estimate a weekly range of $3,000–5,000 for nurses. This range is on par with other agencies, but those other agencies are more upfront about their pay. With Axis, users must have a recruiter and inquire about each job in order to learn how much it pays as well as other benefits offered. Pay ranges are not built into the search filters of the site.
That being said, the company does offer benefits such as health insurance (including dental and vision), bonuses, overtime, and per diem pay, and notes those benefits on its website. Weekly direct deposit payments are also part of the deal, as are personalized housing options that are paid by the company—including the fee to keep a pet if applicable. Finally, Axis offers a company-matched 401(k), reimbursement for the costs of state license reimbursement, transportation stipends, and funds for continuing education courses. It’s worth noting, however, that there is a 60-day enrollment period for healthcare coverage.
Additional benefits provided include referral bonuses and education reimbursements. Their referral bonuses are estimated at around $1,000. The agency also offers continuing education reimbursements but does not specify the topics. Overall, the benefits provided by Axis Medical Staffing are on par with similar staffing agencies.
Axis Medical Staffing keeps their staffing within the United States and potential locations for their employees include all 50 states. In our research, there appears to be a wide range of availability across each state with no noticeable gaps. For example, in North Dakota, there were over 40 available contracts in eight different cities at the time of writing.
The company states that they use the recruit’s preferences to help narrow down and decide locations for a particular assignment. based on the recruit’s preferences. Charity Crawford adds, “We tend to get a lot of interest from candidates who enjoy outdoor activities, fun and hip city life, [and] adventure seekers, etc. who want to explore more of that part of the country.”
The company has an informational blog with articles that highlight specific cities where Axis nurses can be placed, as well as nearby travel destinations that might be of interest. The blog promotes the series Traveler of the Month, where it spotlights one travel nurse a month. The featured nurse discusses the city they are located in, their specialty, and how they started traveling as a career. The information appears minimal, though.
Axis’ Live Like A Local blog series provides nurses with a list of landmarks and activities near each city Axis Medical Staffing sends practitioners. For example, in one blog post, nurses in Cheyenne, WY, are encouraged to visit the Wyoming State Museum and hike the Snowy Range Mountains. While these posts seem helpful, they are equivalent to quick lists on TripAdvisor or other travel websites. There is nothing particularly unique to travel nursing within the Live Like A Local posts.
Other agencies that offer blogs, like Triage Staffing, write about topics relevant to travel nursing, such as how to navigate different charting systems or tips on choosing urban or rural locations. While Triage also highlights the various cities a nurse might be assigned to, its posts include restaurant and lodging suggestions in addition to tourist activities.
Axis maintains an active Facebook page with over 11,000 likes. It posts once a day Monday through Friday, highlighting personal photos from nurses and awe-striking photos of travel destinations. Even with a large following, however, there is little engagement with their posts. The agency shares the same photos on its Instagram page, which has a presence of nearly 1,500 followers. Both social media followings are below average compared to the pages of other travel nursing agencies, which is interesting since Axis is one of the oldest agencies.
Although their overall reviews are positive, Axis has no explicit mission statement or statement of cultural competence. “We welcome healthcare professionals from all backgrounds and walks of life,” says Crawford. “Diversity is celebrated and encouraged.” The response appears vague, failing to detail specific ways the company prioritizes support of various racial, ethnic, religious, or cultural backgrounds.
It’s also worth noting that, when skimming the first few pages of Traveler of the Month blog posts, little racial or ethnic diversity is evident. For example, men appear in the series but mostly when a heterosexual couple is deemed “Travelers of the Month.”
Axis Medical Staffing is useful for an assortment of medical practitioners, with contracts in all 50 states ranging between eight and 26 weeks in a wide range of specialties. The agency offers positions at a variety of facilities, such as correctional institutions, school districts, acute care facilities, government contracts, and medical device organizations. They provide opportunities other than travel nursing assignments as well, such as per diem staffing or direct hire positions.
The agency can benefit both early-career and more experienced medical practitioners due to its variety of specialties and widespread location options. Employees can stay in a placement long term through direct hire positions, or they can complete a minimum eight-week shift in multiple cities. The company prioritizes its recruits and seeks to provide contracts that best fit the wants of its recruits.
That said, it’s not easy to search for a specific career option or a specific location type. In order to get more information on available staff positions, you must speak with a recruiter, and to do that, prospective recruits need to fill out a contact form and upload their resume. While it’s an extra step, the quick connection with a recruiter or a customer service representative adds a humanizing element to the process and gives interested medical practitioners the chance to ask questions and have them answered on the spot.
The agency has more positive employee reviews on sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, and Facebook than other similar travel nursing agencies. Current and past employees describe the recruiters of Axis Medical Staffing as responsive, patient, knowledgeable, and collaborative. Still, it’s important to keep in mind the biases that might appear on third-party review sites.
Axis Medical Staffing stands out from its competitors in its brand messaging and reliable recruiters. The agency values its “rockstar” employees and focuses its attention on positive recruiter relationships and considerate customer service. Its limited approach to diversity and the confusing job search process is concerning. And slow site speeds may also hinder users' experience.
Although the website leaves room for improvement, their healthcare practitioners appreciate the personal approach to travel nursing and managing contracts. As Crawford puts it, “[Axis] understand[s] that to grow and be successful, [they] need to be responsive, transparent, accountable, and caring.”
Our methodology for evaluating travel nursing agencies is data-driven and based on many factors, including website usability, the onboarding process, states served, benefits offered, compensation, and reviews from travelers who have worked with the agency. We use publicly available data to assess ratings, as well as data provided by the companies themselves.
Reviews from third-party websites, company history, social media use, and transparency of the job search process were all considered. We also reached out to nurses who have worked with the company to gather first-hand experience. Furthermore, we contacted representatives of the agency to ask about the process of working with a recruiter and to learn more about what sets them apart from other agencies in the industry.
By Riley Blanton Riley Blanton is a graduate student therapist and writer with three years of experience in the perinatal mental health industry.
Ally is a senior editor for Verywell, who covers topics in the health, wellness, and lifestyle spaces. She has written for The Washington Post, The Guardian, BBC Future, and more.
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