>> What is a Travel Physical Therapist?
What is Physical Therapy Travel?
There are many benefits for PTs working as a traveling therapist. Opportunities include outpatient clinics, hospitals, private practices, home health agencies, schools, and skilled nursing facilities, allowing you to test out a work environment before committing to a full time position. Start your adventure today!
Practices require temporary coverage for multiple reasons such as:
- Vacation coverage for solo PT or a small department in any of the previously mentioned facilities
- Continuing medical education
- Unanticipated medical emergencies
- Family medical illnesses
- Practice expansion that is not yet sufficient to cover a full time person or if a group wants to test the waters to see if the need is truly there
Short-term positions (several weeks or months) also let you “interview” a practice that might be a good permanent fit for you. Since your life is more than work, extended work assignments allow you to assimilate into a community and see if it is a good fir for you much more than a 2 day interview could.
Additionally, as a traveling therapist you get to learn how different venues handle similar problems, business practices, marketing and all the other parts that make up an effective practice. This will give you a tremendous amount and breadth of experience that not only will others not have, but will improve your problem solving and management potential. With more than 20% of therapists owning their own practices or being a partner in a physical therapy practice, being a traveling therapist may give you the skills needed to be your own boss, start your own entrepreneurial adventure, or simply be the managing partner of a small group.
Alternatively, temporary work assignments allow you the freedom to fulfill a passion for travel, scale back your current practice, or participate in social causes important to you. Traveling therapists can also enjoy the benefits of higher income potential. Traveling physical therapists and assistants have a tendency to be paid more than their static therapist counterparts.
