VISTA Archived Blogs

As we were traveling to Taos for my locum tenens assignment, we were crossing a large area of plains on the way to Las Vegas, New Mexico. We ran across a man on a horse.

Your first step is understanding your eligibility, which varies by state, and is based on:

•    Whether you are an American or international medical school graduate and, in some states whether your medical school is approved by the state. VISTA’s team will research a state medical board’s website or utilize the WHO Directory of Medical Schools or the ECFMG FAIMER Directory to determine if a school is acceptable.

•    The length of post graduate training you have completed. International graduates are commonly required to complete three years of PGT; American grads may meet eligibility with one or two years of training after graduation.
•    Limitations on licensure examination, e.g., some states do not accept a “state” exam—these were the norm prior to NBME, FLEX and USMLE.

I’ve had several conversations recently with physicians who were considering locum tenens work, but were a little concerned about earning an adequate income given the current economic situation. I thought I’d offer some insight into the dynamics of the locum tenens industry, which I hope will increase your comfort level if you happen to be in the same boat.

Working as a locum has been quite an adventure. We are into our second year and have been to Washington, Arizona, Idaho, Alaska, and Bermuda. The longest job has been two months, and the shortest was a week. My husband has enjoyed working with the people in the clinics he's been to. He says, seeing the patients is the easy part. It's the different computer systems in each office that are the challenge, but his skills have been rapidly improving.

No, this is NOT the strangest carry-on question I’ve received, but in thinking about physicians traveling to locum tenens assignments and actually having a little free time to pursue other interests, it seemed like a good answer to share.