Your first week on a travel contract: a checklist
In your first week on a contract, settle the things that are hard to fix later: a safe and working home, a tested route to work, finished paperwork, and where to get care nearby. Then check your first pay against the contract and start a routine before the novelty wears off.
What should you sort out at home when you arrive?
- Inspect the place before you unpack: photograph every room and email the photos to the landlord or host the same day. The housing site’s guide to getting your deposit back explains why the date on that record matters.
- Test the locks, the smoke alarm, the hot water, the heating or cooling and the internet, and report anything broken in writing.
- Learn how to get in and out: door codes, parking rules, where guests park, and which entrance to use late at night.
- Do a grocery run for the week’s basics and find a pharmacy near home.
- Unpack your work clothes and gear before anything else, so your first shift does not start with a search for your badge or your shoes.
How do you get ready for the first shift?
- Drive or ride the route at the time you will travel on shift days, and find out where staff park and which entrance staff use.
- Confirm with your recruiter who meets you on the first morning, where and when, and save that person’s number.
- Check that your employment paperwork is finished. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says every U.S. employer must complete an employment eligibility verification form for each person it hires, and that “The employee must also present their employer with acceptable documents as evidence of identity and employment authorization.” If your agency has not finished this with you, ask which original documents to bring.
- Bring copies of your license or compact privilege verification, your CPR card and any forms the facility asked for, even if you sent them already.
- Pack lunch for the first days, until you know what is near the building.
What should you find out at work in the first week?
- How your time is recorded: who approves your hours, and what to do about a missed punch or a shift that ran long.
- Who to call if you are sick or running late, at the facility and at the agency, and how your contract treats a missed shift. The jobs site covers paid sick leave on a travel contract.
- What your caseload will look like and how productivity is measured here, so a gap between that and what you were told can be raised early.
- Where the documentation system, the schedule and the policies live, and who to ask when orientation did not cover something.
- Names: write down the people you work with and who does what.
If this is your first contract after school, the new-grad site’s guide to your first month on assignment covers the clinical side in more depth.
If you want your next contract lined up while this one settles in, ask a ProTherapy recruiter: Find my next contract.
Where will you get care if you need it?
- Look up an in-network urgent care clinic, a pharmacy and the nearest emergency room before you need any of them. Medical care on assignment explains how plans and networks work away from home.
- Move any prescriptions to a pharmacy near you, or give your mail-order pharmacy your new address.
- Check your phone’s emergency alert settings. Ready.gov says of Wireless Emergency Alerts: “You are not charged for receiving WEAs, and there is no need to subscribe,” and that alerts “can be locally targeted to ensure only devices in the affected area receive the alert.” Make sure they are switched on, so the alerts for your new area reach you.
- Share your address and work schedule with someone at home, and add a local contact once you have one.
How do you check the money in your first week?
- Find out when your first pay arrives and how, and make sure your direct deposit details are on file.
- When the first pay statement comes, hold it against the contract: the hourly rate, the hours and each stipend line. Raise any gap with your recruiter in writing straight away.
- Keep receipts for anything the contract says will be reimbursed, such as travel to the assignment, and ask how to submit them.
- Set a simple weekly budget for the new city: rent, groceries, fuel and parking can cost differently here than at home.
How do you keep the first week from feeling lonely?
- Put calls home in your calendar instead of waiting for a free moment.
- Pick a regular place outside home and work, such as a gym, a class or a coffee shop, and go back more than once.
- Say yes to the first lunch or after-work invitation from your new colleagues.
- Expect a dip once the novelty wears off; handling the lonely weeks covers what helps.
- Sleep: a new building, a new route and new people are tiring even when the work is familiar.
Frequently asked questions
What paperwork should I bring to my first day on a travel contract?
Bring whatever your recruiter or the facility asked for, plus copies of your license or privilege verification and your CPR card. If your employment eligibility verification is not finished, ask which original identity and work authorization documents to bring, since USCIS says the employee must present acceptable documents to the employer.
What if my first pay does not match my contract?
Hold the pay statement against the contract line by line, then raise the difference with your recruiter in writing, with both documents attached, as soon as you see it.
Is it normal to feel lonely in the first week of a contract?
It is an ordinary part of starting somewhere new. Planned calls home, a regular place to go and saying yes to invitations from colleagues help, and if low mood lasts, talk to a health professional.
Sources
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Employment Eligibility Verification, read October 25, 2026
- Ready.gov, Emergency Alerts, read October 25, 2026