VISTA Archived Blogs

Medicine, for many reasons, is a career path worth considering. The medical profession is as broad in scope as it is in pay scale. 

The facts aren’t too pretty and even seem to loom: 25 percent of all physicians will leave their new practice after three years.  If a physician is fresh out of training, the odds are even worse (sometimes as much as double).  If his or her number one criterion is geography-based, opposed to the practice and community-based, they are even worse.

The locum tenens industry is one requiring clinics, hospitals, and healthcare facilities to not only examine the medical qualifications of providers filling coverage gaps in schedules—but it’s also an industry where staff members of these organizations must examine the content of the character in the locum tenens providers they select. Below are 5 intangible traits that facilities want their locum tenens providers to exemplify.

Our success in staffing comes from a very basic principle that many somehow manage to forget—the principle of trust. Trust not only means acting like a trustworthy person would, but also entrusting your career to the right recruiting professionals. Again, as many forget, trust is a two-way street. Working with a recruiter who only has his or her best interest at heart, which is an interest incapable of trust, is equivalent to crossing trust’s two-way street without looking both ways.

One of the most difficult tasks clinicians have to contend with is compiling and maintaining an up-to-date, attractive CV. The common adage, “there’s an app for that” exists for a reason: There usually is an app for something and now there are multiple apps for clinicians who want to manage their CVs. Given the average locum tenens provider’s frequency of travel and need for convenience, speed, and portability, the smartphone, and its CV management apps could be a clinician's new best friend throughout their locum tenens careers.

The word 'locum' is a French word derived from the Latin phrase 'locum tenens', which means “place holder.” We traditionally view the locum tenens physician or provider as a medical practitioner filling a temporary coverage gap for another provider or physician who is on vacation, sabbatical, family leave, or other extended absence. Yet for a rising number of locum tenens physicians and providers, the work is not temporary at all: It is becoming an increasingly popular full-time career opportunity.

Although demand for locum tenens providers has been on the rise for decades, it wasn’t until Jan. 2015 that legislature started to seriously accommodate this demand—a demand that the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact stands to mitigate. LocumTenensDaily.com reports that 10 states have introduced the legislation to expedite the locum licensing process: Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Vermont, and Wyoming are the US’s first states to utilize this bill.

Becker's Hospital Review closed out the month of March (2015) by publishing the most recent statistics for 2015 healthcare recruiting, and there were few surprises in the data. Moreover, most of the predictions for the latter stages of 2015 materialized: The bottom line being that the physician shortage will continue throughout the remainder of this year while both medical facilities and recruiters strive to fill gaps in medical coverage.

National Doctors’ Day is March 30. Since 1989, this day has been observed across the US. Still, some communities have observed this day since 1933. This day, set aside to recognize physicians and the important role they play in the community, is a staple for physician recognition.

1. What?: Opportunity Means More Money and  Less Time