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If you’re an occupational therapist with at least two years of professional experience behind you and you’re interested in working as a traveling OT, good for you! We’d love to hear from you!

But you may be wondering how to build a good resume for traveling assignments.

Have no fear, a resume for a traveling OT is very similar to that of one for an occupational therapist who wishes to work for one clinic, hospital or healthcare facility in one place. There is a slight twist for the traveling OT resume, though: you need to show your flexibility and your ability to handle change on a long-term basis.

One of the easiest changes you can – and should – make to your OT resume is to change your objective to one that states that you’re looking to work as a traveling OT. Be sure to place this at the top of your resume, immediately below your name, address and contact information.

Follow the objective with what is known as a summary statement. This is where you summarize your skills, experience and educational background in a short paragraph. You also should highlight some of your certifications specific to OT and other pertinent qualifications. The summary paragraph also could be where you state your flexibility and ability to deal with constant change.

Then comes a list of those specific technical skills. You can place these in a bulleted list for easy reading. Typical skills to highlight could be care plan creation and administration, patient/family education, your interpersonal skills, software and other technologies with which you’re familiar, etc.

Since you’ve been working for at least two years as an OT, you’ll then highlight some of your successes (you can dub this section “Highlights of Accomplishments”) in your career. Be very specific in this section. You’re able to see X number of OT patients a week. You’ve been honored with this specific award. You were employee of the month for your department X number of times. You’ve written X number of journal articles, etc.

This accomplishment section also could be where you highlight your flexibility: “Handled regular shift changes with aplomb and received commendation from supervisor regularly,” for example.

Finally, list your employers in reverse chronological order. Then list your educational history, starting with more recent certifications first, going in reverse chronological order.

Keep the number of fonts you use in the resume to no more than two. Boldface the fonts sparingly and don’t use underlining. In other words, keep your resume clean and spare looking. Aim to keep it to no more than one or two pages.

Looking for more information on a career as a traveling OT? Then contact the recruiters at MedPro Healthcare Staffing. We’d love to discuss our many the many traveling OT jobs we now have available at facilities across the country.

Anyone who says that staying fit while traveling can be easy and simple probably has never actually been a road warrior.

As a healthcare traveler, you’re staying in one place for weeks at a time, so you should find it about as easy to get your fitness efforts in as regularly as you do at home, but should be as easy never means it will be easy.

So, read below for 10 tips on how to stay fit while on your travel assignment.

1. Chances are that the apartment complex where you’ll be staying has some kind of exercise facility/weight room. Use it.
2. You may be working second or third shift, so the apartment complex’s exercise room shouldn’t be as busy when you have the time to exercise. Take advantage of this.
3. If you don’t like to use weight room/exercise facilities and if you’re driving to your assignment city, pack some lightweight dumbbells of 5, 8 or 10 pounds. This allows you to get some weight training in at your convenience in the privacy of your apartment.
4. If flying, pack resistance bands and an inflatable exercise/balance ball. These can be just as effective as weights when it comes to improving/maintaining your fitness.
5. If packing any fitness equipment is out of the question, don’t forget your own body weight. Exercises such as pushups, squats, lunges, etc., can be an absolutely terrific way to stay in shape. No muss, no fuss, no extra stuff in your suitcases!
6. If you’re interested in a body weight regime, Active.com recommends the following: March in place or perform jumping jacks for about three minutes as a warm-up. Then do 10-50 reps (depending on your fitness level) of pushups, lunges, dips, squats and sit-ups/crunches. Do the exercises quickly, with little rest between them. Repeat at least once or, preferably, two more times for a total of three circuits. This will give you a great aerobic as well as body-weight (as in weight training) workout
7. If you’ve a favorite video exercise program, bring it. Chances are the television in your apartment will have a DVD player. Or bring a small DVD player with you.
8. Are you a runner? Bring your running shoes! You’ll undoubtedly find a new colleague who’s also a runner at your assignment, and you can ask him or her for tips on where to run and running events taking place in your new city.
9. Bring your running/walking shoes and walk/run during your lunch hour.

10. If all else fails, bring your walking/running shoes and walk everywhere you can. To the market, throughout your apartment complex, up and down your facility’s stairs. Aim to get the 10,000 steps in that are recommended for maximum fitness each day.

What tips can you offer fellow travelers that have worked for you? Don’t be shy: write them here!

No matter your fitness level, if you’re an experienced nurse, PT, OT, speech therapist, pharmacist or other allied health professional and you’d like a career as a traveling healthcare professional, send your resume/CV to MedPro Healthcare Staffing. We look forward to hearing from you!

An interesting read from one of our association partners – American Association of International Healthcare Recruitment (AAIHR). The article touches on a variety of topics relating to immigration issues regarding foreign-trained healthcare professionals. A snippet of the Executive Summary with a link to the full text are listed below.

The U.S. Congress and the executive branch have failed to establish immigration policies that would allow a
sufficient number of foreign-born doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to work in the United States. At a
time of tremendous need in health care, the United States is saddled with an immigration system designed to
prevent, not facilitate, the entry of highly skilled physicians, nurses, physical therapists and other foreign-born
medical personnel. The aging U.S. population, the demands of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the potential
benefits brought by medical advances and increased specialization mean America must tap the global talent pool
in health care or see its citizens suffer the consequences.

To read more, download the white paper here:

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/22488496/1275517538/name/NFAP_Policy_Brief.Health_Care_and_Immigration.November2012.pdf

The vast majority of traveling healthcare staffing firms are aboveboard, honest and won’t steer you wrong.

But the field does have its shysters. Read below for some tips on how to spot the bad apples before you bite.

1) Watch for the high-pressure “close.” Some less-than-honest travel staffing firms will try to get you to sign up “right now this instant” by offering you “the highest rates” or otherwise “force” your hand with pressure tactics.  Understand that you can sign up with as many staffing firms as you wish and that all of us pretty much offer the same rates. After all, we work in the same healthcare market and that market is the rate setter, not a staffing firm.

2) Beware of the “bait and switch.” This occurs when a company calls you up with a “terrific assignment” in Hawaii, Palm Springs or Palm Beach, for example. It asks you to send in your info and register. Then the company calls you back saying the job has closed, “but we have this other opportunity.”

Instead of just sending in your info, ask the staffing manager why the facility has a need and why it can’t fill it internally. Also ask how soon you’ll hear back from the facility once you’ve sent in your information. If the recruiter can’t answer these questions, that’s a big red flag.

Of course, mistakes do happen; jobs open and close constantly. In order to ascertain if this is an honest mistake or a pattern of fabrication, look back at your interaction with the company. Do “great jobs” close often? Does your staffing manager often tell you about “terrific jobs that nobody else has”? Most medical facilities work with more than one staffing firm; exclusivity as to jobs is rare.

3) Is your recruiter also handling your credentialing, finding you an apartment, etc.? Doing this and recruiting and interviewing potential candidates make for more than a full-time job. Ask your staffing firm if it has employees dedicated to credentialing, negotiating leases and travel arrangements, etc. Asking one person to do it all is asking too much.

4) How desperate is your recruiter to place you now? This can be a warning sign that the recruiter will work hard to place you in an assignment – but it may not be the right assignment for you. Take a close look at your interaction with the recruiter. Does he or she take some real time to find out what you’re looking for, what makes you happy in an assignment? Does he or she know what motivates you?

A feeling of urgency is important: This is a fast-paced business sector. But if you feel undue pressure, walk away.

Also, find out how long the recruiter has been placing traveling professionals. A new recruiter isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course, but this industry is tough and turnover can be high. If you meet with a recruiter who has been placing people for a couple of years, you know you have someone who enjoys the work and knows the healthcare staffing industry. He or she is a keeper!

MedPro Healthcare Staffing has been placing traveling healthcare professionals in assignments at medical and healthcare facilities all over the country since 1983. Our recruiters have been with us for at least two years and many have been with us for five (or many more!). Most also have recruited within the healthcare sector for all of their staffing careers. You can count on us to treat you with respect, care and on the up-and-up. If you’re an RN, PT, OT, speech therapist, or other allied health professional, send us your CV/resume today!

If you like history, if you like to be in close to two large cosmopolitan cities as well as just a couple of hours away from the lovely Delaware National Seashore, check out our traveling occupational therapist position in Wilmington, Delaware.

Located just 45 minutes from Philadelphia; two hours from Washington, DC; 90 minutes from Baltimore’s fabulous Inner Harbor, and just two hours on a straight shot down Delaware’s State Route 1 to the Delaware National Seashore, Wilmington offers history buffs, nightlife lovers and sand dune aficionados a happy paroxysm of fun and terrific places to visit.

Wilmington is located in the northeast corner of tiny Delaware, just that aforementioned 45-minute hop from Philly on the I-95 corridor. It’s the largest city in Delaware and while it appears as if it’s on the Delaware River, it’s actually located at the confluence of two rivers near the Delaware: the Christina River and Brandywine Creek.

Wilmington got its start in 1638 when Swedish settlers colonized it. The area soon became more of a British settlement by the 1660s, and it became Wilmington in 1739 when Thomas Penn (a son of Pennsylvania’s founder William Penn), asked King George II to name it after Penn’s friend, Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington.

Wilmington today is a national credit card center, largely due to the 1981 Financial Center Development Act, which effectively removed usury laws and the cap on interest rates banks may charge customers legally. Wilmington also is an important city to the state due to its location to Philly, Baltimore, and DC.

Wilmington also is popular with history buffs due to its location near the Brandywine Battlefield, the site of an important Revolutionary War battle that allowed England to take over Philadelphia briefly in 1777. The Battlefield is located just to the north of Wilmington and across the Pennsylvania border and open to the public for tours.

Another perk of living and working in Wilmington is its proximity to the Delaware National Seashore just two hours south. The Seashore is located on the Atlantic Ocean just south of the mouth to the Delaware River. It offers beachgoers miles of soft white sand, sand dunes, warm water – and relatively few crowds, even at the peak of summer. If you hate jam-packed beaches, you’ll love the Delaware National Seashore.

In addition, all the free museums, National Zoo, etc. located in Washington, DC are just a two-hour drive to the south, while Baltimore and its Inner Harbor filled with great museums itself, as well as fine dining and shopping is but 90 minutes away.

You won’t be bored on your hours off when you work in Wilmington!

If you’re an occupational therapist with at least two years’ experience behind you and you’ve an itch to see the country while you help hospitals and other medical and therapy centers with your skills, contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing. We look forward to hearing from you!

August 19th, 2012 is “World Photography Day” and MedPro wants your help!

We are calling on all of our traveling heathcare professionals to send us your breathtaking, wacky, or down-right interesting photos you have collected on assignment.  The theme is “Travel” and we will collect the photos on our Facebook page, so be sure to to post yours by August, 17th 2012 for a chance to win a $50 American Express Gift Card!

It’s a big world out there (and we want to see it), so be sure to submit your photo today!

The Fine Print: Must have a current signed contract with MedPro Staffing. Open to employees in the United States only. Pictures must be posted no later than 5:00PM on August 17, 2012. Winner will be announced on August, 19, 2012.

If you’ve been working as a speech, physical or occupational therapist for a few years you may be thinking of changing it up a bit and working as a contract therapist for a few months or even a few years – or perhaps make your full-time career that of the traveler. MedPro has a program which gives you the best of both worlds…..the security and benefits of working for an industry leader with the flexibility and excitement of working in different settings and facilities as you like.

Our clients engage us to find contract therapists because they have a serious need. They could be short-staffed. Someone could be on a long-term vacation. They could be anticipating an increase in census but can’t yet commit to hiring a therapist full time. There could be any number of reasons, but the most important one is that they need your skills.

Dealing with a variety of setting and patients will only help you increase your clinical proficiency. And give you the break you need from the same thing every day for months on end. It may not be for everyone but an increasing number of therapists are researching this option as a new career choice.

If you’re a physical, occupational or speech therapist with the itch to serve and the yen to do it in different settings around the country or close to home, then contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing. We look forward to hearing from you!

As you work with older patients at you’re your travel assignment, you may have noticed that they seem to be unable to move their focus as quickly as your younger patients.

This is typical for older adults and is actually part of the aging process.

According to an article in the March/April 2012 issue of Senior Living Executive in which author Anya Martin interviews neuroscientist Dr. Adam Gazzaley about his study of older adults aged 60-80.

Dr. Gazzaley and his researchers found that, according to the article, the older adults “had a much tougher time re-engaging after a distraction than 22 younger counterparts aged 18-20, and that difficulty corresponded to changes that could be seen visually in MRI scans of their brains.”

Dr. Gazzaley and his cohorts are now studying if this decline has anything at all to do with Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia. He and his team at the University of San Francisco also are studying whether “brain games” and other tools might help people retain their ability to multi-task as they age.

In the meantime, knowing that your older patients might not be able to focus on a new task (say, moving to a new therapy move as a physical or occupational therapist works with a patient) as quickly as your younger patients can go a long way to helping you become a better healthcare professional.

Here are some other tips:

• Tell the patient that you are going to ask him or her to do something else while he or she is doing another activity. That is, for example, if the patient is doing front leg exercises, let the patient know he or she will be doing calf raises next. Tell the patient again when he or she finishes the front leg exercises.

• Keep distractions to a minimum. Aim to work in a quiet room and, if you’re a colleague enters the room, try not to have a conversation unrelated to your patient in the room.

• Remember that what you may think is easy to do – read an article while watching television, for example – may not be as easy for your older patient.

• It’s not that our patient doesn’t understand what you ask of him or her; it may be that he or she needs a moment or two to process your request.

• Also, your patient may not be hard of hearing. Again, it may be that he or she needs a moment to move from one of your comments/requests to another.

To read more about Dr. Gazzaley’s research, read the article.

Whether you’re a nurse, a PT, OT, or other healthcare professional, our clients need you. Contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing to learn more about the many traveling healthcare assignments we offer. We look forward to hearing from you!

Would you like to live and work for a few weeks in an All-American City? If you’re an occupational therapist, check out this position as an OT in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

Located 130 miles from the Atlantic Ocean in North Carolina’s coastal plains, Rocky Mount got its start in 1816 when a post office was opened at the Falls of the Tar River. The name Rocky Mount comes from the rocky mound at the Tar River’s falls nearby.

The railroad came to the area in 1845 and Rocky Mount soon became what is known as a “point of departure” on the railroad soon after.

The town incorporated in 1867 and became a hub in the tobacco industry in the 1880s.

As you explore your new home during your assignment, be sure to visit the Rocky Mount Mills Village. These homes, built between 1885 and 1940 to accommodate workers for the nearby mill, are all recognized by the National Register of the Roc Historic Places. Many of the 62 surviving homes still enjoy their original windows, hardware and doors.

On your off hours you’ll want to visit Sunset Park, which offers a lot of things to do. Enjoy the miniature trains, the historic carousel, play tennis, softball or basketball, or bring a picnic lunch or dinner.

You’ll find several malls in the area, as well as a lively antiques scene – don’t miss the Stockyard Flea Market (Fridays only) and the 301 Craft & Flea Mall.

Work in Rocky Mount April through October and you’ll want to check out the local farmer’s market on Saturdays. The market offers farm-fresh fruit and produce, homemade pickles and jams, fresh flowers and locally grown fish and meats.

The city offers a terrific program of recreational activities via the Parks and Recreation Department’s Outoor Recreation Division. Learn how to canoe/kayak, participate in a ropes course, and other outdoor programs.

Speaking of the outdoors, you can drive to the coast in less than hour. Virginia Beach is about three hours by car; Myrtle Beach is four hours.

Another “must do” is a walk along the Tar River Trail. This 3.5-mile walk crosses the Tar River via one of the longest wooden suspension bridges in North Carolina.

If you’re interested in this top job/location, contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing. In fact, if you’re an OT, PT, speech therapist or nurse, we have many great traveling assignments at facilities all over the country. Contact us today!

So, you’ve decided you want to give this great career path you’ve been hearing about – that of a traveling therapist – a shot. Here are some tips on how to prepare yourself.

First of all, you must be a licensed therapist. MedPro Healthcare Staffing and other travel staffing services usually place occupational, physical and speech therapy professionals in temporary assignments of (usually) about 13 weeks in length. Many can be longer, but the shortest usually is 13 weeks. If you haven’t worked as a therapist for a while and you’ve let your license lapse, you’ll need to get it again. (Important note: MedPro Staffing will pay for any licenses you need to secure in your assignment state.)

You’ll need at least a year of professional experience working in your field. (Internships while in your training program don’t count.) Two years is better.

Traveling can be great fun. It can also be exhausting. Objectively look at any and all health issues  you have and ascertain if you can really make a go of moving every three months, learning a new healthcare facility’s “way of doing things,” learning your way around a new environment, etc. Also, challenges when traveling always crop up. Are you resilient enough to overcome them and not be overly stressed when your “careful” plans go awry?

What’s your family situation?. Singletons have it easiest when traveling, but many people can and do travel with family members. But if your family can’t come with you, how will you cope? How will your family cope? (Note: we can offer short-term therapist assignments in facilities close to your home, close enough that you can a) either be home at night or b) travel back home on weekends.)

You also should consult with a tax advisor. Travel therapists work on a per diem basis. You’ll also receive a housing stipend (if you choose to find accommodations on your own, rather than live in the housing we provide.) This can have tax implications for you and we recommend that you discuss your travel plans with a tax professional.

Be prepared: Some travel assignments start within two weeks of you accepting them. You’ll need to be packed and make arrangements such as mail forwarding, school registration (for your children) and other moving tasks quickly.

Want to learn more about how to prepare for a travel therapist career? Then contact a recruiter at MedPro Healthcare Staffing today!