The Sunday after Thanksgiving of my Junior year in college, I made the 4 hour drive back to school to face the onslaught of papers, group projects, and exams that professors love to assign at the end of the semester. I wasn’t back at my house more than 10 minutes when my roommates called me outside to watch as they turned on the Christmas lights they had put up while I was gone. As they turned on the lights, I took a step back to take in the beautiful icicles and animatronic reindeer that adorned our roof. My foot slipped, my body slid down the usually grassy, but on this night muddy, slope that sat between the sidewalk and the street, and my hand came down on the sidewalk like a sack of rocks.

My roommates laughed their asses off, and I finished unpacking. Later that night I couldn’t fall asleep because of the pain. I could barely move my right arm. At 4:45 AM I drove myself, one-armed, to the hospital. They took x-rays and told me that my scaphoid bone in my wrist was broken (they didn’t put me in a cast because medical care in Ithaca, NY is a joke, but that’s another story). My GPA during that semester was my worst in college. Since I’m right-handed, I couldn’t type, write, or even cut food with a knife. I relied on my group members to finish our projects, I needed extensions on my papers, and I had to request a laptop for my exams (because typing was possible after a couple of weeks). Because of the physical limitations that I had, I mentally checked out for the rest of the semester. I just didn’t know how else to deal with not being able to do anything that I wanted or needed to do.

I didn’t need physical therapy, but I realized how even an injury like a tiny little broken bone in the wrist from a really stupid fall can completely alter your life, if only temporarily. For some people an injury or disability can mean the difference between paying rent and being homeless. RehabCare, as a leading provider of physical rehabilitation program management services, helps people recover more quickly. They currently have employees in over 1,250 hospitals, nursing homes and other long-term care facilities throughout the United States. RehabCare also owns and operates freestanding rehabilitation and long-term acute care hospitals.

So, if you’re about to graduate and are looking for a career as a Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, or Speech Language Pathologist, take a look at RehabCare. They have jobs all across the US, and they’re really recruiting college students hard. In fact, we look at corporate Careers pages all day long, but RehabCare’s Careers page stands out from the rest. We think the way a company communicates online about their job opportunities tells a lot about how they value talent. If we’re right about that RehabCare must be an excellent place to work.

While some companies have entry-level hiring programs, it appears that RehabCare’s approach is a little different. They have a tuition reimbursement program called Opportunity U that compensates you for putting your education to use at RehabCare after graduation. RehabCare’s site does allow you to search for jobs, but we think for someone at the entry-level that’s a waste of time. They want to talk to you before you apply! Many companies can’t even take the time to notify you that they’ve received your resume, but RehabCare will arrange for one of their recruiters to personally contact you to talk about your aspirations. You can also contact their recruiters directly if you have the urge to be a little more proactive.

If you’re not quite ready to talk to a recruiter yet, you can take a look at RehabCare’s blog for college students. You can read about therapy success stories, how they’re using text messaging to reach college students, or the Nintendo Wii as a therapy tool (we had to mention that since we just gave away a Wii). While you’re on their blog, take a look at their campus recruiting schedule to see if they’ll be visiting your college.

We almost looked past RehabCare because their corporate site looks a little outdated at first glance. Luckily we kept digging and found that they are a groundbreaking company when it comes to online employment branding. With so much effort going into doing the recruiting process right, we think anyone interested in rehabilitation should look to RehabCare for great entry-level job opportunities.

Note: On April 22nd we revisited entry-level jobs at RehabCare.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• The RehabCare Home Page
• RehabCare’s Careers Page
• RehabCare’s Careers Page for College Students
• The RehabCare Blog for College Students
• About RehabCare
• RehabCare’s History
• Services Offered by RehabCare
• Benefits at RehabCare
• Apply for the Opportunity U Program

Did you have a stupid college injury? Tell us the story in the comments section.

We've identified RehabCare as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• all employers
• nationwide
• occupational therapy
• physical rehabilitation
• physical therapy
• speech language pathology

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Jobs Near You

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2 responses to “RehabCare”

1. Sam says:

   December 20, 2007 at 1:03 pm

   I was trying to chip off some meat from a frozen chunk of hamburger and had it under some running water… even though I was using a butter knife I still cut through the tendons in my right pinkie. Had a similar experience regarding the typing papers, taking tests, etc. and in fact it was my lowest GPA semester as well (hadn’t occurred to me until now to blame it on the injury).

   Needless to say I am now a vegetarian.

   Reply
2. Barb Wallace says:

   August 20, 2008 at 12:17 pm

   Willie,

   Love your article. We’ve had a blast developing and maintaining our blog for college students. We’ve been able to get connected to some terrific students through this effort and are constantly amazed by what we learn.

   Barb Wallace
   Campus Relations
   RehabCare

   Reply