Travel Physical Therapy – What You Need to Know
Becoming a traveling physical therapist is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The travel PT lifestyle has brought more fun, lifestyle flexibility, and financial freedom into my life than I ever thought was possible.
Throughout the last three years as a travel PT, I have:
Paid off my student loans
Gotten married to the love of my life
Gone on a nine-week honeymoon to Southeast Asia
Taken extended periods of time off to travel the U.S.
Built and paid off my first home – our beloved campervan
And had the absolute time of my life
On top of that, I’ve been constantly pushed outside my comfort zone, both personally and professionally. I’ve grown into a completely different and more confident person and clinician – and I mean that in the best way possible.
None of this would’ve been possible without travel physical therapy.
This travel journey has changed my life in ways I never could’ve imagined.
And I'm ready to pay it forward. Which is why I’m here to help you!
My goal with this series of travel physical therapy blog posts is to cover what you need to know about travel PT before getting started so you can decide if it’s right for you.
My goal with this series of travel physical therapy blog posts is to cover what you need to know about travel PT before getting started so you can decide if it’s right for you.
And if you decide it’s right for you – I'm SO HERE FOR IT! I’m so excited to help you learn how to become a traveling physical therapist and then help you thrive in your role!
Be sure to catch part two of this blog post series here – Travel Physical Therapy – What You Need to Know, Part Two.
If you're here, you're probably wondering…
Well, you better buckle up, because I’m about to drop some knowledge.
I'll answer each of these questions and drop some pro tips in each section with nuggets of wisdom and action steps that will help you get started on your journey.
A quick note: I’m going to be specifically referring to travel physical therapy throughout this blog. But much of this information applies to other travel healthcare professions, including travel nursing, travel occupational therapy, travel speech therapy, travel physical therapist assistant, travel occupational therapy assistant, and beyond.
What is travel physical therapy?
So, what does a traveling physical therapist do, anyway?
The day-to-day isn’t all that much different than a full-time staff (what us travelers call “perm”) PT position. I wake up, commute to work, treat patients, document, then commute home. Rinse and repeat until “it’s the freakin’ weekend, baby I’m about to have me some fun”.
But the overall lifestyle is definitely different. As a travel PT, your contracts are typically 3-6 months (13-26 weeks) in length. As a travel physical therapist, you’re filling in at facilities across the country that have a staffing need.
One of the main differences between perm and travel PT is that we switch jobs on the regular. Travelers must be flexible, adaptable, and ready to learn on the go. Every 3 months, we learn a completely new system – a new electronic medical record, new coworkers, new buildings/units, new team dynamics, etc. And usually with a week or less of orientation. So yeah, we work our tails off….
While we’re working, at least. 😉
Another big difference is time off. As a contractor, you can take as much or as little time off as you wish in between contracts. This is amazing because you’re not bound to the constant grind and the typical 2 weeks off per year that we Americans are all too familiar with.
…You’re not bound to the constant grind and the typical 2 weeks off per year that we Americans are all too familiar with.
But the time off isn’t the only great thing about travel physical therapy…
Skip posing on his last day of travel physical therapy assignment #3 with his coworkers in 2019
How much does a traveling physical therapist make?
Interested in paying off your student loans quickly? What about an auto loan? Credit card debt? A mortgage?
If so, travel physical therapy may be a great option for you. A bigger paycheck is one of the many big benefits of travel physical therapy.
I was able to pay off my student loan debt just 1.5 years after graduating – after 1 year as a perm PT and ½ a year as a travel PT. Shortly after that, we were able to afford a nine-week honeymoon. Then, I was able to pay off my wife and I’s first home – our beloved campervan – a short six months after buying it.
A travel physical therapy salary and a minimalistic, frugal lifestyle are what made it all possible.
Get this – working full-time, I make roughly the same amount weekly as a traveler that I made bi-weekly as a perm PT.
Get this – working full-time, I make roughly the same amount weekly as a traveler that I made bi-weekly as a perm PT.
I’ve made anywhere from $1,725 to $2,700 gross weekly take-home pay as a traveler. Amazing, right?! And I know many travelers who’ve made even more than I have!
Travelers generally make more because we earn tax-free stipends, AKA per diems, to cover housing, meals, and incidentals. It’s important to note that in order to legally accept these tax-free stipends, you have to follow specific rules to maintain a tax home. DISCLAIMER: Since I’m no tax expert, check out Travel Tax to learn more about your per diems and maintaining a tax home.
Keep in mind, your pay range will differ based on what geographical region you’re working in. I’ve worked mostly in California, where pay rates tend to be higher due to the high cost of living, which translates to a higher housing stipend.
If you don’t qualify for a tax home, you can still be a traveling therapist, but your full income will be taxable. But in most cases, you’ll still make significantly more than you would in a staff therapist role. So don’t count the option out if you don’t have a tax home!
PRO TIP: Establish your tax home before you get started traveling. If you don’t follow these rules and end up getting audited by the IRS, you may end up owing a ton of money later on! Setting it up beforehand will save you a lot of time and stress in the long run.
Our pride and joy. Our first home. Our self-built campervan, Beverly Ann the Van. We bought her as an empty cargo van & built her into a tiny home on wheels.
What settings can I work in and where can I work as a traveling physical therapist?
You can work in any setting and in most states as a PT traveler. I’ve worked in outpatient, acute care, and inpatient rehab as a traveler, but there are tons of home health and SNF jobs as well.
When choosing a contract, the three main aspects you’ll have to weigh against one another are:
Setting
Location
Pay
My wife and I’s initial “why” for traveling for the first 2-3 years was location, location, location.
We had said at first that we were going to travel for 1-2 years (HA! which is now laughable), so we wanted to see and experience new things every weekend.
Since location was our main priority, I was more flexible on setting and pay to land jobs in dope locations.
Our more recent “why” has evolved into pay, becuase higher pay allows us more time and financial freedom to take more time off between contracts.
So more recently, I’ve biased my job search to higher-paying contracts, and I’ve been flexible on location and setting as a result.
If you only want to work in a certain setting (e.g. outpatient or pediatrics), then you can do that too. But expect that you may have to take a pay cut or work in a more rural area to get the setting you want.
In summary, understand that you will have to be flexible in the other two areas if you are going to be more rigid in terms of setting, location, or pay.
Your “why” can change from contract to contract. For example, I intentionally took a high-paying contract right before our wedding and nine-week honeymoon abroad to put away some extra cash.
It would be wonderful if you could land that high-paying hospital-based outpatient contract in a dream location like San Diego, Austin, or Denver. But the chances of that happening are slim to none.
PRO TIP: Decide your “why” before each job search and keep your recruiters updated. Your job search will go a lot more smoothly if you have your priorities straight. Also, if you’re having tough times during your contract, remembering your “why” will help get you through them. You can do anything for 3 months!
An engagement pic we had taken shortly after moving from KS to CA for Skip’s first travel physical therapy job. Are we living our best lives or nah? HAHA
Do I have job security as a traveling physical therapist?
The reality is, we don’t have much job security as travelers.
Security is something we sacrifice for this crazy lifestyle we live. You may feel more secure if you go to a state with tons of contracts (e.g. California) vs. a state where contracts are less abundant and more widespread (e.g. Kansas).
We used this strategy when the travel physical therapy market crashed after the PDPM/PDGM insurance changes went into place, then again after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. We knew that if I were to get canceled, I could easily land another contract in no time in California.
PRO TIP: For additional security, take jobs that have 1.) 14-30 day cancellation clause and 2.) 32-40 guaranteed hours.
And, make sure this is written into your job contract. My motto as a traveler is, “if it ain’t writ’, it ain’t shit.”
A cancellation clause means if your facility has a consistently low census, they will have to provide a 2-4 week notice if they’re planning on canceling your contract, which gives you some time to hustle and line up another contract without losing too much income.
Guaranteed hours mean you’re still guaranteed to be paid for that amount of hours even if you get sent home early.
As COVID-19 has proven, these clauses aren’t fool-proof (many have an “Act of God” clause, that Coronoavirus apparently falls under), but it is at least some form of protection.
What’s the job search like as a travel PT?
You want to start the job search about six weeks out from your projected start date.
Your search will take place through recruiters who work for health staffing agencies (more on that below).
The job search looks different with each recruiter. Make sure to let your recruiter know your preferred form of communication, whether that’s talking over the phone, texting, or emailing.
You can ask them to send you jobs near a certain location, jobs within a particular setting, or jobs within a certain pay range. Or any combination of the three.
Any which way, be specific about what you’re interested in so you’re not wasting their time or yours.
When submitting to a job, be sure to know what dates you would like to ask off for and your anticipated start date.
Be prepared to act quickly when an appealing job comes up. They can get snatched within the hour, especially if it’s a desirable area or pay package. You ideally want to be one of the first profiles submitted to a job, so you need to be ready to pull the trigger.
Be prepared to act quickly when an appealing job comes up. They can get snatched within the hour, especially if it’s a desirable area or pay package. You ideally want to be one of the first profiles submitted to a job, so you need to be ready to pull the trigger.
If you interview and it goes well, don’t accept anything verbally. You may want to take a moment to look over the notes you’ve made during your call. You’ll typically have 24-48 hours to decide whether you want to accept the offer, but the sooner the better.
PRO TIP: Remember – the more flexible you are, the quicker you’re going to land a job. You may want that $2,000+ weekly take-home job, but if you wait 4 weeks to find it, you have lost a lot of potential income while waiting around for it.
PRO TIP: If you want interview tips, I recommend taking this Interview 101 course from Julia Kuhn, AKA The Traveling Traveler. I’ve taken the course and her tips are FIRE. I wasn’t a confident interviewer before her course, which lost me some jobs. But it helped me realize how my skills as a long-term traveler level me up and how to effectively play on my strengths to get hired.
What’s it like to get licensed in multiple states?
If you’re a part of the PT Compact, then you’re in luck! At the time I wrote this post, 21 states are currently issuing compact privileges.
Check out this map to see if your home state is included. Your home/resident state must be a part of the compact to take advantage. If this applies to you, this opens all kinds of opportunities for you as a traveler.
For a short explanation of what you need to know to sign up for PT compact privileges, check out this helpful post by MedTravelers.
If you’re like me and your home state is not issuing compact privileges, what in the hell are our states waiting for?! This means you have to go through the thick of the licensing process in each state you want to work. Ugh!
I’m gonna be honest with you, some states’ licensing processes are brutal. California, Texas, and Kansas had a lot of hoops to jump through, but my Hawaii, Oregon, and Colorado licenses were much easier to obtain.
Each state has its own unique licensing requirements which are fairly easy to find via Google. Just search “[insert state] physical therapy licensing”, and go from there. Once you gather all the information for one license, the requirements and the process are similar between states, so it gets easier as you go.
The big downer of having multiple licenses is that each time you want to obtain a new license, you’ll have to send license verifications from each state you’re currently licensed in. So the more licenses you have, the more verifications you have to send.
You’ll want to plan ahead and start looking into each state's licensure process early as some licenses can take weeks or months to have in hand from start to finish.
Check out this awesome tool put together by Core Medical Group to see general timelines for how long each license takes to obtain.
PRO TIP: Remember to keep ALL of your receipts from any transaction related to obtaining your license. I’m talking mailing fees, fingerprinting fees, fees to send your board exam scores from the FSBPT – any and all fees required to obtain the license. Save them in a folder in your Google Drive or iCloud. Your traveling company will reimburse you for these costs but you need to keep a detailed record of everything.
How do I choose a travel physical therapy recruiter / travel physical therapy company?
I recommend working with 2-3 recruiters – all from different agencies. Different travel healthcare agencies will have different jobs, pay packages, benefits, etc. Working with three agencies will give you access to more jobs across the U.S.
The most important thing isn’t the agency you’re working with – it’s that you’re vibing with your recruiter.
I only work with recruiters who feel like they have my back. Your recruiter is your go-to person as a travel PT so you want to feel a connection from the start.
If they get to know you, they’ll know what jobs you’re interested in without even having to ask. This minimizes phone/email tag and makes them more likely to get your resume on the top of the stack.
I do not recommend pitting your recruiters against one another. The goal of having multiple recruiters isn’t to get them to counter offer more money when two of them have the same job. Seriously – don’t be that person.
If you use and abuse recruiters in this way, they’ll remember, and they won’t hustle for you in the future. Why would they?! The travel world is small and you can burn bridges, so treat people with respect or it’ll come back to bite you.
If you want to be matched with one of our recommended recruiters, click here.
Winning a sand volleyball tournament during my first assignment in Santa Cruz, CA. They were so surprised us Kansas kids know how to play!
Considerations while working with multiple recruiters
Open, honest, and transparent communication is key
When you first speak with a recruiter, ask if they are okay with you working with multiple recruiters. If they are a good one, they’ll get it. If you’re getting weird vibes or a guilt trip, move on. There are plenty of respectable recruiters in the sea.
Check out the email below ↓ from the first recruiter I ever spoke with. When I asked if he’d be okay with me working with multiple recruiters, he started guilt-tripping me right away. This was his response when I (respectfully) emailed him and said I wasn’t interested in working with him since he didn’t respect my decision to work with another recruiter.
“I am sorry to hear you feel that way but I am not surprised. In all honesty you got some bad advice. I’m a very experienced recruiter and I’m very good at what I do. I was not giving you an ultimatum. I was being honest. I devote myself 120% to my therapist. What I was trying to make clear to you in our last conversation was due to my dedication I cannot work with therapists that play companies against each other. I cannot justify to my loyal therapists that work with me exclusively why I am spending most of my time chasing another temp that is taking my valuable time and resources away from my loyal therapists. My time just like yours is valuable. I will go ahead and pass your profile along to a less experienced recruiter that will have time to do that. Best of luck in everything that you do. I really do wish the best for you. I am disappointed we don’t get the chance to work together because I know that you and I could’ve had a wonderful experience and I could have exploded your resume and bank account at the same time”. — The very first recruiter I ever spoke with
What a jerk! Dodged a bullet with this one.
I repeat. Move on. In fact, run the other way. You will not be served from working with a recruiter like him.
Keep the transparency going when you start submitting to jobs. I keep all of my recruiters informed throughout my job search. So, if I submit to a job through recruiter A, I let recruiters B & C know that I’ve been submitted each and every time I submit to a new job.
I learned this one the hard way, but this ensures they don’t feel blindsided and it will (hopefully) lead to them hustling harder and faster to find you a gig since it’s down to crunch time.
Your recruiters are your people. I can’t stress this enough. Treat them as such.
Real-time example showing why you should work with multiple recruiters
There was one time that I interviewed with three different facilities in one day. I had submitted to three separate jobs through my three different recruiters. Each of these contracts was exclusive, meaning only that one recruiter/agency had access to that particular job.
I then had my pick of the three job offers, all of which were great options. What’s even crazier is the job I ended up accepting was the last job I submitted to – that very same morning of the interviews.
Doesn’t this go to show how beneficial it is to work with multiple recruiters? If I had interviewed for one or two of the jobs and didn’t get an offer, I still had options. And I had my pick of the litter and ended up in an amazing inpatient rehab job, which doesn’t come around often in the travel PT world.
PRO TIP: If you’re dead set on working in a popular location (e.g. San Diego or Austin), you can tell a recruiter you trust to “blind submit” you (AKA submit you without asking you first) immediately when a job pops up to increase your chances of landing it. In any other situation, it’s a huge red flag if your recruiter submits you to a job without your explicit approval.
Onboarding with multiple agencies
Keep in mind that you will have to go through the onboarding/compliance process every time you accept a job with a new travel agency. This means background tests, drug tests, orientation modules, and email threads back and forth each and every time you switch agencies. It’s a pain, but it’s one of the sacrifices you make for the travel physical therapy lifestyle.
PRO TIP: As you gather all of the required documents (e.g. pictures of state licenses & driver’s license, flu shots and immunization records, BLS certification card, etc.), save them to your computer, and put them into a Google Drive or iCloud folder. If you keep it all in a centralized and easily accessible location, it will save you a lot of work and time in the long run. Also, use the CamScanner app to scan important documents into your cell phone without needing a scanner. Once it’s in the app, you can email documents to yourself or your recruiter with the click of a button.
In Summary:
Research and establish your tax home as soon as possible in order to be eligible to accept tax-free per diems.
Know your main “why” (pay, location, or setting) before each contract to make the job search easier.
If you want to always have a job, be flexible with pay, location, or setting.
Work with 2-3 recruiters at a time so you have access to more jobs. Get connected with our trusted recruiters here.
Always be open and transparent with your recruiters. Make sure they’re cool with you working with multiple recruiters from the beginning. Keep them informed every step of the way and always be respectful.
Save important documents (immunization records, BLS card, state licenses, driver’s license, etc.) into a Google Drive or iCloud folder so they’re easy to access throughout your travel journey. Use the CamScanner App to easily digitize documents.
Save all receipts and keep a detailed record of all costs required to obtain your PT license in each state. Your recruitment agency should reimburse you for these as long as you keep adequate records.
As you can see, there is a ton of information to learn when considering how to become a traveling physical therapist.
I can’t wait for you to begin your journey as a travel PT! Reach out for any help you need along the way.
I know it seems overwhelming, but I hope you choose to DO IT AFRAID because…
“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.”
Be sure to catch part two of this blog post series below –
Have a question we didn’t answer? Book a coaching call or contact us and we’ll help you out!
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