Pediatric Travel Contracts
Travel offers a world of opportunity including variety of setting, state, pay, and flexibility of our timing. Do you want to work in a hospital in southern California in winter to avoid the frigid temperatures and snow? Got it. Are you considering fall in the northeast in your preferred setting of home health so you get to look at beautiful foliage between every patient? No problem. Or maybe you want to work in pediatrics for an Alaskan summer! I highly recommend this one as we did this in 2023. Pediatrics is a little different than other settings so below we will dive into some of the differences I’ve noticed in the pediatric travel community.
I started OT school (even undergraduate study) knowing in my heart that I wanted to be a pediatric OT. That was something that was never questioned in my heart, and knowing this love is what got me through some of the toughest moments in OT school. My career began in my preferred field in 2019, where I secured a school based OT job in my dream city- New York. I was working for a few months when COVID hit, and we were forced to treat virtually to keep everyone safe and do our part to minimize risk. I still loved helping the littles, but working with 3-4 year olds with varying diagnoses and needs on zoom was challenging to say the least. I learned here how to best communicate when families as we worked closer than ever, even through language barriers, different family dynamics, and familial customs/traditions/religious needs. Eventually school opened back up and we began our year in person again. My husband and I felt called to move (not realizing this may very well be the beginning of our wanderlust and travel desire!), and made the move to Texas where I began a job in outpatient pediatrics.
After living in Texas, getting married, purchasing a home, and working about a year in outpatient pediatrics, we decided to take a leap into travel therapy. I was scared, but took the leap into adult based practice, but knew my heart was still calling me to pediatrics. Eventually, my first travel job transitioned and I was given the opportunity to treat pediatrics about 50% of the time (YAY!), reminding me of my love for this population.
All of that back story to tell you that my background before travel came from pediatrics so I knew some of what I was looking for in a contract and knew the clinic side of how to be a peds therapist.
My first pediatrics travel job was in Alaska in outpatient. (SIDEBAR: If you’re interested in this, I have recruiter recommendations who hooked me up, and can give you first hand experience with the lovely outpatient practice I worked for.) This had a few differences in the interview process and the overall travel experience. My interview was far more in depth than other interview I had had. I felt like they truly cared about who they were hiring, and their background. My next pediatrics travel job is my current- a school based position in California. This interview was more brief, but still carried some of the differences compared to adult placements.
I feel like the above is the intro to a recipe you’re trying to read online where you get their life story. Sorry about that, but it felt necessary. Now what you’ve been waiting for- bullet point, straight forward differences in pediatics vs adults in travel therapy:
Peds contracts are often longer- outpatient peds typically requires 6 months, and school based jobs are for the school year (or remainder of the school year from your start date)
Many many pediatrics jobs require previous experience, which is different than many travel adult jobs. Level II fieldwork can often count as this, as long as you are comfortable with the setting. You can always say something like this if you are in this boat: “Yes I have worked in a school setting previously! While it was a level II Fieldwork for 12 weeks, I was able to independently plan and execute treatment sessions, assessment and attend IEP meetings. I feel comfortable working with kids with XYZ diagnosis and use this philosophy…….”
More educational model, less medical model- a large majority of pediatric travel OT jobs are in school systems, rather than pediatric hospitals, outpatient or home health. These of course exist, but schools are by far the #1 peds settings for travel OTs.
Independence- when it comes to schools, you are likely to be the only OT at a particular school (maybe not the district but totally possible). This is why many require experience prior to hiring, because “you’re on your own kid” (thank you Taylor Swift for the reference here), and have less people to bounce ideas and questions off of. This may not be in the case in outpatient or hospital based peds services.
You work closely with families- this seems obvious but isn’t always the easiest transitions. I always say the most difficult part of pediatrics is working with parents (joking, kind of haha)
You may have to be less selective on states or cities you’re willing to go to is being in pediatrics is your number one requirement. By far and large, there is more location flexibility in adult practice.
If Pediatrics is where you want to be, whether you’re a seasoned peds therapist or looking for a change of pace, lace up your running shoes because you can absolutely make it happen in the travel therapy world. I had the misconception when I started that peds was not an option while I traveled, and that simply is and was not true. As explained, there are some differences compared to adults, but if you didn’t want change from adults, you would work in adults! In another blog we can dive deeper into pediatrics interview tips and questions to make sure to ask before your first day, if anyone is interested.
As always, this comes from a place of my experience and market data I’ve looked at. If you have varying experiences, I’d love to hear from you! Lastly, remember, play is the most fun occupation (;
