“Eat, Drink, and Be Kerry” – Kerry Sirkka on Healthcare Staffing’s Inflection Point

Podcasts

We first met the fabulous Kerry Sirkka, Chief Recruitment Officer at Medical Solutions and executive alumnus of AMN, Intelycare, and more, two years ago at SIA’s Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference. We threw a dinner party, affectionately known as a RefAssured Supper Club, with other beloved RATE guests like Joyce Russell, Jeff Bowling, and Kerry Perez, and couldn’t have had a more enjoyable evening if we tried.

Fast forward and we’ve had the privilege of meeting up with Kerry several times and having a chance to learn from her infinite wisdom and naturally sharp gut instinct on everything from the way that healthcare staffing technology should be designed to how we collectively motivate the travel nursing workforce. Always thoughtful and reflective as a leader, Kerry was on our list as an ideal guest to put 2026 into a crystal ball for healthcare staffing and draw conclusions from the past 20 years to predict the multiple ways things might shake out moving forward.

This conversation with Kerry covers:

  • The changing nature of nursing demographics, based on brand new MedSol proprietary research, including that 40% of RNs plan to leave the workforce in the next five years
  • How COVID permanently raised client expectations for speed and resource delivery
  • The post-COVID emphasis on stringent regulatory compliance and labyrinthine onboarding processes that has made that tacit expectation of speed even harder to meet
  • The swing-back of the pendulum from purely hands-off technological interactions into warmth, relationship-building, trust, and  rapport in recruiting
  • How staffing agencies can be strategic in navigating challenges in client demand, requirements complexity, candidate engagement, and siloed operations that slow down hiring and compress margin

Check out the full episode below or on Apple Podcasts.

Apple Podcasts listener? You can find the episode (and subscribe to Ref Around the Edges) here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-17-kerry-sirkka-eat-drink-and-be-kerry/id1796224051?i=1000754881437