Questions to Ask a Travel Therapy Agency Before You Sign

Question 1 · Mentorship

Who Would My Mentor Be, and Have They Worked in My Exact Setting?

A good answer is a name, a license, and a setting history. "We offer great support" is not an answer. Before you commit to anything, you should hear exactly who would mentor you, what credential they hold, and which clinical settings they have actually worked in.

This matters because at many agencies, "support" means your recruiter, and most recruiters have never treated a patient. They can fix a payroll problem. They cannot tell you how skilled nursing documentation differs from outpatient, or what a realistic first week in home health looks like.

Gold Coast's answer: every traveler is matched with a free, setting-specific mentor through our 1:1 mentorship program. Our mentors are licensed clinicians covering skilled nursing, home health, outpatient, acute care, inpatient rehab, and pediatrics, and they're listed by name and credential so you can see exactly who would mentor you before you ever talk to a recruiter.

Question 2 · Mentorship

How Often Will I Meet With My Mentor, and Does Support Start Before Day One?

Get the cadence in plain terms. Two checkpoints separate real mentorship from a welcome call: support should begin before your first shift, and your mentor should stay available for the length of the assignment, not just during onboarding.

Some agencies advertise mentorship that turns out to be a single orientation phone call. By the time you discover the difference, you're three weeks into a contract, alone with a documentation system you've never seen.

Gold Coast's answer: mentorship begins before your first shift. Your mentor walks you through the documentation system, productivity expectations, and patient populations for your specific setting, so day one is spent treating patients rather than guessing. After you start, there's no quota of meetings to use up — weekly calls, as-needed texts, or both. You set the rhythm.

Question 3 · Support

Is There an On-Site Clinician at the Facility, or Is Support Only Remote?

Make the agency tell you who will be in the building with you. Some assignments put you on a full rehabilitation team. Others, especially home health and rural skilled nursing, can make you the only therapist on site. Neither situation is wrong. Finding out after you've signed is wrong.

Gold Coast's answer: we describe the facility's therapy team before you commit, and we tell you plainly when an assignment means working solo. That is exactly the gap mentorship exists to cover. When there's no experienced clinician down the hall, your mentor is the person you call for clinical questions, documentation problems, and the workplace navigation nobody warns new grads about. Remote support doesn't replace an on-site colleague, and we won't pretend it does. It means you're never working without backup.

Question 4 · New Grads

Do You Place New Graduates and License Applicants Right Now?

"Right now" is the operative phrase. Plenty of agencies work with new graduates in theory. Ask how many new-graduate placements they've made recently, and if you're still waiting on board results, ask for current license applicant openings rather than a "we can look into it."

In eligible states, California most prominently, a Physical Therapist License Applicant can begin working under supervision while the license application processes. Few agencies maintain facility partnerships that accept license applicants, and the difference can be months of unpaid waiting while your classmates start their careers.

Gold Coast's answer: yes. We place Physical Therapist License Applicants at select partner facilities in eligible states, and new graduates are core to our model rather than an exception to it. Every license applicant gets the same setting-specific mentor as every other traveler, which matters when you're learning your first job and a new state's systems at the same time.

Question 6 · Caseload

What Caseload Will I Carry as a New Grad, and Is There a Ramp-Up?

Ask for three numbers before you sign: the expected daily caseload, the facility's productivity standard, and how long you get to ramp up to full speed. Any recruiter who has actually spoken with the facility can get all three. "Ramp-up" should mean something concrete: a lighter first week, a defined date for full productivity, and a named person who signs off on your orientation.

Travel contracts generally assume you can carry a full caseload quickly. That is the trade behind the higher pay, and a fair agency tells you the facility's real expectations up front so you can decide whether the assignment fits where you are clinically.

Gold Coast's answer: your mentor covers the productivity expectations and workflows of your specific setting before the assignment starts, so the caseload you agreed to on paper is one you've already planned for. And when a facility's expectations are a bad match for a first assignment, we'd rather tell you and find a better fit than place you somewhere you'll struggle.

Question 7 · References

Can I Talk to a Clinician You've Actually Placed?

Any agency that places travelers regularly can connect you with one, and if you're a new graduate, ask to speak with a new graduate they've placed. Pay attention to how the request lands. An agency confident in how it treats travelers handles this as a normal question, because it is one.

When you get the call, ask the traveler three things: did the pay package match what was promised, what happened the first time something went wrong, and would they sign with this agency again. The first answer tests honesty, the second tests support, and the third tests everything else.

Gold Coast's answer: ask us and we'll make the introduction. Before any reference call, your first conversation with Gold Coast is with a licensed therapist rather than a salesperson. We'd rather you ask hard questions before you sign than regret not asking them after.

Question 9 · Reliability

How Often Do Your Travelers Actually Start on Time?

Ask for the number. Delayed starts are usually credentialing problems: license verification, background checks, facility paperwork. They cost you real money, because most travelers don't get paid until they start. An agency that tracks its on-time start rate manages credentialing seriously. An agency that doesn't track it can't promise you anything.

If they do have a number, ask the follow-up: what happens to your housing arrangements and your income if the start date slips anyway? The answer should be a policy, not a shrug. You're often signing a lease in a city you've never lived in based on that start date.

Gold Coast's answer: 98% of our placements have started on time since our founding. Behind that number is full candidate preparation — paperwork, license verification, and training on your facility's documentation system, all handled before day one so your first day is spent treating patients, not chasing logins.

Question 10 · Ownership

Who Owns the Agency, and Have They Worked as Travelers Themselves?

Ownership shapes every other answer on this list. When the people who run the agency have taken travel contracts themselves, mentorship, honest pay packages, and realistic caseloads stop being marketing features and start being how the company has to operate. Ask who owns the agency, what they're licensed in, and whether they have ever been the new clinician in an unfamiliar building.

Gold Coast's answer: we are therapist-owned and operated. Gold Coast was founded by licensed physical therapists who traveled themselves, our team carries more than 20 years of combined clinical experience, and we've grown from a California agency to placements in all 50 states in under four years. There are no upfront costs and no retainer fees anywhere in our model, for facilities or for clinicians, and the mentorship is free. Read about who we are and why Alyssa started the company.

The Bottom Line

What if the Recruiter Won't Answer?

Treat a vague answer as information. Most recruiters are decent people working inside whatever system their agency built, so a dodge usually tells you about the agency, not the person. If you ask for a rate breakdown and get one blended number, or ask about mentorship and hear "we have great support," keep looking. There are agencies that will answer all ten questions in specifics, and you deserve one of them.

Bring this list to every agency on yours, ours included, and write the answers down. You'll know within one phone call which kind of agency you're talking to.