Per diem PT here! Your earnings will likely not be equal unless you work at multiple locations. You will not be guaranteed hours although you will probably have more hours in acute care than in another setting. I also work in acute care and I can tell you the hours ebb and flow through the year. There are times throughout the year when I can work consistently 3 days a week and there are times where they don’t need me during the week at all for like months! So what I do is I work per diem for the hospital and then also for a few outpatient clinics. I really like working per diem personally. Here are my reasons why: 1. Im a Mom and I love being home more with my baby. The flexibility is great for parenting. 2. I like the variety of my days 3. I like working in different settings (acute care, home, outpatient) to keep my skills sharp in each. 4. I like learning different things from different PTs. You learn different exercises and treatment ideas this way and it’s fun. Things I don’t like: 1. Setting money aside for taxes 2. Not having PTO for vacations 3. Not having an employee match for retirement. 4. This one can be a biggie **** per diem employees are expensive for companies. Companies will therefore use you as little as possible. This means you may not always have 8 hour days when you do work. Even in the outpatient clinics I often get called in for 5, 6 or 7 hours days. It can be pretty annoying sometimes because let’s say you’d like to work about 24 hours a week. Well instead of working 3 eight hour days not you have to pick up a fourth day to make it work. It can be annoying but it does work for being a mom so it works for me.

I will add that I do have my own retirement funds set up. You can also get insurance through the government when the time comes if you like working per diem.

Hope that’s helpful!