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.
Adaptability: If you’re in pursuit of locum tenens work, chances are you’re willing to test a crucial change and redefine your professional life. But there’s a big difference between willingness and the ability to execute. Adaptability goes far beyond mentally adjusting to a new environment during your off hours—it involves the ability to adapt to different patient volume levels, demographics, and case histories while working at a new healthcare facility. Although locum tenens providers work as independent contractors, they still need to meet their facility’s specific demands.
Flexibility: If you’re interested in working in the locum tenens industry or are currently working in it, you’ve probably realized that flexibility is crucial when it comes to the hours you work. However, flexibility, in the context of the locum tenens provider, seeps into many other categories. Hard and fast rules you’ve come to know as fact, in some cases, will be dismissed for different practices and forms of thought in your new locum tenens role. Flexibility and adaptability are somewhat similar, but the main distinction is that flexibility requires a willingness to think differently, whereas adaptability is one’s capacity to act in accordance with the change.
Confidence: Patients do not just have medical needs—they have emotional wants when it comes to their providers. Therefore, facilities want locum tenens providers who can provide excellent healthcare and treat their patients with the confidence of someone who’s worked at the hospital for decades. Although this trait is oftentimes unnoted, it is very important that locum tenens providers embody it—especially those who work in specialties where patients normally establish close, trusting relationships with their providers.
Proactivity: Although many locum tenens providers have staffing agencies to help them acquire proper licensure, streamline travel processes and provide professional liability insurance, healthcare facilities appreciate locum tenens providers who make an effort to get up-to-speed with their way of doing things quickly. Although this sounds challenging, it is often rewarding and eye-opening for locum tenens providers.
Commitment: A word oftentimes not associated with anything short-term, commitment is still an essential trait for locum tenens providers. An opening is infrequently different from how a staffing agency describes it, but when this does happen, it is important for the locum tenens provider to stick to his or her commitment and finish the assignment, or else it may impact his or her ability to find work while the contract has not been completed. To make commitments easier, locum tenens providers can do their own due diligence, and work with trustworthy recruiters to ensure the opening is truly what they are looking for. This is yet another way commitment is manifested to healthcare facilities.
Here at VISTA, we do our best to keep you up-to-speed on what you’ll need to succeed. If you can embody the aforementioned traits, you will likely be among the locum tenens industry’s best providers, and finding a role perfect for you will be easier than ever.
