This year we will be presenting at the American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA) National Student Conclave (NSC), October 31-November 1 in Albuquerque, NM.
NSC is a conference for physical therapy students across the country, filled with educational sessions, networking opportunities, and fun activities too!
During our presentation, we will be educating future Doctors of Physical Therapy (DPTs) and Physical Therapist’s Assistants (PTAs) on the ins and outs of travel therapy, as well as how pursuing travel therapy can help set them up for future financial success.
Below is an article we wrote for the APTA blog “The Pulse” as a preview to our session at NSC. You can see the original post here on the APTA Website.
Have you ever wanted to travel the country and get paid to do it? Us too.
Luckily with travel physical therapy, this dream can be a reality.
Discovering travel therapy during our first year of physical therapy school changed our whole life and career trajectory. At first, it seemed like an exciting and prudent thing to do for a few years. We would try out a few different settings, explore the United States (US), and save up enough money to pay off our loans. Then, we would move back home and settle down, starting permanent jobs only a few years after graduation.
But then we had a better idea. Why stop traveling when we truly love the lifestyle it’s allowed us to create?
It’s been over 4 years since we started our journey as travel physical therapists (PTs), and we don’t intend to stop anytime soon.
We’ve been able to create a lifestyle of flexibility that allows us to work in a variety of settings and states, while earning a high income (sometimes twice as much as the permanent PTs working in the same facilities), and taking off as much time as we want and can afford due to our moderate lifestyle to travel both domestically and internationally, as well as spend time at home with our families. We’ve taken full advantage of this flexibility thus far and have no regrets!
Since becoming PTs in 2015, we’ve had some amazing adventures inside and outside the clinic.
We’ve been able to travel to over half of the 50 states, with that number growing even more later this year with a couple of road trips, as well as over 30 countries—for fun, not for work.
We’ve grown professionally and personally by working in several different clinics across the US and meeting some amazing people along the way. This includes trying multiple settings in order to find where our passion, as PTs, truly lies.
And to top it off, we’ve been able to set ourselves up for financial success by contributing heavily toward retirement and investment accounts early in our careers. Many of the PTs we’ve communicated with over the years seem to really struggle with this.
Are you interested in having your cake and eating it too, even if it’s just for 13 weeks or a couple of years? Do you want to learn how you can have amazing adventures, earn higher income, meet new people, pay off your student loans more quickly, explore the country (maybe even the world), all while honing your skills and experiences as a PT?
Then we encourage you to join us this year at the American Physical Therapy Association’s National Student Conclave in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to learn more about the world of travel therapy and how it can help you achieve your personal, professional, and financial goals after graduation!
In the meantime, you can browse our social media pages to see some of our adventures around the world, including our recent 15-week trip to Europe and our 2-week road trip across the US!
Join us October 31 – November 2, 2019 at APTA’s National Student Conclave — the only conference for students, by students. For the best rates register by September 25, 2019.
Whitney Eakin, PT, DPT, ATC, and Jared Casazza, PT, DPT, run the website TravelTherapyMentor.com. Connect with them on their blog, Instagram, and Facebook.
