Official Therapist Blog

Therapy Career Resources for Foreign PTs—your Go-To Guide

Author Therapy Career Blogger | 07.23.2010 | Category Allied Healthcare, Career Tips, How To's, How to Tips, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapist Jobs, Respiratory Therapy, Therapist Jobs, Therapy Jobs, Travel Therapist, physical therapist licensing, physical therapy, physical therapy job questions

Foreign PT License Requirements and FAQ’s you should bookmark!

Were you trained for a physical therapy career outside of the United States, and looking for a therapy job here? If yes, welcome to our Go-To guide, featuring information on the Top 10 states for physical therapy careers, as well as direct links to state licensure applications.

Top 10 States for PTs
You’ll note some states’ pages for foreign PTs answer frequently asked questions, while others route the foreign trained physical therapist directly to an online application, instructions for obtaining licensure or all of the above. Every state is slightly different in its approach, but the bottom line is the same: qualified applicants who meet state licensing authority criteria enjoy rewarding and high paying physical therapy careers!

California: The Physical Therapy Board of California assists foreign educated Physical Therapist graduates from accredited and non-accredited programs. You’ll note that this state’s page gives a shortlist of what you’ll need to get in order before you apply, plus a direct link to an online application.

Colorado: The Colorado Division of Registrations provides an online application and instructions on how to take the NPTE exam; it also lists basic requirements for foreign trained Physical Therapist licensure.

Florida: The Florida Department of Health answers FAQs for Foreign Trained Applicants and an “Apply for a license” link that helps you get started.

Iowa: The Iowa Department of Public Health’s Physical Therapist licensure information is the same for foreign and domestic applicants on the online application.

Illinois: The Division for Professional Registration handles licensure for all applicants, both domestic and foreign trained in physical therapy careers; this site does not provide a specific page intended for foreign trained PTs; however, they do provide contact information for sources who can answer your questions.

Massachusetts: The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation states that graduates of foreign physical therapy programs may be eligible for licensure in MA, but that the Board accepts only the evaluations prepared by the FCCPT

Maryland: The Maryland Board of Physical Therapy Examiners provides detailed instructions for foreign trained Physical Therapist applicants; you’ll notice two different licensure links for foreign PTs; one for “Licensure by Examination” and one for “Licensure by Endorsement”. You will also note this state accepts evaluation credentials sent by the FCCPT.

Ohio: The Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and Athletic Trainers Board provides an online application for licensure as a PT or PTA, with instructions for foreign applicants on the PT applicant page.

Texas:  The Executive Council of Physical Therapy & Occupational Therapy Examiners provides instructions for foreign trained physical therapist applicants; they provide, on this page, an “Apply for a License Now” link.

Washington:  The Washington State Department of Health reviews all applications for Physical Therapist licensure, domestic and foreign trained, and provides a “packet” of all the materials you will need to work in Washington physical therapy jobs.

Working in Physical Therapy Assistant Jobs
For foreign students of physical therapy, the process of obtaining licensure is more difficult for PTAs (physical therapy assistants) than it is PTs—we covered the reason in a related press release, but you’ll want to read on for direct links to therapy career resources that exist to help you transcend this minor obstacle. Just do the following, in the following order, and you’ll soon be working in physical therapy assistant jobs:

Complete all educational requirements to become a Physical Therapist Assistant

• Apply for the National Physical Therapy Assistant Examination (NPTAE), pass it, then successfully take the National Physical Therapy Examination

Or

• Apply for a student visa (F1 Visa) and then apply to accredited Physical Therapist Schools; Canadian physical therapists can work on a non-immigrant NAFTA Professional (TN) visa
• After you complete your education and prior to graduation, apply for Optional Practical Training (OPT), which allows you to work in the U.S. for up to one year.

Commonalities Shared by State Licensing Boards
Foreign trained applicants should have the following items in order before applying for state licensure:

• Social Security Numbers: you can apply for licensure and take the exam prior to getting a social security number; however, you will need the S-S-N prior to receiving your license.
• iBT TOEFL: a passing score on this test proves you are proficient in English. Minimum score required is 89, as well as accompanying minimum scores in the test’s four components: 24 in writing; 26 in speaking; 21 in reading comprehension; and 18 in listening comprehension
• A letter: from the applicant’s university stating that at the time the student received their first degree the language of instruction was English.
• Requirements for Credential Evaluations: Once you pass the NPTE exam, you must prove your education is on par with state standards.
• The Foreign Credentialing Commission on Physical Therapy (FCCPT): This non-profit organization assists many foreign trained PTs in showing their educational credentials are equivalent to current standards in the United States. See if your state board of physical therapy will work with them.

Remember that using therapy career resources, like each relevant link in this blog, can help you get to work fast!  For the foreign trained, as well as every professional working in travel physical therapy jobs, we wish you great luck in your new home!

Footnote: Some online physical therapy career resources cited here were taken from The Rehab License Network, which was created with the goal of making allied healthcare licensing information easier to obtain and/or maintain for rehab professionals.

Are you ready to begin an exciting Occupational Therapist Career?

Author Therapy Career Blogger | 07.07.2010 | Category Allied Healthcare, Career Tips, Occupational Therapy, Therapist Jobs, Therapy Jobs, Top Rehab Careers, rehabilitation therapy

Learn what to expect from Occupational Therapy Schools

Get Your Occupational Therapy Career Resources Here!

The road to occupational therapy is paved with the understanding that it’s up to you to ensure your patients live their lives to the fullest! How does an OT do that? By helping those they treat regain their independence and functionality.

Occupational therapists help patients with mental or physical disabilities improve their motor skills and better negotiate the challenges of home and work environments. If you’re reading this, it means you plan to jump start a successful occupational therapy career; you also intend to hit the ground running by reading up on the best occupational therapy schools, accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE).

The right occupational therapy school will prepare you for the national certification exam and board exam to be licensed to practice; your occupational therapy school will also help you use both theoretical and clinical skills to their utmost potential.

Come into this rewarding career by understanding the fundamental differences between being an OT and careers in physical therapy. Working in occupational therapy jobs means evaluating and improving your patient’s functional abilities, rather than directly treating the injury and its damaged muscles and tissues, like a PT.

Before getting acquainted with therapy career resources designed to launch your career into the occupational therapy jobs stratosphere, ask yourself if you have what it takes. Did you:

• Excel in your high school biology, chemistry and health classes?
• Major in a subject like biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology or anatomy in college?
• Are you in the midst of applying to a masters program with no less than a 3.3 GPA?

If you answered all three bullet points with a resounding “Yes!” than you’ll love attending occupational therapy school! But there’s more cause for budding OTs to get excited…

Prior to graduating from an accredited OT program, you can find work in occupational therapy assistant jobs, by earning a 2-year associate’s degree.

That’s just the icing on a whole cake’s worth of therapy career resources. Travel Force and other top staffing agencies for allied health professionals encourage occupational therapists to:

• Learn your state’s licensing policy so you don’t hit any bumps on the road on the way to earning the title of OTR: (Occupational Therapist Registered)
• Recognize what an employment edge you have as an OT! With the Baby Boomer population entering retirement and the elderly living longer, your services—as predicted by the US Bureau of Labor—are expected to rise by 26% between now and 2016!
• Before your occupational therapy career hunt begins, do some volunteer work in a health care facility and use that experience to help with the six months of clinical fieldwork necessary for graduation from most occupational therapy schools.

It also pays to know which age group or special needs group you wish to focus on as an OT. Your choices include:

• Patients who are permanently disabled with diseases like cerebral palsy or spinal cord injuries
• Children in schools
• Elderly patients in hospitals and nursing homes
• Patients who have trouble functioning in work settings
• Patients in mental health facilities or addiction centers

Whichever road you choose—and there are many—in your occupational therapy jobs, know that you are a living, breathing testimony to the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA) slogan. You and your patients are living life to its fullest!”

Enjoy Independence Day in Washington DC (and everywhere else)!

Author Healthcare Jobs Blogger | 07.01.2010 | Category 4th of July, Allied Healthcare, Fun Events, Locations, Monthly Events, Occupational Therapy, Tidbits

If you’re lucky enough to find yourself on a travel assignment in the Nation’s Capital on Independence Day, you’ll discover there’s no shortage of things to do in DC. If you can brave the heat, head out to the 4th of July Fireworks on the National Mall. (As an allied professional, you know how to cope: stay hydrated!) Fireworks, music, friendly folks sharing picnics on their ‘viewing’ blankets — plus, the show is free! (But no matter where you are this holiday weekend, you can still catch the concert and fireworks on PBS.)

Physical Therapy Students Prepare for the Real World via Virtual Reality Training

Author Therapy Career Blogger | 06.17.2010 | Category Allied Healthcare, Career Tips, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapist Jobs, physical therapy, rehabilitation therapy

Avatars Hit the Physical Therapy Job Scene

Physical therapy students at the University of Kansas Medical Center are among the hi-tech wave of entrepreneurs, engineering and medical professionals to take advantage of Second Life — an online community computer program where participants create their own avatars and manipulate them in job training drills, business conferences and group study projects.

So far the software lives up to its hype, dramatically cutting costs for businesses (like hospitals and clinics) accustomed to the transportation and lodging expenses associated with more traditional methods of preparing PTs for physical therapy jobs.

Educating groups face-to-face takes a toll on the environment, using more of the planet’s resources to ensure everyone meets; the School of Occupational Therapy at Thomas Jefferson University dodged this by using Second Life in its Backpack Awareness week.

Sometimes what starts with a flicker results in a flame—more occupational therapy jobs may be pleasantly impacted by cutting-edge technologies just like this.

Thanks to Second Life, increasing numbers of allied healthcare professionals—those in physical therapy jobs being no exception—are given enviable access to virtual reality training, and its making a huge difference in the span of what they can learn—as well as who they learn it with; that is to say that Second Life makes it possible to train with students from all over the world at the same time; read more about it in the Kansan.com!

OTs and physical therapists new to the virtual reality training scene will be happy to know that learning is a matter of manipulating standard contemporary office equipment, such as headsets, the keyboard and computer mouse; a class instructor will be present as an avatar as well, creating situations inside your shared virtual clinics, or perhaps something on a much larger scale—what Second Life creators call “an island”.

What does an island look like?

If you’re imaging something from Gilligan’s Island, think again. For physical therapy students at Kansas Medical Center, a Second Life Island features fully equipped exam rooms, furnished lobbies and realistic operating equipment. These aspiring PTs train in houses, specially designed for conducting home assessments for handicapped patients, which better prepare them for preventing patient falls before they happen.

Once a PT logs into the virtual world, he or she can walk the corridors of a true-to-life hospital, clicking on different objects, such as blood pressure cuffs, oxygen masks and laryngoscopes; learning how to attach such items is an important part of the virtual reality training journey.

Hospitals can’t help comparing a virtual world education to more traditional methods; Kansas is leading by example, with their physical therapy students and instructors finding that Second Life benefits don’t just cut costs, but promote more rapid learning in a more secure environment—worrying about security is a thing of the past, as virtual reality training requires no advanced booking or threat of vandalism and theft.

Who knows? Physical therapy schools near you could acquire—if you’ll pardon the turn of phrase—a Second Life—and use virtual reality training for student poster presentations and simulations of Community Living Centers, filled with virtual patients. Tell your instructors about this article.

Faculty awareness is how new learning systems like this find their way into the classroom—real or virtual!

Physical Therapy Career Advancement Tips

Author Therapy Career Blogger | 06.10.2010 | Category Allied Healthcare, Career Tips, How to Tips, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapist Jobs, Respiratory Therapy, Speech Language Pathologist, Therapist Jobs, Therapist Jobs Postings, Therapy Jobs, Travel Therapist, Travel physical therapy jobs, physical therapist licensing, physical therapy, physical therapy job questions, rehabilitation therapy

How to activate your job search

Physical therapy careers come in all shapes and sizes; some PTs travel from one assignment to the next, while others hold permanent positions. There are seasoned therapists earning close to—or topping—six figure salaries, and others just beginning a physical therapy career with nowhere to go but up.

No matter where you are in your physical therapy career, the job search is everything—particularly if you’re looking to make a positive change. Travel Force offers therapy career resources that help you launch the ideal job search, matching your career skills and education to the very best physical therapy jobs.

Our physical therapy network can supply the perfect job match. Search from the best allied healthcare careers America has to offer by clicking on the Activate your Job Search Agent for the fastest results.

By activating a job search, you can choose from existing positions and get your first pick of well-paid, highly compensated physical therapy jobs, virtually anywhere and everywhere in North America. You specify the city, whether your interest is in a permanent and/or travel physical therapist job and take your pick among a wide variety of possibilities. If a job is not available in the exact location you wish, we will seek out a plum position on your behalf to meet your job requests in the next best location.

The Job Search Agent is for  physical therapy careers and allied healthcare jobs in all professions:

• Physical Therapy
• Physical Therapy Assistant
• Occupational Therapy
• COTA
• Pulmonary
• Respiratory Therapy
• Polysomnographer
• Diagnostic Imaging
• Medical Laboratory
• Radiation Oncology

Get started today and we will have you on the road to professional and financial success! The great thing about letting a #1 therapist staffing agency help you advance in your physical therapy career is that you’ll be working in an expert allied healthcare staffing organization. We comply with Joint Commission policies that ensure the education, licensing, training and work experience of our team has been verified inside and out.

Our expertise is  anticipating  every possible question regarding physical therapy careers; check out this link and physical therapy job questions about what to expect straight out of school with a DPT.

We cover these topics regarding successful physical therapy careers as well:

• Top Physical Therapy Certifications by Specialty
• Physical Therapy Job FAQs every working and/or aspiring PT should know
• Therapy career resources -get links to licensing boards, blogs, social media sites and more

As a physical therapist, you’ve worked hard to stay current on the latest technologies, marked your calendar with events that help you network (i.e. the APTA Conference), and absorbed Top 40 PT career tips that let you connect with your patients in ways that benefit them beyond recovering independence and mobility.

The great thing about a physical therapy career—deemed not just a job, but a lifestyle—is that career advancement doesn’t stop once you’re hired. Our therapy career resources place no limits on how high your star might rise professionally—look to Travel Force for all your physical therapy career advancement and career planning needs.

We’ve got you covered from the time you first sit down to interview, from the time you sit down to enjoy your retirement!

Travel Physical Therapist Jobs FAQs

Author Healthcare Jobs Blogger | 05.18.2010 | Category Allied Healthcare, Career Tips, Occupational Therapy, Respiratory Therapy, Therapist Jobs, Therapy Jobs, Top Rehab Careers, Travel Therapist, Travel physical therapy jobs, Traveling Therapist, physical therapist licensing, physical therapy, physical therapy job questions, rehabilitation therapy

Travel physical therapy jobs offer many advantages to physical therapist professionals. Some of the great benefits of travel physical therapy jobs are:

• Physical Therapists get to visit different exciting locations
• Career Advancement by gaining valuable experience in a variety of clinical settings
• Meet new and interesting people along the way and possibly make lasting friendships and career networking contacts

Travel Physical Therapy Job Career Fact: travel physical therapy jobs currently offer one of the fastest growing career opportunities for physical therapists. If you’re a PT who looks for adventure and professional challenges, a career as a traveling physical therapist might just be what you are looking for.

Q: Is there minimum experience required to start a career in travel physical therapy jobs?

Agencies like Travel Force cater to individuals in all stages of their physical therapy career from new grads to experienced working physical therapists alike. At Travel Force, we employ physical therapists including new grads, mid-career professionals, advanced professionals with DPT, to older PTs working through retirement.

Q: How long are travel physical therapist jobs?

Travel physical therapy jobs are typically 13-26 weeks in length. Physical therapists often renew their travel jobs to further explore favorite locations.

Q: Can I work full-time, year round as a travel physical therapist?

Yes, physical therapists can choose to be employed year round in travel physical therapist jobs or take time off between assignments if they wish. Travel Force presents you with PT jobs choices early in your assignment, so you have plenty of time to decide where you want to travel next. Many physical therapists have switched to a career in travel physical therapist jobs because it pays more, advances skills, and encourages travel to fabulous locations for free.

Q: What kind of work will I do in Physical Therapist Jobs with Travel Force?

Physical therapists working with Travel Force find PT jobs in facilities offering the latest technology and advancements as well as small to medium size outpatient clinics offering standard physical therapy services to patients. Travel Force is proud to have staffed therapists in several of America’s best hospitals ranked “Best Rehabilitation Hospitals” by the U.S. News & World Report.

Q: Does Travel Force offer Physical Therapy Jobs close to home?

Yes, Travel Force specializes in finding physical therapy jobs for physical therapists who wish to work close to home rather than relocate. In this case, your free private housing benefit would come in the form of a mortgage or rent subsidy added to your earnings.

Q: What is the pay range that I can expect to earn at Travel Force?

Physical therapist salary starts between $71,520 and $80,000 with a total compensation of $100,000 or more with benefits. Hourly wages for physical therapists average $35 per hour, and spike dramatically after five years on the job. The Travel Force tax advantage plan, coupled with the referral program and sign-on bonuses, plus reimbursement for meals and other travel incidentals means earning upwards of $100,000 a year or more in travel physical therapist jobs.

Q: Does travel physical therapist jobs include free healthcare insurance?

Travel Force is proud to offer a benefits package that includes free group health, dental and life insurance; our plan provides prescription drug benefits, along with a flexible health plan to healthcare needs, and is available to cover your dependents. For therapists who prefer to obtain their own insurance, Travel Force Staffing will assist in subsidizing the expense.

Q: Will  I get Professional Liability Insurance and Worker’s Compensation Insurance with a travel therapy job?

Yes. Travel Force Staffing provides professional liability malpractice insurance to all of our physical therapists, occupational therapists and other allied healthcare professionals on all travel therapy jobs.

Q: Are physical therapists provided a round trip travel allowance?

Yes, Travel Force provides a maximum round trip travel allowance on PT jobs – regardless of whether you travel by car, plane, train or bus.

Q: Do Travel Physical Therapist Jobs offer fully furnished housing?

Yes, physical therapists get fully-furnished free private housing; with upgrades such as fitness centers, pool and more at select properties.

Q: Do Travel Force jobs come with a 401(k) plan and retirement benefits?

Yes. The Travel Force’s company-matched 401(k) plan is generous. You can easily access your account online and individuals with vested retirement benefits may transfer them as they wish.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Now that you know more  about travel physical therapist jobs; it’s time contact Travel Force Staffing to get your traveling physical therapist started right now. Call us at 800-617-0608 or Apply Online

The Travel Force mission is to provide you with the best career growth opportunities in assignments at facilities with the highest standards of clinical and professional excellence, while offering the most comprehensive support and compensation programs.

National Occupational Therapy Month well under way this April

Author Therapy Career Blogger | 04.19.2010 | Category Allied Healthcare, Career Tips, Monthly Events, Occupational Therapy, Occupational Therapy Month - April, Therapist Jobs, Travel Therapist, rehabilitation therapy

Just like everyone else, occupational therapists file their taxes in the spring, with the ultimate goal of satisfying the IRS before April 15th —whether or not your tax return gives you something to celebrate, April is and will continue to be, a busy and celebratory month for OTs across the nation.

Why? Because April showers bring reasons to showcase what high paying occupational therapy jobs do best: help patients live their lives to the fullest!

Yep, it’s National Occupational Therapy Month for a couple more weeks; those of you in travel occupational therapy jobs close to Florida are close to the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA) annual conference in Orlando. If you registered by the extended deadline of April 11th, you’re good to go in a conference beginning on 4/29/10, lasting through the second of May. We’d love to read comments from occupational therapists in attendance, if you would be so kind as to post one after reading our article!

Nowhere near Orlando this month? No big deal. You don’t have to attend the AOTA conference to practice what it preaches. Here are just a few things you—and in this case “you” applies not just to OTs, but OTAs and students—can do to showcase the importance of an inspiring occupational therapist career.

Visit www.promoteot.com to see OT related gifts from AOTA’s new line of products; your purchase goes a long way in showing clients, referrers, and colleagues how much you care—the best part being that proceeds help the AOTA help you!

• Host a little Occupational Therapy Month party in the break room where you work; now that spring cleaning is through, those plates and utensils ought to be easy enough to find! Serve coffee and donuts while sharing stories about how occupational therapy careers greatly benefit the public—little events like these are great at getting the word out!
• Send out April greetings to clients or mentors, expressing the occupational therapy mission statement: to help patients “live their lives to the fullest”; this is AOTA’s platform—OTs  are encouraged, this month especially, to distribute consumer tips that help millions of patients (of all ages) through the hardships of their medical conditions.
• Finally, promote the unique role OTs can play by getting involved with Rebuilding Together (RT). AOTA and Rebuilding Together (RT) have collaborated on home modification projects for low-income homeowners for more than a decade. OTs play a crucial role in this outreach program as members in RT affiliate programs spanning the country.
• Remember that April, a month of painted eggs, tax advantages and sunshine is just a temporary bright spot in a whole year’s worth of showcasing the importance of Occupational Therapy.

We’re certainly going to tell the world what occupational therapy does 365 days a year.

What Physical Therapists Need to Know about Top Ranking Hospitals

Author Therapy Career Blogger | 03.23.2010 | Category Allied Healthcare, Locations, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapist Jobs, Therapist Jobs, Therapy Jobs, Top Rehab Careers, Top Therapy Blogs, physical therapy, rehabilitation therapy

The best rehabilitation hospitals in America boil down to a “Top 25” list, and are chosen via recommendation of specialists who give their highest marks to facilities offering state of the art procedures and care.

In review of the crème de la crème, PTs and therapists of every stripe find the following consistency: the top 25 rehab hospitals share zip codes with some of the most metropolitan cities in the country; for some professionals living in these exciting environments, the cost of living is high—fortunately, this is not the case for employees of our Therapist Staffing Agency, where free private housing make physical therapy jobs infinitely more appealing.

Another reason therapists and folks in occupational therapy jobs will be glad they read this?

Travel Force matches qualified applicants with physical therapy jobs in the thick of our nation’s top rehab hospitals, named by U.S. News & World Report.

You can read more about the metro areas where top rehabilitation therapy facilities are located on online professional platform sites, like AfterCollege.com, which helps college students, alumni and employers utilize career networks across the country, ultimately landing the best Rehab Jobs.

Therapists craving city details—let’s say, for example you and the rest of your graduating class wanted to apply for physical therapist jobs in Florida—would be wise to click around and get more information on PT jobs in the sunshine state, where benefits and compensation are nice and high.

Let us once again remind you, though, that therapists perusing websites like Travel Force and AfterCollege —and subsequently finding scintillating photos of Top metro areas for rehab therapists, need not worry about pricey renter’s fees that have a way of making such cities notorious—notorious for skyscrapers and sky high costs in living that is—at Travel Force you don’t pay any rent—and, as a result, you do a LOT more living!

In closing, and because we think it resonates better this way, check out our list below, containing the ambitious therapist’s short list of cities we staff with allied health professionals. When you apply online for a job in one of these happening towns, or in a Travel Force staffed state close to the high ranking action, you’re likely to land at one of the Top 25—a fantastic move for your physical therapy career!

• Seattle, WA
• Columbus , OH
• Richmond, VA
• Cleveland, OH
• Texas
• Colorado
• Massachusetts
• North Carolina

Have an Appetite for Fun Food? Check our Therapist Deal’s Guide

Author Therapy Career Blogger | 03.17.2010 | Category Good restaurants nationwide, How to Tips, Locations, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapist Jobs, Therapy Jobs, Traveling Therapist, physical therapy, rehabilitation therapy

Rehabilitation therapy jobs can create an appetite for fun food; read on to find some great deals ….

In physical therapy jobs, PTs and likeminded colleagues are bound to ask upon arrival in a new city: “So, is there a good place to eat around here?”

Any foodie worth his salt, especially a local one, is happy to answer this question, plugging local cuisine that lends the cities your Rehabilitation Therapy Jobs take place in, character…a la mode.

Yep, it’s the locals who recommend great vegetarian venue guides, like happycow.net, which puts veggie loving therapists in touch with the nearest organic restaurants and health food stores—with any luck, word spreads there’s an alternative to meat lover’s pizza at the next Occupational Therapy Jobs roundup.

Herbivore or meat loving, the locals know where it’s at; that’s why sites like Where the locals eat are worthy bookmarks in the months you work in physical therapist jobs away from home.

Food for thought: When physical therapy jobs mean you’re often too busy to cook, eatin’ good in the neighborhood—at restaurants that come highly recommended—means you’re twice as likely to extend your assignment.

Click on Applebee’s as proof that signing up to receive e-mails at your favorite franchises is a great way to save. Have OT Jobs and physical therapist jobs starved you for time to surf restaurants? Applebee’s sign-up page removes the guess work, and the good news is its simple steps to free membership are very similar to tasty competitors, i.e. Red Lobster’s Fresh Catch Club.

When restaurants like these are running a sale on surf or turf, you’ll be the first PT to know. Check in at all your favorite franchise websites to see what we mean.

You may already be a smart phone enthusiast working in travel therapist jobs whose restaurant app on the ol’ mobile quite capably makes your dining decisions for you, but that hardly means PTs and OTs aren’t interested in deep discounts available in the 2010 Entertainment Book. If you haven’t heard about it already, we’ve got the 411! This huge volume of coupons provides an online membership, where additional (printable) discounts are available just by typing your current zip code; you can also apply for an Entertainment Card, designed for discretion when the bill arrives.

Whether you find the perfect bargain or not, PTs, OTs and the medical professionals in between, gotta eat! Find out on the Travel Force therapy career resources page if you’re destined to work in one of the top 5 travel therapy spots.

Once you get there, make sure to ask: “So, is there a good place to eat around here?”

Physical Therapists Working with Recovering Arthroscopic Surgery Patients …

Author Therapy Career Blogger | 03.03.2010 | Category Ellen Bloome-PT, Locations, Medical/Surgical, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapist Jobs, Therapist Jobs, Top Therapy Blogs, physical therapy

Knowing more about new tools in medical robotics is a help.

Arthroscopic surgery means allowing a surgeon to repair or remove tissue from a joint with virtually no disruption to other critical parts. The surgery is achieved via insertion of microscopic instruments and camera through the portal of an incredibly small incision site. Sufficed to say, surgeon careers are changing in the new millennium—and most medical professionals, including those in therapist jobs agree those changes are positive and exciting.

Arthroscopic procedures are monitored on a television screen, and to laypeople and healthcare professionals alike, it sounds like the stuff of science fiction. Physical and occupational therapists that work with recovering surgical patients, understand that sci fi or no, arthroscopic operations are stories that generally end well.

Here’s why. Patients benefit from this procedure because they are at a substantially lowered risk for blood loss and infection; as ideal as an arthroscopic procedure can be, there is, however, room for improvement, especially in the area of arthroscopic surgeries on the hip joint.  Mechanical engineers, like Emily Geist are working now, in a collaborative effort with engineers at Carnegie Mellon, to ensure patients like Ellen Bloome, PT continue to receive, should they need one, successful arthroscopic surgeries in the future.

To better understand what warrants further research on arthroscopic surgeries to the hip joint, therapists may be the first to point out what a tricky place in the human body the hip joint resides. Says Geist, “The hip is a lot deeper in the body than the knee or the shoulder, and it’s a lot tighter. The hip has a ball and a socket. It’s a little more difficult to get an instrument in there. There is a navigation challenge often times when you are that deep in the body.”

Luckily, there are mechanical engineers working with surgeons, that can navigate that challenge, as evidenced in a recent article about computer aided arthroscopy becoming the wave of the future—for therapists who love a good career enhancing read, please click here to learn more about some of the inspiration and research behind medical robotics. It’s all fascinating stuff, and, who knows, it could lead to future therapist jobs at a top rehab hospital—check out Colorado Therapist Jobs to further that possibility and earn up to 20% more!