Your first travel contract, part five: the first thirty days

Your first month on assignment is governed by three things you can read in advance: the facility’s own policies, your license, and the contract you signed. Use the month to check that the job matches what you were told, learn the building’s systems, and raise any gap while it is still easy to fix.

By ProTherapy Staffing, published October 24, 2026.

What should I settle in my first week?

The things APTA expects every new PT to handle in a setting’s own way. Its entry-level skills include “Follow institutional/setting procedures regarding risk management,” “Perform emergency procedures,” and documenting care “using institutional processes.” On a new contract all of those are local, so in week one find out:

Ask for these in writing where they exist, such as a policy page or a sample note, and keep them with your contract. If orientation is shorter than you expected, ask on day one who you can go to with the questions it did not cover, rather than working them out alone at the end of a shift. Our week-by-week guide to a first contract covers the practical side of orientation.

What does my license let me do while I am new?

Exactly what it says, in the state where you are working. On a temporary license or permit, the board’s conditions apply whenever you treat, not only during orientation, so confirm who your supervising therapist is and that they are on site when the board requires it.

On a PT Compact privilege, the PT Compact Commission says “All compact privileges expire on the same date as the home state license that was in effect on the date the individual purchased the compact privilege,” so put your home-state renewal date in your calendar now.

SLP clinical fellows: your first segment has begun, and ASHA’s observation requirements apply to it, as part three, mentorship questions, sets out.

How do I know whether I am keeping up?

Ask. Set a check-in with the person you report to near the end of your second week and again at the end of the month, and ask them directly what they would like you to do differently. The APTA Guide to Successful Mentoring describes the learner’s side of that conversation: “Receives and considers feedback to make changes as applicable.”

Bring your own read too. APTA expects a new PT to “Analyze personal productivity using the clinical facility’s system,” so look at your own numbers before the meeting. Expect to be slower than staff who already know the building while you learn its systems; what to raise early is a pattern, such as notes that run late every day or a caseload you cannot finish.

When your first month is under way and you want the next contract lined up before this one ends, ask a ProTherapy recruiter: Find my next contract.

What should I check on my first paychecks?

That the pay matches the contract: the taxable hourly rate, the hours, and the housing and meals stipends. Hold it against the offer you weighed in part four, pay expectations, and the October 2026 pay index month it was compared with.

Keep your tax home in order too. IRS Publication 463 says “Generally, a temporary assignment in a single location is one that is realistically expected to last (and does in fact last) for 1 year or less,” and that “You must determine whether your assignment is temporary or indefinite when you start work.”

What if the job is not what I was told?

Raise it in the first weeks, with your recruiter and with the facility, and bring the answers you wrote down from part two, what facilities expect. A caseload, setting or supervision arrangement that differs from what was described is easier to fix early than at week eight, when, as our guide to a first extension offer explains, the facility may already be asking whether you want to stay.

Keep it factual: what you were told, what you found, and what would fix it. A gap raised with dates and examples in the first month is a request; the same gap raised at the end of the contract is a complaint nobody can act on.

This is the last part of the guide. To start from the beginning, part one covers the licensing timeline.

Frequently asked questions

What should I find out in my first week on a travel contract?

The emergency procedure, how documentation and productivity work in that building, and who reviews your work. APTA's entry-level skills expect a new PT to follow the setting's own procedures for each of them.

When does my PT Compact privilege expire?

The PT Compact Commission says every compact privilege expires on the same date as the home state license that was in effect when you bought it, so keep your home-state license renewed on time.

Does the IRS treat a travel contract as a temporary assignment?

IRS Publication 463 says a temporary assignment in a single location is generally one realistically expected to last, and that does last, 1 year or less, and that you decide whether it is temporary when you start work.

Sources

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