Anything for 9 Weeks

Apparently, I should have named this blog You Can Do Anything for 9 weeks. For the 2nd time in as many assignments, the hospital Brynn is working at has given a 30-day notice, and shortened her contract. We will be leaving Murray about a month sooner than we had initially expected, but we knew that this was a possibility (just like any other assignment).We are obviously a little bit better prepared to handle it this time around, as we've been through this process before.

It is a bit of a mixed bag for us, as we are just starting to explore the area around Murray. We have, realistically, 3 more weekends with which to explore the Kentucky/Tennessee area. Over the next couple of days, I'll have a few posts up about the exploring we did this past weekend.

So of course, the next question is: Where are we headed now? Well, Brynn has licenses in California, Michigan, and Kentucky. Also in process are licenses for Maryland and Georgia. They are still working on getting her next assignment lined up for her, so hopefully we will have a better idea in the next few days here. In the mean time, enjoy the upcoming posts about our travels to Nashville and Mammoth Caves.

Our Digs

One of the things that is nice about working with a travel company, is that sometimes we will get some rather nice housing while on assignment.

The travel company, as a part of the contract for the assignment, will arrange for, and provide housing as a part of the compensation. Where the housing is, and how nice it will be is really determined based on the assignment location. For our current assignment, we are living in a VERY nice house. This is mostly due to the fact that the area is so sparsely populated, and there are very few options other than vacation rentals.

We are currently residing in a vacation rental house, approximately 3 blocks from the beach, and about 7 blocks from the downtown area. Both are reasonably walkable.




This is not the house we are living in. But it is a very nice house, and a pretty good representation of the neighborhood we live in. The whole area seems like we're living in a Norman Rockwell painting.








This particular house has a screened-in porch in the back, and a rather large porch in the back as well. There was some patio furniture and a barbecue listed as available when we looked at the listing, but as of yet have not been able to get access to those.





These are both features that I don't imagine will be in every place we live, either. Since it's detached, it has its' own mailbox. And in the front of the house is a sun room with a pair of comfy chairs.






This could very well prove to be another arch-nemesis of mine. When it starts snowing, having a 15+ foot driveway could prove to be a lot of shoveling. Definitely going to park the car as close as possible to the end of the driveway when the weather starts turning really badly.




Being in a new location so often could prove difficult, but it is really nice knowing that we will be well taken care of, and comfortable while we are there.

Traveling Physical Therapy Explained

My wife accepted a job as a traveling physical therapist, and since it core to our writings here, I thought I would take a moment to explain it.

Traveling physical therapists are essentially temporary employees for healthcare. A healthcare facility will employ travelers for a variety of reasons, including:

• To fill an opening while they look for a permanent employee
• To fill an opening created by an employee on a temporary leave such as disability or pregnancy
• To "try-out" an employee for a potential permanent position
• To help healthcare facilities deal with unexpected spikes in patient case load

Generally, traveling physical therapy assignments are 13 weeks in length. As a result, many physical therapists do not view this as a viable option, either because of local concerns that keep them in one location, or a desire to not uproot their lives every 3 months.

For those who have a desire to travel while working, it can be an excellent opportunity. Generally most assignments pay similar to permanent positions, as well as many other benefits:

• Housing is provided at a nearby location to the facility
• Travel costs to and from the assignment are covered
• A per-diem for food and other incidentals is generally paid to the employee

These benefits are in addition to standard medical, dental, and retirement benefits offered by permanent placements as well.

As an assignment is nearing completion, the physical therapist can have their traveling company start working on getting their next assignment. There appears to be more traveling physical therapist positions at any given time than there are physical therapists willing to travel for work, so work is fairly consistent.

We have both concluded that we do not want to do this permanently. However, as we are young now, it is a good option for us in the short-term. Although honestly, a majority of the people we have spoken with about traveling loved it so much that they were hard pressed to not continue. So we will see what happens.

What Started This Journey

Back in May of this year, my finace (at the time) came home from work more upset than she had ever been. She had been unhappy with her job for some time, and was hoping to make a change after our wedding. This day, however, was the breaking point. Over the evening, we finished some updates to her resume, and sent it to a single traveling physical therapy website.

Now, we had discussed traveling before. Traveling physical therapists are used to help hospitals and medical facilities when they need a short-term fill-in for a permanent position. The most common reasons for a traveler include a temporary fill-in after a full-time employee leaves, or maternity/paternity leave. We have enjoyed traveling for leisure since we started dating, and figured that this could be a great alternative for her to work and get paid to travel.

We both went to work the next morning, thinking very little of what we had done the night before. When I picked her up from work that evening, she was extremely excited. During the day, she had received phone calls from five different recruiters for travel health care companies. We went home, and had 5 more emails as well.

Over the next month, we did our due diligence regarding each of these groups. Each of them had different benefits, offered different locations of assignments, and offered differing levels of compensation. During this time, we spoke with her co-workers and peers who were familiar with traveling, trying to find out what the downside was. The consensus that we came to was that the downside was the traveling required of it.

You may ask, then, how does this relate to this blog? We have tried not to eliminate too many locations from the places we are willing to go, because we believe that you can do anything for 13 weeks. We thought it would be sting to document our travels, and the things we notice as a result.

The other side of this lies in the fact that as a result of going with her to these assignments, I am going to be rapidly unemployed. My current employer will allow me to continue to work remotely, while they search for a capable replacement for me. So, at some point in the coming months, I will definitely be unemployed.

While my job training would allow me to take traveling assignments as well, coordinating these would be extremely difficult. So you will also see posts from time to time about how I am earning money, and how we are transitioning to a single income.

I am really hoping that these experiences will be enlightening to us, and that you'll find our writings to be interesting.