What I've learned as a travel PT

Jasmine Van Dyke wasn’t sure what to expect when she started her travel PT career. Upon finishing her training in 2012, she discovered that compensation for a permanent position in physical therapy in her home state of Michigan wasn’t high enough to pay off her student debt as quickly as she’d like. But with a little research, she discovered that travel PT was more lucrative than a full-time job in the Great Lakes State.

Great expectations

Jasmine’s expectations were typically understated when her partnership with CompHealth began in 2013. “I’m looking forward to traveling and maybe getting a step up on loans by making a little bit more money.”

Dozens of assignments later, she expresses her gratitude that travel PT and CompHealth exceeded her expectations. “Travel’s allowed me to pay off a ton of money every month. I finished paying off my loans—over six figures in loans—in just over five years,” she says proudly. “Now I’m two years loan-free, and I’ve been to almost every state because of traveling.”

Adjusting your schedule to meet your needs

Jasmine appreciated the ability to adjust her schedule as her travel needs have evolved. For instance, she has been able to be more choosy about assignment locations and their duration than she was initially.

“Usually I’d pick assignments, I would look in the area and see what’s around, what might interest me within an hour’s drive,” she says. “I do a lot of online research in terms of where I’m going to live or gyms in the area. I look for hiking-type stuff, beaches, breweries; then in cities, I like seeing historical stuff.”

She also now prefers longer assignments versus the shorter assignments she began her travel career with.

“I was doing mostly three-month assignments,” she says. “Then I did a six-month, and I kind of liked being in one spot. I’ve been doing more longer ones because I’m a little tired of moving all the time.” She chose one assignment in Greenville, South Carolina, that was almost a year long — and she loved it.

“I got to make a lot of good friends plus it’s close to the mountains, a couple hours away from the ocean, and just a couple hours away from Atlanta.”

Making connections with old friends and new

One of her favorite locations to work was Los Angeles, not only because she loves the area, but it allowed her to reconnect with friends, including another former traveler, Kendra.

Jasmine and Kendra go way back. They trained together, both are from Grand Rapids, and they took their first travel assignment together. Like many PT travelers, Kendra used her travel career to find the perfect location and practice setting to settle into.

Jasmine makes friends easily wherever she goes. This is helped by her personal policy of never saying no to an invitation.

“Whenever I go to a job, if somebody asks me to do something, I pretty much never say no. Whatever they’re doing, if I get the invite, I’ll just do it, whether I want to or not, just to get to know them.”

She now has friends all over the country. “I’ve been to three different travelers’ weddings, just people I met on assignments. Actually, I have a fourth this year, now that I think about it. That’s fun.”

Jasmine isn’t afraid to do things by herself and uses that confidence to her advantage.

“You meet people a lot easier if you’re by yourself,” she says. “I’ll use Greenville as an example because I ended up with a lot of friends there. I go to a gym and I meet people that way. I also love football, so I’ll go out to a sports bar to watch games, and I’ve met people that way. And then, of course, there are coworkers. Those are probably the three biggest ways I meet people.”

Interested in seeing the country as a travel therapist? Give us a call at 800.453.3030 or view today's travel PT job openings.