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In the news
Physical therapist finds he can mix work and travel
Jacksonville Business Journal - August 17, 2007
by Dave Strupp
Staff Writer
Dan Rosenbaum is a physical therapist working a 13-week assignment as part of a traveling therapist program.
JACKSONVILLE -- A recent graduate working in his first job in physical therapy, Dan Rosenbaum always wanted to travel.
After a friend turned him on to the idea of traveling physical therapy, Rosenbaum left his job of four months to try the increasingly popular field.
"I heard the idea from a classmate that you can pick and choose where you go," Rosenbaum said. "It sounded like a great idea."
Traveling therapy allows licensed therapists to choose nearly any destination to practice for a limited amount of time. Typically, a therapist is signed for 13 weeks, with the option to stay for an additional 13 weeks or move to the next location of choice.
Rosenbaum, who works at Life Care Centers of America in Orange Park, graduated from the University of Florida in August 2006 with a master's degree. He warmed to the idea of travel therapy after working as an outpatient physical therapist in Tampa following graduation.
Traveling therapists operate through health care recruiting and staffing agencies, such as Jacksonville-based Medical Methods, which placed Rosenbaum at Life Care. Medical Methods has about 10 traveling physical therapists, and is constantly looking for more recent graduates in physical therapy, President Clint Drawdy said.
"It's a lifestyle choice. So many new graduates are doing this," he said. "You get to live in different places of the country, but you also get to check out different practice settings."
Because physical therapists, like nurses and physicians, are in high demand nationwide, Drawdy said there are plenty of opportunities around the country for traveling therapists to find work.
"This year we will get about 5,000 opportunities nationwide," he said. "It's pretty broad stroke right now, but California, Texas and Florida are the hottest places. But there is a shortage [in therapists] nationally for sure."
Employment of physical therapists is expected to increase much faster than the average for occupations through 2014, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as the number of people with disabilities or limited functioning rises. There are more than 156,000 physical therapists in the nation, getting paid an average of about $65,000 annually.
Locally, Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital uses traveling therapists between four and six times per year, said Paris Freeman, corporate recruiter.
"We have typically used traveling therapists when we know we're going to have a vacancy for a period of time," she said. "Typically with maternity leave and growth spurts we will use them."
Brooks has hired several traveling therapists as full-time employees once the therapists decided to relocate to Jacksonville, she said.
Traveling therapists can choose from skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient rehabilitation practices and several other settings.
"You can really get any setting you want," Rosenbaum said. "It's really just where you feel comfortable."
While he just signed for a second stay at Life Care, through November, Rosenbaum said he likes the area and Life Care enough to stay for now.
"If they would want me to stay," he said, "I would."
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