Safe to say our Travel PT journey did not get off to a great start. But the future is bright, right?!
Our travel company was able to find us 2 more travel positions. This time, though, the positions were not at the same facility. But we were in the same area, 2 clinics about 5 minutes apart from each other. We had our "interviews" (making sure to ask the right questions) and decided they were a good fit.
My husband was placed at a small community hospital that also had an outpatient clinic. He worked in Acute Care and Outpatient - but mostly outpatient.
I was placed at an outpatient Early Intervention pediatric clinic (more on this later). My pediatric clinical in school gave me enough pediatrics experience to allow this facility to offer me a contract. (Moral of that story - ANY experience can help you get placements as a Travel PT!)
Now, my pediatric clinical in school was rough. I got some bad feedback, had some rough CIs (yes, plural, I had 2 CIs at the same time), and had pretty much decided I was never doing Peds again.
But when you've just driven across the country and have no job - you take what you can get....within reason.
The company was able to find these 2 positions in North LA county - Palmdale, CA to be exact.
Hell yeah! (sorta)
Living Arrangements
So learning from our first housing disaster, we loaded up the car and drove down to LA county for a weekend. We drove around, found the 2 Clinic locations, and looked at multiple apartments. We learned quickly that it was not advised to live in North LA county.
We landed on a one bedroom apartment in Valencia, CA. It was perfect!
The walkability in that little down was nothing like we had ever experienced. We only had 1 car, so this was important. We could walk across the street to the grocery story, to the movie theater, to the mall, to a ton of restaurants, and to a walking trail. All without fearing for our lives!
The best part - we were 1 mile away from Six Flags - Magic Mountain. You might know this as Wallyworld - the theme park from National Lampoon's Vacation.
I know what you are thinking - Yes, we bought annual passes and got our money's worth! No, we never got to talk with the moose out front.
Valencia is 45 minutes south of Palmdale, so we did have a nice little drive every morning and evening through the mountains and valley, but the walkability that Valencia provided was well worth it.
Back to the Clinics.
My husband started in Acute Care, then would float to Outpatient. It didn't take long for the Outpatient clinic to learn that my husband knew what he was doing, got his shit done, and did it well. So shortly after starting, he was transitioned to the Outpatient clinic for 40 hours a week.
It was a typical Outpatient clinic where he had to see 3-4 patients at a time, but nothing was as bad as that first Travel assignment. So he did what he needed to and was still able to do it ethically. But he was tired!
I found out during my phone interview, that the Pediatric Clinic had not had a PT in 3 years. They had only had an OT and they were ready to offer PT again.
It was an interesting setting.
It was an outpatient pediatric gym that was housed within a Daycare. There was OT and Speech Therapy, and now PT.
The best part of the whole thing - I had no caseload for 3 weeks!
It had to be built and they knew my only experience had been a 12 week clinical.
So for 3 weeks, I observed and learned from the OT!
For 3 weeks, I got paid a Travel hourly rate, to watch an OT!
Best. Job. Ever! 👏
The job was part Outpatient Early Intervention and part Home Health Early Intervention.
I preferred the Outpatient, but also didn't mind the Home Health part.
(Except the time where I had to go into a home, where the Dad had just been released from prison, and the floor was all tile and dirty, and I had to treat a 3 year old with Spastic CP on the couch. That was not ideal. 😬)
The facility also had a 2nd (much smaller) location that was 1 mile from our apartment in Valencia. Eventually, they had me working there on Fridays. This worked out because I could easily walk there.
We enjoyed these Assignments and the location so much that we extended our 13 week contract to a 26 week contract.
We got annual passes to Universal Studios, went into downtown LA and toured each of the surrounding cities each weekend, went on a ton of hikes throughout LA, drove to San Diego a few times, spent Memorial Day weekend driving down the California Coast, went to Disneyland, and just had a really fun time.
THIS is what we had imagined when we decided to become Travel PTs!
Though parts of it were still a little strange. Like the time the facility asked ME to interview the next contract PT coming in to take over the caseload when my contract was completed. 😯
I'd never conducted an interview before. But looking back, I guess it helped set me up from my future role as a Rehab Director.....
I actually enjoyed Peds. This contract helped me see that one bad clinical doesn't necessarily mean the setting or patient population is not for you. It gave me another chance to try something that I had wanted to do when I first started PT school - Pediatrics.
And while I haven't worked with 0-3 year olds since then, I learned a LOT.
I learned things that I have certainly applied to other patients and diagnoses.
I learned things that I used with my babies and my friend's babies and my nieces and nephews.
Mostly, I learned that I could do it. Even though I had CIs tell me "We don't think you should do Peds," I learned that I could. And I did!
I mean, I built a whole freakin case load! 💪
Before we knew it, it was July and our time in Southern California was coming to a close. So we started looking forward to the next adventure and we had our sights on Vegas....
Part 3 of our Travel PT story will be coming soon! Stay tuned!
Comments
Post a Comment