Intro to Travel Therapy

Earn 1 hour of continuing education by joining OT Potential after taking this course.

Course Description

Travel therapy offers some of the highest compensation in rehab, yet it remains one of the most logistically challenging practice areas. Succeeding on the road requires a distinct mindset shift, balancing clinical flexibility with savvy career management.

Whether you are eyeing your first contract or looking to refine your travel strategy, this course walks you through the essential day-to-day considerations of a nomadic career. We will dive into three overarching questions:

• Logistics: How do you strategically decide where to go next?
• Clinical Readiness: How do you prepare for the “sink or swim” demands of hopping between facilities?
• Empowerment: How do you ensure you are being paid fairly in a competitive industry?

You’ll leave this session more confident in navigating the travel market and delivering high-quality care in any setting. Joining us is Laura Latimer, OTR/L, founder of Nomadicare. After discovering a massive pay gap in her own contracts, Laura transitioned from traveler to industry advocate. She is a gifted mentor, and her hard-earned knowledge will leave you feeling empowered to take charge of your career.

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OT Potential courses are presented as live webinars, then released on-demand video and audio via the OT Potential Podcast. Attendance in the live webinar will be indicated on your certificate. Learn more about how our courses help meet live webinar requirements, and OT CEU requirements overall.

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Learning Objectives

1. You will identify how to select and implement occupation-based assessments when transitioning to a new travel therapy setting.
2. You will be able to recognize how to adapt occupation-based interventions to maintain high-quality care despite the rapid onboarding of a travel contract.

Agenda

Intro (5 minutes)

Discussion (40 minutes)

1. Tell me your story of how you found OT and travel therapy.
2. What made you interested in the inner workings of the therapy industry?
3. Walk me through how a travel position gets posted into the world- and ultimately connected to a therapist. 
4. What are the logistics of signing a travel therapy contract- what should I consider. (What are red flags)
5. Walk me through the logistics of how I get from my home to up and going in a travel therapy location?
6. What personal qualities help someone succeed in travel therapy?
7. What clinical skills help a travel therapist succeed? How can we maintain evidenced-based standards- when we only have like 24 hours to learn a whole new hospital system?
8. How can individual therapists advocate for themselves for improved working conditions (either with new locations or their agency.) 
9. How would you like to see the travel therapy continue to evolve overtime?

Live Q&A (10 min)

Closing (5 min)

Supporting Research and Journal Articles

• Exploring Reasons for Satisfaction with Job Assignments Among Travel Nurses
• A National Study of Travel and Nontravel Nurses’ Perceptions of the Work Environment
• Limitations and Recommendations for Advancing the Occupational Therapy Workforce Research Worldwide: Scoping Review and Content Analysis of the Literature
• Increased Utilization of Overtime and Agency Nurses and Patient Safety

Target Audience/Educational Level

Our target audience is occupational therapy practitioners who are looking to learn about travel therapy. The educational level is introductory.

Financial and Non-financial Disclosures

It is the policy of OT Potential to disclose any financial and non-financial interest the provider or instructor may have in a product or service mentioned during an activity. This is to ensure that the audience is made aware of any bias of the speaker.

OT Potential is a proud partner and affiliate of Nomadicare, meaning we have a blog post about travel therapy, where you can follow a link to sign up for Nomadicare- and if you complete a travel assignment, we earn an affiliate payment. Likewise Laura Latimer is the founder of Nomadicare, thus has a financial stake in the travel industry.

Speakers

Laura Latimer, OTR/L

Laura kickstarted her career in the travel healthcare industry and quickly developed a passion for it. This field combines the thrill of adventure for healthcare professionals (such as nurses, therapists, and technicians) with the staffing needs of hospitals and facilities across the country.

However, Laura noticed a significant challenge in the industry – the traveler’s experiences were often determined by the honesty and integrity of their recruiters. This meant that they may or may not be paid fairly, receive check-in calls, or receive adequate support during their journeys.

With a desire to bring positive change to the industry, Laura saw the potential for technology to make the experience smoother and more transparent for everyone. In 2014, she founded Nomadicare, the only company that carefully vets and holds recruiters accountable in the travel healthcare industry. This free service matches travelers with honest, top-performing recruiters and also provides comprehensive education with blogs, negotiating tools, a podcast/youtube show, and a marketplace of jobs on the website.

The travel healthcare industry is ripe for transformation, and Laura is determined to play a major role in ensuring that the integrity and needs of travelers remain a top priority as technology continues to shape the future of this unique and exciting space. In the next 5 to 10 years, the industry will undergo significant changes, and Laura is dedicated to making sure that the traveler experience remains at the forefront of these advancements.

Sarah Lyon, OTR/L

Sarah’s passion is helping fellow OT practitioners translate evidence into daily practice. Sarah earned her BA in religion from St. Olaf College, then earned her master’s degree in occupational therapy from New York University in 2011.

Since then, she’s worked in numerous facilities, including a critical access hospital, an acute trauma hospital, and a state inpatient psychiatric hospital. Sarah is the founder/owner of OT Potential. Read more about OT Potential here.

This course was designed to meet your continuing education requirements

We designed the courses in the Club to meet the requirements for “online” and “independent/self-study” courses. To verify the requirements from your specific state (within the US), check out our post, OT Continuing Education Requirements. If you are outside of the United States and have questions, please contact us.

We are proud to be an AOTA Approved Provider and to meet the requirements for your NBCOT renewal.

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