When Robin Clark first started working at TRS Healthcare, the company hadn’t yet branched into travel nursing recruitment. That was more than two decades ago, and Robin has since celebrated 25 incredible years with the company.
During her tenure, she’s seen TRS Healthcare, the travel nursing industry, and her own personal life change in ways she couldn’t ever have expected.
Robin has always been a hard worker. When her son Lester was a child, she often worked two to three jobs at a time to be able to support him as a single mother. In addition to factory work, she held various certified nursing assistant (CNA) positions for more than a decade before moving to Northwest Arkansas in 1998, when she got her start with The Right Solutions (known today as TRS Healthcare).
Interestingly, her initial work with the company was not as a recruiter, but as a CNA. Robin moved around between several local facilities—primarily rural nursing homes—to support patient needs, and she immediately stood out as someone willing to go above and beyond for the sake of others.
Then, one day while at work, she slipped a disc lifting a patient. Despite never having met face-to-face, it was Diana Wright, founder of The Right Solutions, who showed up to take Robin to the emergency room.
Things took another unexpected turn when the doctor told Robin she would need to take time off from work. It was then that Diana asked Robin to join the company as a recruiter instead of as a CNA in the field.
Robin was hesitant, as she had never worked a desk job, but decided to give it a shot to continue providing for her family. One week of healing turned into three before she was ready to continue her work as a CNA. Diana asked if Robin could stay on as a recruiter, while offering her the freedom to pick up CNA shifts whenever she wanted. Robin accepted, which turned out to be fortunate and better for her back following another injury.
Recovery went smoothly, but after a 13-year career as a CNA, it was time for Robin to shift gears—and the perfect opportunity came when the company launched a new travel nursing team.
Twenty-five years later, Robin is one of TRS Healthcare’s top travel nurse recruiters, thanks not only to her strong work ethic and previous nursing experience, but also to her compassionate approach.
“I often tell my nurses, ‘Hey, you give care to people all day at work, then you come home and do it for your family and to any neighbor or friend who comes to you about some medical problem they have. You’re a caregiver. You take care of everyone, so I take care of you,’” explains Robin.
This outlook, she says, is key to being a recruiter. “You have to realize that, because of that nurse, you have a job. And everyone wants to be treated well. If you’re a good recruiter, you treat people the way they want to be treated.”
It’s also what Robin says she finds at TRS Healthcare as an employee, and why she’s here to stay.
“Recruiting is hard work, but I love what I do, and I love TRS,” Robin says. “I got to see the company grow from nothing to something. Someone once asked me if I ever thought about working for another company, and I said, ‘Why would I want to?’”
Robin has loved every day of work throughout her 25 years with TRS Healthcare. “There have been hard days, but that’s part of life. With TRS, we strive to make those hard days better, and our leadership understands the importance of the nurse.”
As for whether she’s ready to retire any time soon, Robin says there’s no chance.
“I’m a person who just has to keep going,” she adds.
When she isn’t working, Robin likes working in her yard, enjoying dinner with her family, and taking her granddaughter Presley on trips to Branson, MO. She currently resides in Fayetteville, AR with her wife, Bree, and their Havapoo, Lucy.
