Students & Travelling PT?

Just starting out as a traveler? Traveling questions or experiences to share? Here's the place.
wellhelloitsdan
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:21 pm

Students & Travelling PT?

Unread post by wellhelloitsdan » Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:28 pm

Hi,

Long time listener, first time caller here. I was just wondering if you have any advice for a young, handsome PT student like myself. I'm considering spending a few years as a travelling PT after graduation. My interests are mainly related to neurology, but it's not like I can do a clinical rotation with a travelling neuro PT so I don't really know how to prepare. Or what to expect.

Any thoughts or advice that you'd like to share would be most welcome.

Cheers,
Dan

KtVi
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:59 pm
Location: USA

Re: Students & Travelling PT?

Unread post by KtVi » Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:00 pm

wellhelloitsdan wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Long time listener, first time caller here. I was just wondering if you
> have any advice for a young, handsome PT student like myself. I'm
> considering spending a few years as a travelling PT after graduation. My
> interests are mainly related to neurology, but it's not like I can do a
> clinical rotation with a travelling neuro PT so I don't really know how to
> prepare. Or what to expect.
>
> Any thoughts or advice that you'd like to share would be most welcome.
>
> Cheers,
> Dan

Hello, Dan!

Thank you for your question. As a graduate PT, you should be looking for a job that provides mentorship, a steady patient load, and of course, good pay. With traveling PT, you can certainly find a job like this, it just takes some work and interview skills. When I graduated, I was encouraged by my professors to have a year or two of experience in the field of my choice before becoming a traveling PT, so that is what I did. I have since met several travelers who are exceptional PTs and who did not do this, but started traveling right out of grad school, and it has been smooth going for them for the most part. Therefore, my first suggestion is to assess whether you are confident enough in your PT evaluation skills and treatments to take a job where you may not have the mentorship that you could have in an entry-level position. Traveling PT positions are often very good, supervised jobs where you are able to seek out mentorship, however, there are the exceptions, and some expect you to hit the ground running and you have to just deal with it. You can learn a lot about what a job will expect from the interview. Please see another of the posts on this board about interview techniques and ask any questions you'd like from that. As far as specializing in a certain area of PT while traveling, in your case neurology, that is more difficult. It is not impossible, but you will have to be more flexible in your time frame for starting contracts if the jobs are not available right when you are ready to start. I am an orthopaedic clinical specialist, but I split my time between outpatient ortho and home care, because it is too difficult to find ortho jobs for each assignment. If you have another area that you are interested in and may help you in the area of neurology, such as inpatient acute, it would be wise to open your options to those settings for your initial job searches. Traveling can be a very exciting profession, and I'm glad that you are interested. Good luck and please ask any and all questions that you may have in the future!
Kate L. Violette, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS

wellhelloitsdan
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:21 pm

Re: Students & Travelling PT?

Unread post by wellhelloitsdan » Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:07 pm

Hi Kate,

Thanks for your response - I hadn't really thought about the mentorship aspects of travelling. I was just wondering, did you pursue your OCS while you were travelling, or beforehand? I saw the "OCS" after your name :)

Cheerio,
Dan

Jimebob
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:54 pm

Re: Students & Travelling PT?

Unread post by Jimebob » Sat Dec 18, 2010 11:50 am

Hey Dan, I'll answer!

I too have my OCS and pursued it while doing travel PT. I also originally graduated with my MSPT and got my tDPT while traveling.

I think these two things have been huge in my development as a PT. As a traveler, you don't always have direct mentorship where you are working. Afterall, we're all temporary employees, so it's tough to build those long-term mentor-mentee relationships in the clinic.

In my mind, a traveler needs to be capable of is self-motivated learning and career progression. Otherwise, it's easy to let your professional development sit on the back burner unchecked.
James R Spencer, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS
Current location: Kona, HI

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