Email 3/3/14

Email:

I have long thought about traveling. I first want to thank you for sharing your experience in your blog; it is so helpful to read and get information from your experience.

The question I am debating is whether I should wait to travel until I have a few more years of experience. I graduated and completed my CFY at the VA hospital working in a combination of acute/outpatient setting. My thoughts go back and forth between building a better foundation of skills and feeling as though there is no better time than the present to travel. A concern I have is being placed in a setting I am not confident/qualified in working in. Do you have any thoughts that may be helpful? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Response:

Thanks for reading our blog! I’m glad to hear it has been helpful and informative.

You have a great question. I think your decision comes down to the types of facilities in which you would like to work. Do you just want to work in hospitals or are you willing/comfortable to work in SNFs right now as well? Do you want to work with pediatrics? That opens the possibility of pediatric clinics and schools. The more facilities in which you are willing to work, the easier it will be to get assignments. However, I think the majority of travel assignments are in SNFs so as long as you are comfortable working in the environment you will be able to find assignments.

A traveler is expected to hit the ground running when they start a new assignment. If you lack confidence in your clinical skills, it will be more difficult to pick up on the other stuff (e.g. documentation system, navigating the facility, remembering patient plan of cares, etc). For me, I was glad to have a few years of experience under my belt in a variety of facilities. It definitely gave me the confidence to jump right into an assignment. Having a good amount of experience also allowed my travel company to charge a higher bill rate for my services (i.e. I made more money). On the flip side though, I recently spoke with a travel speech therapy who stated her goal for traveling was to work in as many new facilities and gain as much new experience as possible. Prior to traveling she only had SNF experience and she was able to land a school position. It really just comes down to how confident you feel in your own clinical skills and if you would be comfortable being the only clinician in a facility. If you are confident in your skills and the timing is right in your life I say go for it! If the thought of being the only clinician concerns you, then maybe you need to continue at your permanent position to gain more skills and confidence. If you do decide to wait on traveling, I would recommend picking up a PRN SNF position so that you can put SNF experience on your resume.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have anymore questions. Have a good night!

Email 2/9/14

Email:

I got your contact info from advanced medical’s website. I am thinking about traveling as a SLP and would love to get your insight/thoughts about it. It is something I have always thought about doing, but am a bit hesitant venturing out alone and adapting to multiple work environments. A friend of mine may be interested in joining me, but not relying on it. How did you get involved with travel work? How many years did you have “under your belt” as a SLP before you began traveling? Were you able to get jobs in your desired location? Are the benefits as good as they say on the website (i.e. Pay, housing, health insurance,etc.)? What have you found to be the pros and cons? Any piece of advice is truly appreciated:)

Response:

I’m more than happy to answer your questions. 🙂

I had heard about travel therapy when I was in undergrad and thought it was interesting. About 4 years into working and being married, my husband and I were kinda bored but didn’t know what we wanted to do next. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law started travel nursing around that time and it resparked my interest. After a lot of soul searching and research my hubby and I decided to uproot and start traveling.

I was an SLP in an acute care hospital for 4 years prior to traveling. At this facility I worked in the pediatric outpatient clinic, adult acute care and pediatric acute rehab unit.

With regard to desired location, do you mean city/state or facility? I had some states that I definitely wanted to hit but overall I was pretty flexible about where I went. I was also flexible about the type of facility I worked at. This enabled me to fulfill my highest priority which was to have continuous employment throughout the travel experience. When I first spoke with my recruiter DJ, I asked him where the most travel jobs were. He told me that the following states consistently had travel assignments: Indiana, Texas, Washington, California, Pennsylvania, Florida. I wanted to go west so I got licenses in California, Washington and I got Texas as a back up.

Pros: Traveling the country/visiting cool locations, meeting new people (everyone I’ve worked with has been so welcoming), learning new therapy techniques

Cons: Finding out about your next assignment often goes down to the wire (I signed one contract for the next assignment the last day of my current assignment), if you source your own housing it is a lot of work, general stress with starting a new job

This isn’t a con per se but you definitely have to be flexible. You have to have some idea of a game plan but you also have to be willing to throw that plan out the window at a moments notice. You have to realize that there are so many therapy techniques out there and  yours isn’t always the “right way”. You have to be willing to learn and grow.

I hope that helps. Please feel free to email me with any other questions. Have a good night!

Email reply:

What made you choose Advanced Medical opposed to another company? Does Advanced Medical give any stipend for food? As for location, I guess I was thinking both city/state and location. Since I am open to going anywhere, just wanted to see if there were any spots you recommended. Does it take awhile to get license for other states? Will Advanced Medical pay for licensure, CEU and/or ASHA fees? What were questions you asked when researching companies?

Response:

I chose Advanced Medical for a couple of reasons. First, I was told to look for a mid-size travel company (too small and the company may not have enough resources, too big and I may get lost in the shuffle). Advanced Medical was a mid-size company and they only worked with rehab therapists which I liked. I felt by only working with rehab professionals, they had a better idea of what my day-to-day challenges would be. I liked how they told me they strongly adhere to IRS guidelines for taxable rate and stipends. The last thing I want is to get audited by the IRS. Finally, and my main reason for going with Advanced Medical, was that I trusted my recruiter DJ. I felt like he was always being honest with me and he never tried to sell me on something he couldn’t deliver. I would get the “vacuum salesman” vibe from some of the other recruiters and it didn’t sit well with me.

Advanced Medical does give out a Meals and Incidentals stipend which is calculated per IRS guidelines for the location of your assignment.

When you get a recruiter, I would talk to them about what states have a lot of travel assignments. If you’re willing to go anywhere, then I would get a license in some of the states that have frequent traveler needs. In terms of specific locations, we loved the San Francisco bay area so if you’re interested I would definitely try to get an assignment there. We also loved our time up here in Washington. This assignment is my last one because we are moving back to Indianapolis for my husband’s job. If we were still going to travel, I would still want to go to southern California and Colorado. My husband wanted to go to Oregon, Idaho or Utah but those states don’t have many traveler needs so I don’t know if I would have been able to get assignments there.

The time it takes to get a license from another state varies. Washington takes at least 3 months but Texas took 6 weeks. California was only suppose to take 8 weeks but since I applied from out of state it took longer. Each states’ website should tell you the estimated time for an application to be processed. Your recruiter should know about how long it takes as well. For me, I felt comfortable getting 3 state licenses all at once in hopes that I would get to use them all. I wouldn’t do more than 3 at a time because if you got more, you would stand a good chance of having to renew a license that you hadn’t even used yet.

If you get a license for travel purposes and have an assignment in that state, then Advanced Medical will reimburse you for the license cost. But you won’t get the reimbursement until you’ve worked in that state (it’ll come with your first paycheck from that assignment). Advanced Medical will not cover ASHA fees. They will sign you up for SpeechPathology.com for CEU’s if you request that during an assignment. The downside to that is most of the CEUs on Speech Pathology.com are considered “self-study” and most states will only let you have up to 8 hours of your required CEUs be self-study. Therefore, you will have to go get other CEUs on your own time and on your own dime.

Here are some of the questions I asked when interviewing recruiters:

– How long have you worked at your company?

– Where do you have assignment contracts (coast to coast or regional)?

– What are the benefits (PTO, insurance, CEUs, license reimbursement)?

– What housing options are there? Do you find housing for me or do I source that on my own?

– What type of facilities do you contract with?

– Who can I call if I run into a challenge? What if its midnight?

– What is the protocol if I need to end an assignment early?

I’m glad this information is helpful. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Email 2/1/14

Email:

I’ve been an SLP for 2 years now working at a school and doing PRN work at a SNF. My friend has been talking with you about being a traveling SLP, and she got me interested in it. I’m engaged and my fiance doesn’t really enjoy his job and is doing some career searching, and we are considering doing this traveling SLP thing for at least a year. I wanted to ask you a couple questions if you had time. Your blog looks SO interesting and exciting.

1. Do you, for the most part, get to pick when and where you want to work?

2. I want to see if I can get my first position this  July-Oct. in Wichita (where I live) b/c our wedding is in Oct. I wanted to try and end it a few days before our wedding and take 2 weeks off to move and for our honey moon and then start our second contract. I didn’t know if you could even chose things like this or if it’s even possible. I was just wondering if you could give me a few ideas on if this will work with the timing and all, b/c I can’t go without having a job for 3 months, since my school contract ends in August. I saw that there is an opening in Wichita, but I couldn’t start until June and/or July.

Thanks so much!

Response:

I’d be more than happy to answer your questions!

1. I can usually pick when or where I want to work but typically not both at the same time. A high priority for me was to have continuous employment. Therefore, I was very flexible about what type of facility I was in. Regarding geographic location, Kyle and I had some states that we definitely wanted to hit but overall we were pretty flexible about where we went. When I first spoke with my recruiter DJ, I asked him where the most travel jobs were. He told me that the following states consistently had travel assignments: Indiana, Texas, Washington, California, Pennsylvania, Florida. Kyle and I wanted to go west so I applied for licenses in Washington and California and got Texas as a back up. If you’re wanting to go to states with frequent travel opportunities you’ll have more luck than if you want specific cities or states with low traveler needs. With that being said, travel opportunities are always changing. A recruiter will try to find assignments in your desired locations.  So in other words, having flexibility will make your life a lot easier and continuous employment more certain.  The pickier you get, the tougher it will be to move from assignment to assignment without gaps in employment (which comes at a cost, not only in having no income but also with losing health insurance, etc. – see below)

2. It’s definitely possible to get a job in Wichita. Most assignments are 13 weeks long which won’t take you the entire duration of your ideal time frame (June/July-October). That being said, I’ve been offered extensions at every assignment, so you may be able to cover that duration in one extended assignment. The other thing to consider is that if a facility doesn’t need you, they can end your assignment early with a 30 day notice (that has never happened to me).  Just as an FYI, you can also cancel any assignment with a 30-day notice if it is written into your contract.  So it’s a two-way street.

Also, you won’t be able to plan that far in advance for a travel assignment. When facilities are looking for a traveler, most of them are needing someone to start in a week or two. The only facilities that plan farther out are schools, and they won’t be looking for therapists to start in July. If you don’t mind waiting to start your first assignment until August, this could work out for you (It also might help with keeping you employed up to your wedding).  If you are wanting to start an assignment in July, recruiters won’t start looking for positions until the middle of June. You will need to be ok with waiting that long to find out if you have an assignment.

Another thing to consider with taking three weeks off between assignments (for your wedding, honeymoon, etc.): most travel companies will only provide health insurance and other benefits across a two-week gap between assignments.  If you go longer than that, you will not have health insurance.  And obviously, anytime you are not working in an assignment, you are not getting paid.  You are paid VERY well during assignments, though, so with proper budgeting that isn’t as big of a deal.  I have taken up to a week off between assignments to accommodate cross-country moves, but I have never gone longer than that.

*Some other food for thought: My brother-in-law and sister-in-law were travel nurses and they started right after they got married. They completed 2 assignments, approximately 6 months, before they decided to stop (originally they planned on traveling for 2 years). They felt that they had extra stress on their marriage because they were not only newlyweds but they were also dealing with the stresses that come with traveling. In hindsight they would have waited a year after marriage to start traveling. (I also have to say that this was my sister-in-law’s first relationship/boyfriend/fiancé/husband and she had a lot to learn about relationships. They also only knew each other and dated for about 2 years before they got married. I know those factors can play into the success of a relationship and traveling).  I am not discouraging you at all…just wanted to be thorough and provide as much of a heads up as possible.  My husband and I have gotten along great through this traveling career (as you know, he was looking for a career change as well).  But getting married for us was not much different than when we were dating, so there wasn’t much of an adjustment period.  Traveling comes with some extra stressors, so I guess I would just say make sure you and your future husband are on solid ground and have great communication.

I hope this helps. Reading back through, I feel like my email sounds a bit pessimistic. I’m not trying to negative at all.  I love the traveling career and all the opportunities and experiences that it has provided.  My husband and I will be settling back down and staying put as of this summer – he is starting a new career.  But it has been an awesome time and I suggest it to anyone.  The pay is great, but the expenses are high.  I might discourage anyone wanting to do it just for the money.  The logistics are complicated and make it very difficult to spend money efficiently.  But if you are looking to see some different areas of the country and explore, it is an awesome career.

If you have any other questions I would be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.  Thanks for reading our blog.  It makes me really happy to hear people benefitting from it.  Also, congratulations on your upcoming wedding!!!

Email 1/20/14

Email:

It looks like we would start traveling in August/September…what were the first steps you took in advance? Should I at least just contact a recruiter to start building a rapport with them? Should I also start applying for state licenses now?

As for your income, has it depended on what state your in? Are you happy with the benefits? Do they pay for housing each month?  James, being an accountant is very financially savvy as well. Since there is a possibility he may not be working at every location we could be in, we want to make sure we can stay afloat with just my income.

We currently have a house that we just paid off this month so for now, we plan on selling a lot of stuff and will find a renter while we are gone. We have a lot of family members who are landlords around Wichita so they will be able to help with upkeep of the house if needed while we are gone.

Do you know where your headed next?

Response:

If you’re going to start traveling in August/September, then I would start interviewing recruiters around June. #1 I have the impression that recruiters have a high turn-over rate and you wouldn’t want to start building a relationship with someone and then 3 months later they leave before you can even start working with them. and #2 If you get your name to them now, they will call incessantly until you take an assignment. I told DJ I wanted to start in January and he was presenting options to me with November start dates. No fault to them, they’re just trying to make money for you and their company. I think 2 months is enough time to pick a recruiter/company  and build the necessary rapport before your first assignment. 2 months will give you plenty of time to complete all the initial paperwork.

Another thing I would do is check on when your CPR renewal and TB testing are due. Its better to get those done early and before you start traveling (if appropriate) than to wait until they are due.

I would start applying for licenses in May. The sooner you apply for them, the sooner you have to renew them. It would suck to have to renew a license you haven’t used yet. May to August would give you 3 months which is plenty of time for most licenses. The only one that I would say apply for now would be California (if you want to go there). Since you will have to turn in traditional fingerprints, the process will take a lot longer than their typical estimate.

My pay has been dependent on the location and my experience. I was paid the least amount at the nursing home because I didn’t have any experience. My current job is paying me the most because 1. I have a lot of experience in outpatient peds clinics, 2. This is my 4th assignment and so I am use to jumping in right away. The benefits are decent. I have a couple of regular prescriptions and go to the MD for my yearly physical but other than that I don’t use my health insurance. The free continuing education is somewhat nice but I wouldn’t get it every time. That’s because most of the sessions offered are “self-study” and most licenses only allow you to count up to 6 hours of “self-study” courses.

The company will either source housing for you or give you a housing stipend. If they source housing for you, they take money out of your paycheck. We found we could make more money by finding our own housing. The housing discussion goes hand-in-hand with how you are paid (taxable rate vs. stipends). That is better explained via a phone conversation as I don’t think many recruiters explain it well. Let me know if you would like that.

We don’t know where we will be heading next. My husband has decided he wants to go into teaching and has accepted a position with Teach for America in Indianapolis. His training starts in the summer. We will either take one more travel assignment or we will head back to Indianapolis and I will take a permanent position.

Regarding when we find out about the next assignment, it really varies. I’ve had anywhere from 2 hours to 30 days. It’ll never be more than 30 days. One of my assignments, I ended on a Friday afternoon and signed my contract for the next assignment that morning. We drove 30 hours and I started the following Wednesday. 🙂 But I really wanted continuous employment and its all I could get at the time.

I hope this helps!

Email 1/14/14

Email:

I am a speech therapist. Since I graduated, I have worked in a skilled nursing facility for almost two years and also work as a PRN SLP at a rehabilitation hospital.

My husband and I were recently married this October. We have both lived in Kansas our whole lives and want to do some traveling. I started searching the web and came across your blog. I have enjoyed learning your story and reading about your adventures. I love how you have had very different assignments- the diversity of our field is one of the major reasons I wanted to become an SLP. I think it would be wonderful to gain experiences in different settings with different age groups.

That being said, I will reach my two year mark in May and then was thinking we could start traveling in July/August. What steps can I take now to make this adventure happen? Should I apply for different state licenses? I have contacted Advanced Medical for more information. Overall, have you been pleased with the company?

Any information/advice you can provide would be great whenever you get a chance!

 

Response:

Sorry it has taken me a couple days to get back to you. I’m excited to hear you are interested in traveling! It has been a great experience for my husband and I. I have loved working in a variety of settings across the country. I have learned a variety of new therapy approaches, which has increased my flexibility as a clinician.

Here are some things you may need to consider before starting to travel:

1. Possessions: Kyle and I had a fully furnished house before traveling. We decided that the best choice for us would be to sell the house and liquidate most of our possessions. Everything we own either fits in our Subaru Outback or is in our closet size storage unit back home. At first it was VERY hard to let go of the things we acquired but looking back it was a very freeing process. You won’t be able to take everything with you so you’ll have to decide what to do with the items you won’t/can’t take. A major priority for us was to take our “toys” (e.g. bikes, golf clubs) so that we could enjoy the places we were living.
2. Housing: We sold our house early to make sure we got rid of it. Thankfully we sold it in 2 weeks so we lived with my parents for a few months before traveling. We now use their address as our permanent address. If you have a house, you’ll want to think about selling it vs. renting it. If you’re in an apartment, you’ll want to consider when the end of your lease is and how that will impact when you start traveling.
3. Husband: Prior to moving, my husband was an engineer and hated it. He knew he wanted a career change but didn’t know what he wanted to do next. We decided that it would be a good time for him to quit engineering to do some soul searching. We decided that Kyle would try to pick up temporary or odd jobs while we were traveling for extra money. We had determined that we would be able to financially live on my income alone so that we would not worry whether or not Kyle would be able to find a job at each location. And it’s a good thing we knew ahead of time we could live on my income alone. In some locations, Kyle had no problem finding a job while in other spots, he couldn’t find anything. You’ll want to have a conversation with your husband to decide how traveling will impact his career and how he will spend his time while you are traveling. (*Side note, I have always called Kyle my “financial and logistics manager” because he kept track of how much each relocation cost, found all our apartments, set up and cancelled all utilities, planned each move, etc. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without him fulfilling this role.)
4. Transition costs: We have found it takes about a couple thousand dollars to transition from one location to another (Disclaimer: we made big cross country moves). This money covered costs such as: gas, hotels, security deposit on apartment, first trip to Wal-Mart for food, etc. I would save some money before traveling to put towards moving to your first location. (Most of the time you will get a travel reimbursement check with your first pay check at a new assignment. We typically saved that money to put towards the next move).

To answer your second question, I would DEFINITELY apply for licenses to multiple states. Kyle and I had some states that we definitely wanted to hit but overall we were pretty flexible about where we went. I was also flexible about the type of facility I worked at. This enabled me to fulfill my highest priority which was to have continuous employment throughout the travel experience. When I first spoke with my recruiter DJ, I asked him where the most travel jobs were. He told me that the following states consistently had travel assignments: Indiana, Texas, Washington, California, Pennsylvania, Florida. Kyle and I wanted to go west so I applied for Washington and California and got Texas as a back up. I applied for all of them before I started traveling knowing there was a chance I wouldn’t use all of them. I was willing to take that risk in order to increase my chances of continuous employment. Some states also take a long time to process licenses and I didn’t want to miss a job opportunity because I didn’t have my license yet. My risk paid off because I have had continuous employment and I have been able to use all of my licenses. When you decide on a recruiter, I would ask them what states have frequent travel postings. Based on that information and your desired locations, you and your recruiter can decide where and how many licenses to start with.

I have been very pleased with Advanced Medical and in particular DJ my recruiter. He has always been upfront with me regarding expectations. When interviewing different recruiters with other companies, I felt like a lot of them were promising the world and that made me skeptical. I don’t know how the other recruiters are at Advanced Medical. Another thing I like about Advanced Medical is that they structure your pay so that you don’t send up red flags for the IRS to audit you. I have heard of other companies that give you such a low taxable rate that it makes the IRS raise some eyebrows (if you want me to explain the pay structure further, let me know). My one complaint with Advanced Medical is that whenever I have paperwork due (CPR renewal for example), I get about 3 emails from 3 different people in the Quality Assurance department asking me for the same documents. It’s like these people don’t communicate with each other. It can be frustrating. However, my biggest complaint is that they are overly thorough in making sure I’m up to date with documentation… it’s not THAT bad.

I hope this information helps. Please feel free to contact me with any other thoughts or questions. I’m more than happy to help a fellow SLP and potential traveler. Good luck with your decision!

Email 7/28/13

Email:

I actually came across your blog when I was researching traveling companies. I am currently completing my first year/job as a SLP. I’m moving out of my apartment in Houston and have contacted numerous companies, Advanced Medical being one of them. I was just emailing to see if you have any advice for a newbie that is in the beginning stages of transitioning to a travel therapist’s life:-)  Any advice/tips big or small would be greatly appreciated. I will keep exploring your site in the mean time:-)

Thanks!

Response:

Sorry I just now got your email. It’s been a few days since I’ve checked it. I’m actually getting ready to put a blog post up about tips for new travelers. Here would be a couple of my top recommendations for you right now:

– I’m glad to see you have contacted numerous companies. I would recommend going with a company/recruiter you trust and who didn’t give you the ” car salesmen” vibe. I’ve said it multiple times on my blog but I have loved working with DJ at Advanced Medical. He is a straight shooter who has set realistic expectations from the beginning. Sometimes recruiters will promise the world but fail to deliver. DJ won’t promise the world but promises to do the best he can. That’s all you can really ask for from a recruiter.

– If you’re planning on traveling outside of Texas, I would consider maintaining multiple licenses simultaneously. And start getting your licenses early, even if you’re not planning on using them right away. Texas is a good state to have your license in because they tend to have a lot of travel needs so you can (almost) always have a back up.

I’ll post more tips on my blog later this week. Feel free to contact me with anymore questions. Have a great week!

An update…

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted on our blog. Life has definitely changed! Kyle and I stopped traveling in April and moved to Indianapolis so that he could pursue a teaching career. He is now an 8th grade Algebra teacher working with Teach for America. I am working at an elementary school as well as First Steps (Indiana’s early intervention program). We loved our time traveling and would definitely recommend it! We miss the West coast but we’re glad to be close to family again.

Throughout our travel experience, SLPs have contacted us asking different questions about travel therapy. I am going to post these emails as well as my responses. Hopefully these will help someone in their decision making process. If you have more questions, please feel free to reach out to me. I love talking about my travel experience 🙂 I feel very fortunate that I love my job and my career so far. I’m excited to see what the future holds!

Dirty Thirty Celebration

Last week I achieved a new milestone- I have reached my 30s! To celebrate, Kyle and I went across the border to Vancouver. Even though the weather didn’t cooperate, we had a great time! We went to the art gallery and visited a local brewery. Saturday night we went snow shoeing which was awesome! We hiked up to a lodge where we had chocolate fondue and listened to a local band. It was a great way to ring in my personal new year.

This week Kyle is LA for a buddy’s golf trip with his dad. I have two weeks left here in Washington then we will be on the road again! I’m getting excited for the next move and new adventure.

Portland

This past weekend we ate, drank and walked our way through Portland, Oregon. It was a blast! The city seemed safe, easy to walk around and relatively clean. The food was awesome (especially Voodoo donuts) the breweries were cool and the people watching was second to none. We also had an opportunity to hike in the Columbia River Gorge just outside of the city. Bauer had a great weekend too. He got to hang out with his good friend Greta (our dog sitter’s furry friend). For those of you in need of dog sitting, check out www.dogvacay.com. They have listings of local people willing to host your dog while you are out of town. 

Golf in December

We really cannot complain about the weather in the Pac Northwest.  Last weekend Mandy and I were able to get 18 in and stay relatively warm and dry throughout.  Not bad for the middle of December!  Here are a couple pictures, showing the deer on the course and an awesome vantage point of Mount Rainier in the distance.

Deer in the backswing

Mount Rainier