By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN

As part of my research for upcoming columns, I have had the pleasure of interviewing travel therapy recruitment representatives from www.AlliedTravelCareers.com list of valued partner agencies. I have to admit that, even though I was well aware of the need for rehab therapists in hospitals and acute care settings across the country, I had no idea the extent of staffing needs in this area of medicine.

Each travel agency representative I have interviewed so far (with several more to go), has expressed a great need for physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech language pathologists who are looking for travel therapy jobs. One representative even pointed out that the definition of “travel” is a flexible one that can mean within 50 miles from your home.  Many of these same recruiters are hiring therapists into permanent positions.  If you are a therapist looking to custom design your career – from assignment locations (Texas is overflowing with available assignments) to salary, comprehensive benefits, your choice of clinical settings and assignment flexibility – this is absolutely the time to contact a recruiter from our partner agencies.

Stay connected with the blog here on ATC for more details from these interviews including specific information about the travel therapy companies and what they have to offer. Whether you are already a traveling therapist or considering a career in travel physical therapy, travel occupational therapy, or travel speech language pathology, the information generously shared by these industry experts will benefit your career.

Christine Whitmarsh is a Registered Nurse with a BSN from the University of Rhode Island. She is a freelance health journalist and medical writer and a contributor to Travel Nurse Source and Allied Travel Careers.

By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN

Burns are one of the most traumatic injuries the human body can endure.  Multiple body systems are simultaneously involved and, depending on the severity, burns can appear deceivingly non-threatening while doing most of their dirty work beneath the damaged skin. Damaged blood vessels dilate causing inflammation and edema are typically listed among many other life threatening problems.  Once the patient is stabilized and undergoes graft surgery, the rehabilitation work begins.

Following surgery, the possibility of webbing between fingers and toes along with the presence of scar tissue and its potential to prevent debilitating contractures, especially in joints, requires the skilled touch of a physical therapist. Patients with the most severe (third and fourth degree) burns are the ones who most often require intensive physical therapy (often called “physiotherapy” for those traveling physical therapist considering assignments in English speaking countries overseas). If not prevented through rehabilitation, skin, joint, muscle, tendon and ligament contractures can have a devastating effect on a burn patient’s life.  Rigid, contracted limbs can easily become the end of mobility and independence for patients.

Speech therapists and speech language pathologists are also an integral part of the burn patient’s treatment team in the case of smoke inhalation injuries.  Occupational therapists have a vital role in helping burn patients relearn activities of daily living.

Traveling physical therapists, travel occupational therapists and travel speech therapists all have the opportunity to have a positive and permanent effect on the lives of burn patients around the world. With the average rehabilitation time for serious burns being 18 months to two years, there are undoubtedly many opportunities for assignments in this area of patient care.

Christine Whitmarsh is a Registered Nurse with a BSN from the University of Rhode Island. She is a freelance health journalist and medical writer and a contributor to Travel Nurse Source and Allied Travel Careers.

By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN

In the past, nursing homes were largely regarded as an elderly person’s final residence. After living a long and independent life and then suffering a debilitating injury or chronic illness that compromises their independence, it was generally accepted that the person would be more than happy to spend the rest of the life in a state of peaceful rest and relaxation, playing cards in the community room and having their every personal needs taken care of. This may all change with the aging baby boomers.

Aging members of the baby boomer population notoriously relish their independence, freedom and resilience. This will likely extend to their attitude on illness, injury and their expectations for recovery.  Add to the mix the fact that seniors in this demographic are working longer and therefore are most likely transitioning directly from an active work and personal life directly to injury and illness, with no traditional retirement hiatus in between.  Occupational therapists and traveling occupational therapists already working with this age group are probably seeing their patients’ distinct unwillingness to rest or relax after suffering a health setback – no matter how severe.  In fact, occupational therapy is a hot service item in nursing homes for patients who, rather than settling into the role of “nursing home resident” are using the facilities as temporary rehabilitation pit stops between injury and recovery.

Consider that as of 2008 there were 78 million baby boomers, well over 4000 long term care facilities such as nursing homes and 1.4 million residents in those facilities. As patients in this demographic start seeking out occupational therapy versus bingo on a regular basis, the demand for occupational therapists and travel occupational therapists may increase even more than already predicted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (23 percent by 2016).

Additional Sources Used: U.S. Census Bureau

Christine Whitmarsh is a Registered Nurse with a BSN from the University of Rhode Island. She is a freelance health journalist and medical writer and a contributor to Travel Nurse Source and Allied Travel Careers.

By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN

If an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure than physical therapists, occupational therapists and traveling rehab therapists in these fields have many reasons to be optimistic. It is important for rehab therapists including traveling physical therapists and travel occupational therapists to remind the public that it’s not necessary to wait until something is broken, pulled, strained, dislocated or twisted before seeking the services of a therapist.  Here are some specific patient demographics for traveling therapists with a passion for patient preventative education to target for assessments and consultations.

Elderly Patients: Fall prevention, balance and core stability are key preventative measures for this age group. Traveling occupational therapists can also focus on risks that elderly patients encounter in their activities of daily living.

Weekend Warriors: Teach these ambitious folks to seek out therapy before they find themselves sprawled on the basketball floor or at the bottom of a ski slope. They can benefit from ROM assessments, teaching about proper warm up and stretching techniques and an assessment to determine their health level for desired sports and activities along with recommendations for maximum exertion levels.

Office Workers: Therapists are a valuable source of info for employees at risk for carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive use injury and other ergonomic issues.

Child Athletes: Physical therapists are an excellent resource for young athletes and their parents to learn about how to prevent injuries and assessments for any movement, alignment or balance issues that place the child at a higher risk for problems.

All of the Above: All individuals suffering the regular aches and pains of life can benefit from a therapy assessment to learn how a more conservative therapy approach may benefit them more than their medications or other forms of current relief.

Christine Whitmarsh is a Registered Nurse with a BSN from the University of Rhode Island. She is a freelance health journalist and medical writer and a contributor to Travel Nurse Source and Allied Travel Careers.

By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN

A friend of mine was proudly telling me about her daughter’s beautiful penmanship today. It took me a few seconds to realize that she meant handwriting. Was she referring to the same carefully drawn cursive letters that we all learned in grammar school? I will admit that my ability to pen an old-fashioned, handwritten letter has gone the way of my algebra and geometry skills over the years. I don’t feel too bad about that since ergonomic computer keyboards, cell phone texting, and other handheld ways of communicating seem to have replaced the lost art of handwriting.

Fortunately, occupational therapists and traveling occupational therapists are continuing to teach children this important life skill. Occupational therapy is especially valuable for children who are having trouble learning proper handwriting through their traditional childhood education. Occupational therapists can pick up where teachers leave off, using a variety of creative, sensory, gross and fine motor brain activities to retrain the child’s brain.

Handwriting ability derives from the speech center in the parietal lobe of the brain (mostly the left side). This means that for individuals who have suffered a stroke or other brain injury affecting speech, the ability to write also suffers. In fact, many occupational therapists and other caregivers are able to detect deteriorating mental functions based on changes in an individual’s handwriting.

As much as I joke about handwriting being a “lost art” I am well aware that it is a significant form of communication and a telling reflection of the mental and psychological happenings within the brain. Occupational therapists and traveling occupational therapists are lucky to have the opportunity to work with children who need a little help opening this window into their mind.

Christine Whitmarsh is a Registered Nurse with a BSN from the University of Rhode Island. She is a freelance health journalist and medical writer and a contributor to Travel Nurse Source and Allied Travel Careers.

By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN

Traveling physical therapists, travel occupational therapists and traveling speech language pathologists are in demand by hospitals and patients with increasingly complex medical needs across the country. Continuing education is a certification requirement for most health care providers. Perusing CE course listings is also a savvy way of staying current with your industry while receiving training in skill areas that patients need the most.

Specific patient populations in need of targeted rehabilitation therapy include children (sports injuries, increasing rate of autism), baby boomers (complications related to cardiac disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, back problems, weekend warriors) and the elderly (multiple medical conditions, increasing number of hospice and home care patients, fall prevention).

Here are some hot topics in continuing education for each area of rehabilitation therapy to research and register for locally or online.

Physical Therapy
Sport Safety for Children
Fall Prevention for the Elderly
Interventions for Low Back Pain
Family Caregivers Doing Double Duty

Occupational Therapy
Dizziness in the Elderly
Improving Critical Thinking Ability (the OT)
Hospice Concerns for OTs
Cultural Factors in Pain Management

Speech Therapy
Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention
Understanding Asperger Syndrome
Treating Adults Who Stutter
Intro to Interactive Metronome

Travel rehab therapists especially do not have the option of lapsing into a comfort zone in terms of skills, current research and field knowledge. With each assignment there are new expectations and standards from clinical settings and supervisors. Staying current with continuing education, via required CE credits as well as additional research and learning, is a valuable asset for traveling therapists.

Sources: TodayinPT, TodayinOT, American Speech-Language Hearing Association

Christine Whitmarsh is a Registered Nurse with a BSN from the University of Rhode Island. She is a freelance health journalist and medical writer and a contributor to Travel Nurse Source and Allied Travel Careers.

By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN

We continue to celebrate Occupational Therapy Month and honor occupational therapists and travel occupational therapists for their work in maximizing life’s daily potential for all types of patients. To accomplish this, occupational therapists address all aspects of the individual – physical, psychological, emotional and social. Therefore, OT services are particularly valuable to individuals being treated for addiction.

Creative but extremely effective therapeutic occupational therapy approaches such as art therapy are frequently used with patients in treatment for addiction. One of the goals of art therapy for these individuals is, through targeted arts and crafts and creative writing activities, to assist the occupational therapist in understanding some of the deeper motivations, psychology and history behind the addictive behaviors. A project by occupational therapy students in Scotland, also found success treating individuals experiencing addition by teaching them the skills needed to adapt and cope with daily life.

The path to, effects of and recovery from addiction is deeply personal and unique to each individual who experiences it. Occupational therapists and other healthcare professionals who choose to work in this area of rehabilitation are often personally motivated by the stories of recovering addicts or in some cases the stories of family members, friends or even their own personal success stories.

Are you an occupational therapist who wants to enjoy the excitement and challenges of a travel health career while specializing in addiction therapy? Visit our “apply now” page and speak with a recruiter about assignments in addiction medicine. Addiction is a steadily growing area of healthcare with a big demand for treatments that work. Occupational therapists and travel occupational therapists are needed more and more to meet this demand.

Christine Whitmarsh is a Registered Nurse with a BSN from the University of Rhode Island. She is a freelance health journalist and medical writer and a contributor to Travel Nurse Source and Allied Travel Careers.

By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN

Physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists who take advantage of stimulating travel therapy assignments to exciting destinations, also experience many opportunities to give back to the communities they visit. Rehab therapists regularly accept assignments working in all-sized communities from the most bustling cities to the most rural town settings. Travel therapists can act as an objective set of eyes and ears as well as an educational resource for the people of the community.

True to its name, World Autism Day, marked earlier this month on April 2nd raises worldwide awareness about the prevalence of Autism and its associated spectrum of disorders. Travel rehab therapists work with children who suffer from autism on a regular basis and therefore are in a unique position to raise awareness year round. There is a proven special need for raising autism awareness in smaller communities. Without the proper medical guidance and availability of public health information, the behavioral, speech and physical symptoms of autism are often misconstrued as a shy or misbehaving child. The travel therapist is in the valuable position to separate fact from myth and connect the child with the help they need to improve their prognosis and quality of life.

Every travel assignment taken on by a physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech therapist comes with its own distinctive set of challenges as well as caregiving opportunities. The power to educate members of a smaller town or community is the power to improve the lives of the residents in it.

Physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists who take advantage of stimulating travel therapy assignments to exciting destinations, also experience many opportunities to give back to the communities they visit. Rehab therapists regularly accept assignments working in all-sized communities from the most bustling cities to the most rural town settings. Travel therapists can act as an objective set of eyes and ears as well as an educational resource for the people of the community.

True to its name, World Autism Day, marked earlier this month on April 2nd raises worldwide awareness about the prevalence of Autism and its associated spectrum of disorders. Travel rehab therapists work with children who suffer from autism on a regular basis and therefore are in a unique position to raise awareness year round. There is a proven special need for raising autism awareness in smaller communities. Without the proper medical guidance and availability of public health information, the behavioral, speech and physical symptoms of autism are often misconstrued as a shy or misbehaving child. The travel therapist is in the valuable position to separate fact from myth and connect the child with the help they need to improve their prognosis and quality of life.

Every travel assignment taken on by a physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech therapist comes with its own distinctive set of challenges as well as caregiving opportunities. The power to educate members of a smaller town or community is the power to improve the lives of the residents in it.

Christine Whitmarsh is a Registered Nurse with a BSN from the University of Rhode Island. She is a freelance health journalist and medical writer and a contributor to Travel Nurse Source and Allied Travel Careers.

Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN

The American Occupational Therapy Association has designated April as Occupational Therapy month, so it seems only fitting to honor the occupational therapy assistants and the traveling occupational therapy assistants who are a big reason that occupational therapy works. In return, the occupational therapy assistant with aspirations to become a therapist is in a beneficial position to learn the profession from the ground up.

FAQ:

Q: How long do I have to go to school to become an occupational therapy assistant?
A: You can earn an Occupational Therapy Assistant Associated of Applied Science in a 2 year program found at community colleges and technical schools. Another option is earning a 1-year certificate from an accredited academic institution. Both programs have required, supervised work in the field and must pass a licensing exam prior to practicing.

Q: What is the basic job description?
A: You will work with developmentally and physically challenged patients under the supervision of the OT, on exercises such as muscle strengthening, work and societal skills and chart patient progress.

Q: Where will I work?
A: OT assistant opportunities are pretty evenly divided between hospital, OT office, residential care and other settings such as the workplace and long term care facilities.

Q: How much can I expect to make?
A: The current average salary for an OT assistant is $51,000.

Q: What are the career opportunities like?
A: Excellent! Better than in most other fields, actually. Employment opportunities are projected to increase by a whopping 25 percent by 2016.

If this sounds like the career opportunity you’ve been looking for, start calling your local schools or research programs online. Add a love of seeing the country and gaining experience in a variety of clinical settings, and perhaps a career as a traveling occupational therapy assistant is what you’ve been searching for. The sky’s the limit!

Christine Whitmarsh is a Registered Nurse with a BSN from the University of Rhode Island. She is a freelance health journalist and medical writer and a contributor to Travel Nurse Source and Allied Travel Careers.