Most Recent Travel Therapy Jobs

By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN

The voice can be a delicate thing. I learned this from experience in the basketball pep band, screaming it out, and by observation, watching shows like American Idol where contestants frequently “sing out” their voice and vocal chords.  Enter the speech therapist and speech language pathologists and their expert abilities to heal the broken otherwise healthy voice and help repair the diseased or otherwise disabled one. Speech therapists have also been known to help patients stop snoring.  Traveling speech therapists and travel speech language pathologists are also extremely valuable in this regard, seeing and treating patients with voice problems in destinations and clinical settings across the country.

Watching the American Idol auditions, I often wonder if traveling speech therapists could create a valuable service where they go up and down the contestant lines, teaching aspiring idols how to properly use their voices without destroying them for the sake of singing. While this might not be feasible, there is another potential career opportunity for traveling therapists like speech therapists who have a background in singing. “Singing voice specialists” are singing teachers with medical training akin to speech language pathology or speech therapy. They specifically treat and rehabilitate patients with vocal injuries. Most have some type of professional singing experience in addition to the required anatomy training.

Training to become a singing voice specialist is informal and is usually a combination of apprenticeship combined with speech language pathology or speech therapy training. Most of the time it is the singing teacher or professional teacher who adds speech therapy training to their repertoire, but anything is possible for the individual with the medical training and singing talent.

Additional Resources: Voiceproblem.org, National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) – www.nats.org

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

Traveling speech pathology jobs, and related positions such as speech therapists and speech language pathologists, are becoming increasingly available. Speech therapists have more opportunities than ever, to hone their craft and sharpen their skills while traveling to exciting destinations around America.

While you’re here on the site, be sure and take a moment to fill out our brief, simple application (“Apply now”). We not only want to learn about your professional background, but also about your career goals as a traveling speech pathologist and therapist. Still undecided about whether a travel career is right for you? Here are some exciting statistics about the rapidly growing field of speech therapy, to help make up your mind.

*Average Salary: $48,000 per/year*
*Travel career agencies offer competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits including stock sharing and 401K opportunities
*Agencies also assist with relocation and reimburse expenses
*The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics predicts “excellent” opportunities for speech-language pathologists in the coming year, especially for those who can speak a second language and those willing to relocate to geographic areas with great hiring needs
*The Bureau is predicting 11% growth in speech-language pathologist employment by 2016

Attention traveling speech pathologists, traveling speech therapists and other vocations within this career: I want to hear from you. What benefits have you found in a travel career versus a traditional career in one location? Or if you are a speech therapist considering a travel career, what are your questions and concerns? Thank you for your contributions and comments!

*Simplyhired.com

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.