How to Use Boolean Searches for Healthcare Recruiting

If you are in the medical staffing field, you know how hard it is to find great physicians and other healthcare professionals. Consider using Boolean searches in Google. You’ll find a whole new group of resumes.

Boolean Basics

A Boolean search uses one of three operators AND, OR, NOT as the basis to include or exclude certain results. We focus on OR in this article. Capitalize the operators. When we used lowercase operators in the sample strings listed below, they did not work in Google.

There are two other conventions you need to observe when conducting a Boolean search. The first is to put a choice between two similar terms in parentheses. If you are searching for gastroenterologists, you want to phrase it in a Boolean search as (gastroenterologists OR gastroenterology) to get the right results. The second convention is to put quotation marks around two words that go together. If you are recruiting for a family medicine practice, include the choice of (“family medicine” OR “family physician”) to target the right candidates.

Searching for Resumes 

Here are the basics.

1. Target resumes- Make sure you start each Boolean search with:

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume)

This choice searches for results where the word resume is in the title or the url of the web page. 

2. Specify specialty- If you are recruiting for a family physician, mention the job title in your string. Also, consider that resumes with the phrase family medicine might fit your needs. It looks like:

(“family physician” OR “family medicine”)

3. Eliminate the Irrelevant- Google searches can bring up a lot of irrelevant information. Jobs, samples, and resume services will dominate your first page of results if you do not eliminate them. Use minus signs to exclude extraneous materials. The blog the Boolean Black Belt recommends subtracting these phrases for a better performing string:

-job -jobs -samples -template -"resume writing" -"resumes services"

*Special note- Make sure you put a space between the end of one word and the minus sign that is ahead of the following word.

Put it all together and you have the following string:

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) (“family physician” OR “family medicine”) -job -jobs -samples -template -"resume writing" -"resumes services"

When you put it altogether, great results pop up!

Refine Your Search

Once you master the basics of Boolean Searches in Google, you can refine your search by location. Say you want to find Internists located in the Indianapolis, IN area. Consider that Internist and Internal Medicine are two phrases relevant to this type of search. Add them in parentheses. It will look like:

(“Internal Medicine” OR Internist)

You can use that existing string and add the area codes and the state to target Internists in that area. The search for resumes of Internists in the Indianapolis area looks like:

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) (“Internal Medicine” OR Internist) -job -jobs -samples -template -"resume writing" -"resumes services" (317 OR 463) (Indiana OR IN)

You might find that you are getting the resumes of RNs or Medical Assistants who work in Internal Medicine practices. Refine your string some more to eliminate them by pointing out that you want MDs or DOs. The string will look like:

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) (“Internal Medicine” OR Internist) (M.D. OR D.O.) -job -jobs -samples -template -"resume writing" -"resumes services" (317 OR 463) (Indiana OR IN)

Other Sample Strings 

We at HospitalRecruiting.com want to make sure you can quickly apply your new knowledge. Here are some strings to help get you started.

To find psychiatrists, type this string in the Google search box:

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) (psychiatry OR psychiatrist) -job -jobs -samples -template -"resume writing" -"resumes services"

For plastic surgeons, here is a samples string:

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) "plastic surgery" -job -jobs -samples -template -"resume writing" -"resumes services"

For pediatricians in Illinois, type:

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) (MD OR DO) (“pediatricians" OR "pediatrics") -job -jobs -samples -template -"resume writing" -"resumes services" (Illinois OR IL)

Boolean searches are not only for doctors. If you are a Nurse Recruiter, looking for qualified candidates in California, use:

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) (“Registered Nurse” OR RN) -job -jobs -samples -template -"resume writing" -"resumes services" (California OR CA)

Always remember to put a choice in parentheses such as (Ohio OR OH) and use quotation marks around two words that go together such as “orthopedic surgeon” to make your searches efficient. You can experiment with Boolean strings to find great healthcare candidates for no extra cost.

Now that you've mastered the basics of Boolean search for healthcare recruiting make sure to check out part 2 of this series which offers detailed instructions for more advanced searches: https://www.hospitalrecruiting.com/blog/3966/how-to-use-boolean-searches-for-healthcare-recruiting-part-2/.