Top Full Time Remote Careers for Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, or Speech Therapy Moms/Dads/Parents

As a soon to be physical therapist mom, I thought it’d be fun to make a list of some of my top ideas for:

• Full time remote jobs for soon to be parents in PT, OT or SLP professions
• Full time remote jobs for new parents in PT, OT or SLP professions
• Full time remote jobs for current parents in PT, OT or SLP professions

All of these career routes were chosen because they require 1) very little extra education or no extra education, 2) they are simple transitions that still utilize our therapy degrees in some way, and 3) pay similar to our clinical salaries, and 4) they are remote or partially remote.

Utilization Review/Care Coordinator:

Why do I love utilization review and care coordinator roles as a remote choice for rehabilitation parents who want to work from home?
Utilization review type roles are one of my favorite remote roles because they provide extreme stability, similar pay to clinical salaries, and you do not need additional education. You’ll still be using your clinical knowledge, which is a plus!

What are utilization reviewers or care coordinators?
Utilization management is the broad term that refers to various roles that involve reviewing for medical necessity, appropriateness and overutilization or healthcare resources. Basically, these roles review to make sure healthcare professionals are treating patients appropriately and billing appropriately.

I want to make it clear that none of our students have ever felt that this role has pressured them into denying care. In fact, as a therapist or assistant, you don’t perform the denials – you just perform recommendations and it is up to the physician on the review team to make final judgement.

Within “utilization management” are many roles and each company unfortunately, titles their roles differently – which can be very confusing! But just know that when you see home health care coordinator, skilled inpatient care coordinator, appeals and denials coordinator, and therapist reviewer services or utilization reviewer, all these roles are roughly the same. The differences arise as some companies separate the titles by setting – ie. Home health care coordinators deal more with home health setting reviews.

What is the salary of a utilization reviewer or care coordinator?
$85,230 is the median utilization review/care coordinator salary according to salary.com (https://www.salary.com/research/salary/alternate/utilization-review-specialist-salary). After having over 600 students in our utilization review course, I think this number is fairly accurate – however to first get into this role, expect to earn about $75,000 is you have 0-5 years of clinical experience, 5-10 years of experience expect $80,000 and if you have 10 plus years of experience then expect a pay of about $85,000. From this, you’ll often get between 7-9% bonuses and have upward mobility.

Top pros of utilization review/care coordinator roles:

• Fully remote (other than SICC roles which are hybrid)
• Guaranteed 40 hours of work/full time
• No sales involved
• No extra work past your work time/no take home work
• Better for people who are less social as you do not have to do any sales work

Who is this the best fit for?
Utilization review and care coordinator positions are great for therapists and assistants who need a stable 9-5 role that has a guaranteed 40 hours. It also is one of the best paying non clinical positions for therapists and assistants. So this is a great route for someone who doesn’t want to do sales, wants to end their day on time with no take home work, and has similar to salary as their current clinical role.

Top cons of utilization review/care coordinator roles:

• This role can get repetitive
• This role has a lot of reading and writing involved
• You need to enjoy reviewing charts/documentation
• You need to be well organized

Recruiting:

Why do I love recruiting as a remote job choice for parents who want work at home? It’s very flexible in terms of duties – so if you have a new born, or a child that has increased needs, where you would have to randomly get up and help change diaper or feed your child, then this role is a great fit!

What is recruiting:
Recruiting is role where you are tasked to help find and secure a worker for “x” position. There are 3 different types of recruiting – there is recruiting for travel positions, for contract, and for full time roles. Within these roles, you also have lots of different professions or sectors – you could recruit for nurses, for the rehabilitation profession, for scientists, for really any profession out there!

Top pros of recruiting:

• Recruiting has flexible hours. You’ll work a full day, but you could take an hour mid day to walk your dog or buy groceries, but you’ll also maybe have to take 7pm call with a potential job candidate.
• There isn’t a salary ceiling. Many jobs have a limit of how much you’ll make. But with recruiting, you earn a combination of salary plus commission – which means the harder you work, the more you’ll get paid.
• While this role isn’t remote for every job posted, there are remote opportunities.
• You get to help people find a job. After witnessing both my husband and my dad loose their jobs, it means a lot when I can help people find work and I know as a recruiter, you’ll feel very rewarded when you help someone get hired.
• There is no extra education needed and no certifications needed
• No physical labor involved

Tops cons of recruiting:
You could have later hours or times in the evening you’ll be working
You’ll need to be close to your phone for rapid response to clients emails or calls
This is not a standard 9-5 salary. You’ll be paid a small salary but mostly commission, so you’ll really have to earn your wages.

You need to be outgoing and be persistent – this is a pro but could be a con for some.
People will ghost you and you have to learn to be okay with that.

What is the salary of a recruiter?
As a recruiter salary is a combination of a small salary plus commission, the estimated salary can really vary. In addition, usually the longer you work and the more clients you have, you will be on a tiered system where you’ll earn even more.

But according to https://builtin.com/salaries/hr-recruiting/recruiter, average salary is $76,150. I searched several sites and you’ll see a wide range but after working with many recruiters for several years, I think around $75,000 is a vary fair median salary. I do know several people who earn $100,000 so it is very possible to earn much more than this standard salary.

Who is this the best fit for?
This is a great role for someone who is outgoing, organized, and doesn’t give up! You’ll have to make lots of calls and emails, and speak several times to people before they choose you as their recruiter, and many times you may get ghosted after taking lots of time to work with a candidate.

Example day in the life of a recruiter:
While you’ll work a full day, your hours may not be purely 8-4:30 as you may need to take a late call with a potential job candidate or answer a urgent email. This makes this role potentially great for some people while for others it may not be the best fit.

But here are some duties you can expect. You’ll usually have a list of people to call – this may be people you have never spoken to before, perhaps they signed up a conference for travel roles, or this may be clients you have spoken to in the past. You’ll also have a list of emails made up of new, current, or past clients – reaching out to see their interest in a certain role.

In addition, you’ll maybe do a post or several throughout Facebook groups on job opportunities you have and answer some social media questions.

You’ll maybe have a client that you are submitting their paperwork for a role, or guiding them through the next steps of their hiring processes.

And of course, they may be a sprinkle of meetings with your team or supervisors.

Virtual Reality:

Why do I love virtual reality as a remote career idea for physical, occupational or speech therapy professionals? We get to continue to help people, use our degree, but without the lifting and also while being remote.

What is a virtual reality therapy position?
Very similar to in person therapy, you’ll be performing evaluations and treatment sessions – but they’ll be virtual and you’ll use virtual reality as the main treatment modality.

Top pros of working in virtual reality:

• Virtual reality roles are rewarding. You are helping people, just like you would in healthcare.
• They are often remote roles although you will find some in person roles.
• You need no extra certifications or education (many companies have their own training they provide)
• You get paid similarly to your clinical salary
• Easy transition as much of your treatment sessions will be just like in the therapy session
• No physical labor involved

Top cons of working in virtual reality:

• It may be challenging to care for patients but are limited to just virtual reality
• You’ll have to be very comfortable with technology and solving technology issues
• This may be a part time job more commonly, but there is usually a route to become full time

Average pay of virtual reality therapists:
According to Zip Recruiting, https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Virtual-Reality-Salary, the average salary could be $62,000. As virtual reality therapist positions are relatively new, I think this salary could really vary but likely expect similar to a clinicians salary.

Who is this the best fit for?
I think this role is great for someone who really loves patient care and wants to continue patient care, but perhaps can’t lift any more or wants to be more at home. This is also for someone who can be creative and is eager to learn new technology and skills.

Example day in the life of a virtual reality therapist:
Usually your day is a fairly set 9-5 type of schedule and will be fairly similar to your therapy clinic days. You’ll have a list of patients and perform initial and ongoing therapy evaluations to determine if they are appropriate for virtual reality at home. From this, you’ll then create your plan of care and perform treatments and monitor your patient’s performance.

Technology and Sales Roles:

Some common titles that could be remote include:

• Clinical trainer or educator
• Sales roles
• Assistive technology consultant/educator
• CEU educator
• Customer success

There are so many roles out there that you can do! It’s just about knowing what to search, trying lots of different search terms, being persistent and going directly to the company website to see what you could perhaps apply for. Oh, and don’t limit yourself – apply to things you think you could be a good fit in!

As there can really be endless job titles to apply for, I suggest to first narrow down to a category/company type you want to work for. For example, try searching EMR companies first and see what they have on their career page. Or try companies that you have worked with in the past, like perhaps nugait, nustep, bioness, etc.

But here is a brief overview of some of the roles you could try to search for:
Clinical educator or trainer – This would be a role where you learn the technology or the item, and either go into clinics, patients homes, or perform virtual demonstrations.

Sales or assistive technology consultant: This could be a role where you would be selling a certain item, say a wheelchair or a walker. You perhaps would do follow up fittings and adjustments.

CEU educator: More and more these technology or device companies are making their own education. You could help to make the education material and do presentations either to patients or to therapists/clinics.
Customer success: This is someone who is maybe on a support line or helps when the device a person ordered or clinic ordered isn’t working. You may do webinars or in services to promote the products as well.

Common salary of therapy technology or sales roles:
As there is a broad range of roles you could apply for, the salary can really vary. But, according to Glassdoor, the average salary for a customer success $69,808 https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/TherapyNotes-Customer-Success-Salaries-E337029_D_KO13,29.htm.

Top pros of working in technology or sales roles:

• These companies often have great perks
• Learn interesting new skills
• You can still make a great impact on people’s lives
• These roles are usually fully to hybrid remote
• These roles sometimes have more upward mobility options that other healthcare roles

Top cons of working in technology or sales:

• They roles may be more commonly offered as part time
• There may be a larger learning curve
• More sales are involved, which not everyone enjoys, and more communication based
• May be a commission plus salary based role

Who is this the best fit for?
I think if you like solving problems and working with technology, then this is a great role! Usually these roles are good for self starters who are very creative, outgoing, leaders and innovative.

Example of day in the life of someone in one of these roles:
These roles can really vary by day in the life as there are just so many different roles you could apply for.
But if you are in sales role, you’ll likely be performing cold calls (calling strangers), cold emails (emailing strangers), reaching out to current clients to check in, checking in with clients who are currently in the purchase process, and thinking of ways to continue to grow your leads/connections and make more sales.
In a customer support role or educator role, you’ll be making sure those who bought a product have the education to know how to use their device/product. You may provide education via PDFs, via webinars that are in person or virtual to just on facility or to just on provider. Some companies have educators that would be in charge of creating CEU courses in regards to their product and would be in charge of getting these courses approved. You maybe would also be answering support calls and come in if a product was not being as effective or if a patient was having pain while using a product, for adjustments.

Telehealth

What is a telehealth therapy position?
Very similar to in person therapy, you’ll be performing evaluations and treatment sessions – but they’ll be virtual and you’ll have to get creative with how to treat and help your patients remotely.

Top pros of working in telehealth:

• Telehealth roles are rewarding. You are helping people, just like you would in healthcare but now remotely.
• They are often fully remote
• You’ll need no extra certifications or education (many companies have their own training they provide too)
• You get paid similarly to your clinical salary
• Easy transition as much of your treatment sessions will be just like in the therapy session
• No physical labor involved

Top cons of working in telehealth

• It may be challenging to care for patients but are limited to just remote care
• You’ll have to be very comfortable with technology and solving technology issues
• This may be more commonly a part time job or contracted role, but there may be full time transitions you can make

Average pay of telehealth therapists:
According to Zip Recruiting https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Teletherapy-Occupational-Therapy-Salary, the average salary could be $74,000. As telehealth positions are relatively new, I think this salary could really vary but likely expect similar to a clinicians salary.

Who is this the best fit for?
I think this role is great for someone who really loves patient care and wants to continue patient care, but perhaps can’t lift any more or wants to be more at home. This is also for someone who can be creative and is eager to learn new technology and skills.

Example day in the life of a telehealth therapist:
Usually your day is a fairly set 9-5 type of schedule and will be fairly similar to your therapy clinic days. You’ll have a list of patients and perform initial and ongoing therapy evaluations to determine if they are appropriate for telehealth at home. From this, you’ll then create your plan of care and perform treatments and monitor your patient’s performance.

Summary:

I hope this has give you an in-depth guide into several fully remote or hybrid remote roles that you can pursue using your healthcare knowledge! All of these roles were chosen because you need little to no extra education and you can earn similar to your clinical salary!

If you want a more in-depth guide into each of these career routes you can go to each of the respective blog posts here:

• How to get a utilization review/care coordinator job as a PT, OT, SLP, COTA/OTA, PTA: https://www.alternativehealthcarecareers.com/blog/how-to-become-a-utilization-reviewer-rehabiliation-professionals
• How to get a recruiting job as a PT, OT, SLP, COTA/OTA, PTA: https://www.alternativehealthcarecareers.com/blog/travel-therapy-recruiting
• How to get a sales job as a PT, OT, SLP, COTA/OTA, PTA : https://www.alternativehealthcarecareers.com/blog/medical-sales-job-guide 
• How to get a telehealth job as a PT, OT, SLP, COTA/OTA, PTA: https://www.alternativehealthcarecareers.com/blog/telehealth-job-guide 
• How to get a virtual reality job as a PT, OT, SLP, COTA/OTA, PTA: https://www.alternativehealthcarecareers.com/blog/job-in-virtual-reality 
• How to get a Technology (product, project manager, customer success, clinical trainer) job as a PT, OT, SLP, COTA/OTA, PTA :  https://www.alternativehealthcarecareers.com/blog/technology-job-guide 
• How to get an Assistive Technology job as a PT, OT, SLP, OTA/COTA, PTA: https://www.alternativehealthcarecareers.com/blog/assistive-technology-job-guide 
• How to get a health coaching job as a PT, OT, SLP, COTA/OTA, PTA: https://www.alternativehealthcarecareers.com/blog/health-coach-job-guide