1. Giving New Meaning to "Travel Speech Pathology"
Marcia is a traveling speech language pathologist from Lakeland, Fla., who loves most aspects of her job, especially the
ability to travel. Traveling gives Marcia the flexibility to choose her locations, her assignments and how long she wants to
be away from home. It also gives her the opportunity to experience new ways of doing things -- something she may not
have the opportunity to be part of if she were in a permanent position.
One example of a new way of doing things came by way of a recent assignment she took in North Carolina. She went to
work for a private speech pathology clinic that had contracts with several area school districts as well as a host of regular
patients. During her first week, Marsha was informed that she would be working with students more than 50 miles away
at one of the area’s rural school districts. As a traveling speech language pathologist, she assumed she'd be driving to and
from this school district for as long as they needed her. As it turns out, there was no additional driving necessary.
Welcome to Technology
What Marcia found out was that she would be helping the students without ever leaving the clinic she was working at.
Instead, they had set up a remote link between the school and the office using the Internet and some computers. Each of
the computers had a built in webcam and microphone, as well as software designed to let Marcia communicate with all
of her clients in real-time. She was still a traveling speech language pathologist; it's just that her mode of transportation
was a little bit different.
It was quite a learning experience for both Marcia and her students. Giving them instructions remotely and listening for
their responses was something she had never done before. At the end of her assignment, she was extremely excited
about sharing this experience with others. She found it highly rewarding because it enabled her to work with a lot more
clients in the course of the day rather than spending a lot of time on the road.
Broadening Horizons
For a traveling speech language pathologist like Marcia, broadening one's horizons by working in various assignments is
one of the greatest rewards of the job. As a matter of fact, all traveling medical professionals have that same opportunity
through shared experiences, observations of other facilities and clinics and dealing with all kinds of people. In essence,
the traveling medical worker has his various assignments to act as a virtual continuing education program that only
makes him better at what he does.
As an added bonus, the facilities where these workers take their assignments also benefit. The traveling professional is
able to share his or her experiences from previous assignments, like Marcia's remote therapy, giving those facilities the
opportunity to try some of these things themselves. While being a traveling worker certainly has its downsides, Marcia
knows it has great rewards she wouldn't trade for the world.

2. Additional Resources:
CompHealth Travel Speech Pathology Jobs: http://www.comphealth.com/therapy/speech-language-pathologist