Trials of a Traveler

Well I don't have any pictures to add this time but I do have a few new pieces of wisdom that I have gained in the last few weeks. As a traveling therapist I am guaranteed by the company that I will get paid for 40hrs/wk. This is a nice situation if there are not many patients. I can go home an hour or two early and still get paid for a full 8 hour day. The down side to this arrangement is that the clinical site does not like the idea of paying anyone for hours they didn't work. (Can't say I blame them.) The result of this is that my schedule is the first to be filled...with any and every patient possible. Another problem with this (mainly because I am a new therapist) is that I am not the fastest with documentation and still have trouble with point-of-service documentation occasionally. So, that leads to me having a lot of working lunches while I finish documentation if I have any evals in the morning and staying a bit later if I have an eval in the afternoon. It does not pay for me to put it off till the next day because I always have a full schedule. I am getting faster at this so its becoming less of an issue. Another aspect that adds to this difficulty is the travel time between facilities...but I am getting ahead of myself...
Now, as far as working in more rural locations and being a traveler in those areas... If you planning on doing traveling therapy, you need to understand that you will have a lot of opportunities in more remote, rural geographic locations, as these are less desirable for most individuals who want the convenience of living near larger shopping opportunities. This also may mean that the same clinic you work at is also responsible for the home health therapy in the area and therapy services at any nursing homes in the immediate region. For example, I am working out of the hospital therapy clinic. However, the facilities I work in include the hospital outpatient, hospital inpatient, 3 nursing homes in the region, and any home health patients within the general area of the hospital. Having the requirement to travel between locations during the work day adds to the complexity of time management and I am constantly watching the clock to make sure that I won't be late for my next appointment.
In addition to those aspects, I also have to be familiar with 5 different documentation systems (one for each location). During my first two weeks I spent time at each location learning the systems and paperwork. However, I do not work in each facility consistently. This presents a problem when I go to do an eval at one of the facilities that I have not worked at for 3-4 weeks after orientation, causing me to be very forgetful on all the steps of documentation. Then I "get" to spend an extra hour at work fixing all my mistakes. (This happened this week actually.) Now, this could have been avoided, had the evals been scheduled properly so there would have been another therapist there to help walk me through all the steps (and which my clinic manager felt very guilty about), but as it didn't, it was a very intense learning process for the 3 evals that I had to do that day.
Please note that I am not complaining, nor am I angry with my company. They do what they can and sometimes things do not work the way they should. And on a positive note, the company is going through a trial period of selecting a documentation system that will become standard company wide. This means that any employee who knows the documentation system will be able to work in any facility (provided the have the proper state license) without having to go through training for a whole new computer system. Not only will this make my life easier but it will also allow for more crossover of therapists between clinics.
So that is what I have learned over the last few weeks. I will work 40hr/wk...at least, and can expect a full schedule every day (I can get overtime). There will be days where it feels like I do more traveling than treating. (My company does pay mileage for traveling between clinics and on home health visits.) I need to embrace being flexible with documentation, but I am VERY MUCH looking forward to only having to know one computer system. If this has shed any light on the life of a traveling therapist for you, I am glad, and I also hope that it has not turned anyone away from the idea if they are interested. It is not an easy job, but I would not give it up.