Laura: Thank you so much, great to be here. I am really excited to share with you how to get paid to travel in this crazy world of travel occupational therapy, which I really love. Travel OT is pretty different than a permanent job, so be ready to take notes. We are going to go through all the steps to get started.
Who Am I?
Figure 1. Pictures of Laura's travel.
I have been a traveling occupational therapist since I graduated. I have done it for six years now, and it is the only world I have ever known. I happen to love this industry. I like adventure and seeing new places. Typically, in this industry, travelers will settle down after about two years. I have done it for quite a long time now, and in that time I really learned the ins and outs of how this works. It is really fun for me to now take on a role of giving back, and teaching new nomadic therapists how to get started, some things to watch out for, and talking about the good with the bad so you get the full picture. I love mentoring travelers, and I am really excited to be here to teach you guys. My passion project, nomadicare.com, is where I have a lot of great resources for new travelers. I also interview recruiters and put them through a vetting process to see if they know how much I know in order to guide new travelers. Do they really have the integrity to pay you what is fair? If they make my list, I am a recruiter matchmaker and can pair you with the ones I think are really good.
Basics
Why is travel occupational therapy needed?
Figure 2. An overview.
Hospitals, clinics, home health agencies, or outpatient agencies may have real need for a traveler and someone to come in and treat patients quickly. We cost these hospitals and clinics quite a bit of money, and so usually when they want us it is because we really need to go in and help them out over a short time period for a huge spike in census as an example. They do not want to hire a permanent person, but need someone for a short stint, like 13 weeks or six months. They decide to pay extra and get traveling OT. Another example might be a maternity or paternity leave. They know that they want to bring the mom or dad back so they will hire a traveler to cover that time. There are a few different reasons someone would hire us, but typically it is to be a bit of band-aid and a short term solution. This is especially true when a hospital or clinic is already swamped and do not have time to search for an OT. They decide to go through a middle man like a recruitment company.
The hospital or clinic, with an opening, goes through a middle man or a recruitment company. This middle man will talk to the people that need travelers (hospitals, clinics, etc.), and then we talk to them. They bridge that gap for us. When we go to these recruitment companies, we tell them exactly where want to go, not the other way around. For example, I might go to them and say, "I really want to go to Colorado next." They will then go into their database and look up all the needs they have in Colorado. If you become a travel OT, the power is in our hands. We get to say yes, or no; they do not tell us where to go. They are the job database.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when you go to these settings as a travel therapist. First of all, you have to have some empathy when you go in to a hospital or clinic and not discuss how much you make with the permanent staff. It is a very quick way to ruffle feathers and to not make friends. If you were a permanent staff member and a traveler came in and started talking about how much more they were making, it would not make you feel good as you are doing the same job. Now there is a reason that we make more and it is justified which we will talk about later. It is just something to keep in mind. The other piece to that is that the hospitals have very high expectations of us. If we are making all this money, they want us to come in and see patients straight away.
