We are wrapping up our FIRST travel assignment in California and I'm pulling together all of YOUR questions into one spot for the ULTIMATE TRAVEL THERAPY Q & A...
Ok no but really - I thoroughly enjoyed reading through y'alls questions - if you have more just drop them down in the comments section - I am by no means an expert and am definitely still learning so take it with a grain of salt.
How do you find places to work and get contracts? How do you get started?
I work with a couple of recruiting companies who handle EVERYTHING: contracts, licensing, onboarding, pay, negotiations, setting up interviews, etc. etc. My first recommendation is to write out allllll your travel therapy questions and just talk with a recruiter.
Talking to a recruiter DOES NOT mean you have to do travel therapy or even use them. But it is a nice way to get some clarity and see what benefits different recruiting companies have. If you go to my home page and scroll down, you can input your contact info and I will email you the direct recruiters that I use (who are ALL amazing).
How long is your contract usually? GOOD LUCK!!!
THANK YOU! Most contracts are 13 weeks long - so just over 3 months. I've noticed that school contracts tend to be a little bit longer sometimes OR if you are considering a site in a more rural area. For example - a lot of contracts in Alaska at 6 months long because how far away they are.
Do you have to have a tax home?
Nope! We actually almost didn't have a tax home but after consulting the IRS website and a
tax lawyer, we felt comfortable having a tax home. General info about a tax home is a lottttt longer and I will have it's own post on that. Short answer: opting for a tax home allow you to have all the stipends and increased travel pay - but you don't HAVE to have a tax home in order to do travel therapy.
You had your dream job!! How did you have the courage to leave?
I don't know if it was courage necessarily - but I was at a point where I was tbh over working for a system and wanted to be able to cultivate new experiences that I just couldn't in my role. Don't get me wrong - I love all of my co-workers oh so much; and where I was was top notch. But I am excited to push myself outside of my comfort zone, challenge myself in new settings and places.
What variety of settings are offered?
When I tell you basically every setting...
The only one I don't see too much of is behavioral health/mental health or community practice but I have seen them! I'll be honest, a lotttttttttttt of the jobs are with skilled nursing facilities but there's also outpatient, inpatient, acute care, private practice, home health, schools, pediatrics, LTAC, hand therapists, etc.
Do you think waiting a few years out of school is better than right away? Do you recommend travel therapy for a new grad?
So for myself - I don't know how comfortable I would've been doing travel therapy as a new grad. I really loved having the mentorship that I did at my perm job to help me with the transition - and then I think having some years of experience under my belt allowed me to feel more confident going into travel therapy.
That being said I think it's TOTALLY doable to do travel therapy as a new grad (and there are plenty of people that have done that). Just know that it is expected that you jump right in quicker than a perm job. Most places have an orientation that usually lasts about a day and a half (my first assignment was a few days) but after that I started having my own patients that I was in charge of. Having already worked 3 years, that transition wasn't too shabby for me - but there's definitely a learning curve for the hospital layout, EMR, DME, etc which is going to vary from place to place.
Short answer: you can do anything you set your mind to - ask good questions, know the expectations, go after what you're passionate about and #GoBeOT
How flexible are recruiters to your needs in pay, hours and time off?
Not to be overly biased but I think I have the best recruiters - they basically go big or go home haha
Time off requests get submitted when you apply for a job and general rule of thumb is to submit those requests early. However, actual sites might be flexible to you having days off once you are there if you need it.
Pay ranges are set by the facility and there are multiple different ways to negotiate pay - like I said, my recruiters have worked really really hard to get me the best option. BUT remember that pay is still going to vary state to state and based on the setting just like it would in a permanent job.
Hours are also set by the facility and it will be written in the listing usually - sometimes it's 4/10's, 5/8's. It'll also say it hours expected are 40 hours or 36 hours (which is an important question to ask!)- we'll talk more about "guaranteed hours" in a separate post.
Do you get to choose geographic locations and/or types of settings?
Yes! There's basically a whole database filled with jobs and you can filter it out by setting or location. It's all up to you - some people have a certain area of the country they want to go to, some people want to chase the money and will go wherever the highest pay job is. The world's your oyster.
How did you decide on a company/recruiter?
By talking to fellow travel therapists! Two of my recruiters came recommended from friends from OT school that had been traveling already (and whose judgement I trust haha) and another came from a travel therapy influencer page (I'll make a list of all my favorites to follow soon!)
Have other questions? Or a follow-up? Let me know in the comments! Would love to connect with any other fellow travelers out there!
xx Taylor xx
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