After working in a smaller town in South Carolina, I was ready to move on to a bigger city. I applied for my Massachusetts physical therapy license and was ready to interview for a job in Boston!  Exciting, right? The only problem was that this job started 6 weeks after my job in South Carolina ended. I wanted the job in Boston, but also knew I wasn’t ready for a 6 week vacation. So here again is where the flexibility of traveling healthcare can be really beneficial.  I told my recruiter and we began reaching out to places that had contracts that had been open for awhile and may be…

There are partial truths to this common con.  Yes, you won’t be building a patient population, creating relationships with referrals, or getting your name out their in a community.  But to say that you aren’t developing as a clinician, therapist, nurse, etc. isn’t true.  I feel that every assignment that I have taken, I have significantly developed in my communication skills and adaptability. Think about it, you are working with brand new patients, colleagues, and staff every 13 weeks. You are forced to quickly adapt to any situation and build relationships very quickly.  I have felt like I have improved my overall care with my patients as a direct result of traveling. …

This can definitely be hard and is probably one of the greatest challenges of traveling healthcare.  It just isn’t for everybody.  The first week is always the hardest as you are meeting new colleagues, meeting new patients, learning a new documentation system/clinic flow, all while moving into a new place which means unpacking, figuring out your commute, where you will get groceries, workout, and explore. Sounds exhausting, right?! Well truly it isn’t as scary as it sounds. A New Job and Staff At some point, all of us have started a new job, traveling healthcare is no different.  Every place you go to will have some form of an orientation…

Vacation Time Actually, most companies do offer some vacation accumulation. But, yes, sadly the vacation time does not accrue nearly as quickly as a full-time healthcare employee.  However, I argue that this whole experience is a vacation in itself.  Even though I am working, I have always felt like I am on vacation while I’m traveling as most weekends I usually have a trip, event, or something different to experience.  Even on week nights, your commute is new, your housing is new, your community is different, and your whole routine is changed.  So that alone can be a vacation in itself. Accumulating Vacation Time To give you an idea of how vacation time accumulates,…

As you have probably heard, there are some cons to traveling healthcare or as I like to call them, barriers to entry.  As with all barriers to entry, there are often ways to remedy these or better explain these barriers to increase ones understanding or decrease their fear. I hear many fears from other healthcare professionals who are thinking about traveling, and often times these fears tend to be more of a misunderstanding than a fact about traveling healthcare. Don’t get me wrong, there are some cons or work requirements that don’t appeal to everyone, but if it was all easy, everyone would do it. Finding Short Term Housing I get asked…