Travel Speech Therapy

I considered travel speech therapy for many years before actually setting out to live this life! I was completely inspired by the blog: Ramblings of a Travel Speech Therapist (go check it out - her stories of therapy and her adventures are awesome to read about!)!

My adventure began when I became very frustrated at my last place of employment. I had already experienced a variety of settings and never quite found my niche. My last job was in an outpatient clinic working with children - which I loved! Working one-on-one allowed so much progress, good interactions with families, and I had the best (THE BEST - I swear!!!) co-workers a girl could have! So why leave? Why was I frustrated? The people running the company never quite grasped that whole - my employees are valuable concept. We went through not getting paid on payday, worrying about getting paid every 2 weeks after that, having our insuranace cancelled on us three times without our knowledge (while they still took the premiums out of our checks) and eventually having a "manager" who knew nothing about therapy/therapists/running a business and whom never had any interest in learning about it!

So in May of this year I decided - NOW IS THE TIME - Now is the time for me to start doing travel therapy. So I gave 30 days notice and began to interview recruiters. Yes, you read that right - I interviewed the recruiters. There are positions that need to be filled and if you are qualified, the most important thing you can do for yourself is find the best recruiter for you. I found this out the hard way - more on that later! So after talking to about 8 different companies/recruiters, I decided that I would travel with one specific company. The recruiter was so completely honest about the job outlook for my preference (Peds) and honest about positions available, that I felt she was more of a friend that a recruiter. She, and others at the company, worked each and every day to find a position that suited my preference for location and population. Our family went on vacation - everyday I checked my email hoping to see a possible job, but each day went by with no leads. I then received an interview for a SNF (Skilled Nursing Facility), but did not feel like it was the place for me. I called up my recruiter and expressed those concerns and was never pushed into reconsidering my decision. I respected that immensely!

At this point in time, my start date of July 9th was looking pretty grim so I decided to start searching potential travel jobs myself. I looked on ASHA's career page and saw this posting "NEED - SLP for HAWAII".....um, yes please! So I decided to call up the company offering that position (not the original company who I hoped to travel for) and within 2 days had said "yes" and had my resume faxed to the Hawaii Board of Education. That weekend, into the next week, my family took a mini-vacation and once again, everyday, I checked my email 1000 times! Finally a phone call came - "You're in..you're going to Hawaii"! My thoughts - "awesome, yes, this is amazing" and then they said "You need to be here on the 25th". My thoughts - "oh wow, I have to close on my condo, I have to pack, I have to move to storage, I have to get a license.......". But don't worry my thoughts eventually went back to "AWESOME - HAWAII"!!!!!

So then came the stream of paperwork, bloodwork, drug testing, fingerprints, quizzes, etc. All those were completed smoothly, so my only worry was my condo. I had set a closing date for July 30th. My wonderful father agreed to be my Power of Attorny and complete the closing for me. Without him and my mom, I would have never been able to do this! They took in my cat - who I miss so much! And they have taken care of so much back home!

Fast forward to July 25th - I board the plan to head to my new home in Kauai! A condo very close to the beach! Move in was rough - not clean AT ALL! However, one of the perks of your company providing you housing?? They have to deal with the issues. One phone call, okay more like 3 phones calls that day, and the cleaning crew was back at the condo and I started to make it my home. I probably made it to Walmart/Kmart 3 times in the first 2 days - so hopefully I will become better at living with other people's things! Also, being it was in Hawaii - I arrived here with 3 1/2 (carry-on :)) suitcases and that was it! Try packing your life into 3 1/2 suitcases - it's tough!

Fast forward again to today - September 6th - I sit here in my condo (with no central air - only a window unit that doesn't really work, but I have suprisingly embraced it) writing this blog.  My goal this weekend is to get out and experience more of this beautiful island - to remember that I am not back in my tiny town, but on this tiny island. My assignment is for 10 months - so about 3x longer than the typical 13 weeks. I have questioned if that is too long for my first assignment, but it is what it is and at least if I'm stuck somewhere for 10 months, it's Kauai!! :)