We like to ask each featured traveler to tell us about themselves and what sparked their decision to travel with Triage. Read on learn more about Rebekah and Tom:
Rebekah
Speech-Language Pathologist
Tom
Physical Therapist
Name and nickname, if you have one:
Our names are Tom and Rebekah Ebertowski.
Do you have any pets?
No pets–just a large collection of houseplants.
Three nouns and three adjectives to describe yourself:
World-Travelers | Full-Time RV-ers | Northerners
Easy-Going | Funny (to ourselves, at least) | Hungry
What led you to your profession?
Rebekah: I was an English Literature major, then an English Education major, then a Liberal Arts major, then a nursing major…somehow, not being happy with any of those possible careers culminated into my dad suggesting I look into speech pathology. And here we are.
Tom: I have always enjoyed sports and exercise, became interested in personal training which eventually led me to physical therapy. Even though I mainly work with geriatric populations now, I still enjoy helping people and seeing them progress toward their goals!
What do you like most about what you do?
Helping people!
What’s the biggest misconception people have about your job?
Rebekah: That all I do is work with kids with lisps (I don’t actually work with kids at all).
Tom: that physical therapy has to hurt—PT doesn’t stand for “pain and torture”!
Describe what your work week looks like in 10 words or less.
Treatment, document, treatment, document, treatment, document, treatment, document, document, document.
What’s a mistake you made early on in your career, and what did you learn from it?
Rebekah: I didn’t pay much initial attention to the cute, bearded PT who was working at one of my facilities. I learned from that mistake and remedied it by marrying him.
What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received?
Tom: In grad school and maybe afterwards, I was given the advice that I shouldn’t feel like I need to know everything—be resourceful, ask questions, and using colleagues as sounding boards.
Why did you decide to give the traveling medical gig a shot?
Usually when people on Facebook groups ask what the benefits of travel therapy are, I just respond with a gif of Mel Gibson in Braveheart, screaming “FREEDOM.” That basically encompasses it–freedom to travel, to take time off when we want, to explore different areas of our professions, in addition to our goal of debt-freedom (which we hope to achieve very soon).
Give us one pro and one con to being a traveling medical professional.
PRO: actually getting to know different areas of the country in ways that you wouldn’t be able to with just a vacation.
CON: It’s hard to make plans very far in advance, since we have no idea where we’ll be living 6 months from now.
What’s been your favorite location and/or assignment to date?
We’ve met some awesome people and had fun during every assignment. One that seemed to work out really well for us was at a skilled nursing facility in eastern North Carolina–it was the only time we’ve both been able to work in the same facility, we developed a love for eastern Carolina-style barbecue, and got to take some awesome weekend trips to places like D.C., Charleston, and Virginia Beach. It was also the first assignment that we were living full-time in our 5th wheel camper, so that provided its own fun and opportunities for learning.
What’s the best advice you were ever given and who was it from?
“Travel while you’re young.” (Received from probably every elderly person we have ever worked with). Although we fully intend to continue traveling even when we’re no longer young.
What would we most likely find you doing if you had no responsibilities for a day?
Sleeping in and then probably going on a day trip to the nearest place that has hiking trails and a good ramen restaurant.
Why Triage?
We liked the business practices and our recruiters (Brad and Julianna) when we were working for Aspen Medical Staffing, so when we found out that Aspen was merging with Triage, moving over with them was a no-brainer!
What do you like most about your recruiter?
Julianna keeps us optimistic when we’re stressed and is wonderful at communicating and being available. For real. Up until yesterday afternoon, she was answering our calls, checking in, and just being her usual upbeat self–and then went to the hospital this morning AND LITERALLY HAD A BABY. I mean, come on. What a champ.
We love highlighting our travelers each month because it gives everyone an opportunity to learn how amazing our team really is! Ready to join the Triage Staffing family? Search allied and travel nurse jobs today.
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