We receive these offers all the time as emergency physicians. The emails offer just enough information – you know it’s somewhere new with new people, new experiences, and competitive pay. But is the locums experience really so great that you should call the recruiter to find out more?

From travel to pay, to new opportunities and scheduling – you might just find that taking the plunge into the world of locums is absolutely worth some of the uncertainty of this opportunity.

You will have the opportunity for travel

You might not work in the big, glamorous hospital of a large metropolitan area, but you will get to travel to the region in which you are interested. Depending on why you’re considering locums, this might actually be perfect.

If you want to see the Appalachians or the Pacific Northwest, you can find a locums opportunity in that area and use your work to explore the region. You can take your time off or that time adjacent to blocks of shifts to see the areas you’ve always wanted to see. This is particularly helpful if you’re considering a move to a completely new region, which is why having the perspective of locums to explore a region (rather than a city) is helpful. Locums is a good way to explore without making any permanent commitment.

The locums companies may pay for your travel, a hotel, airfare or meals, but they will not pay for you to stay extra days in a hotel during times that you aren’t working. They obtain your work schedule first and then schedule your travel around that. You need to have this conversation with your recruiter early in order to make this work out for you. For example, if you’re working on the 1st to the 5th, find out whether you will you be able to pay for your own hotel from the 6th to the 10th and fly back at that time. In other words, would the company be willing to pay for a ticket whose price difference is negligible for you to fly back five days later if you pay for food and lodging in the interim?

You can make more money

You might not mind the additional expense of staying in a hotel when you’re making better money with locums. Often, the facilities that need locums are paying a little more than fair market value because they need coverage. They have schedule holes to fill and are willing to reimburse extra for this. This is nice because you will wind up needing to spend less hours in an ED overall in order to make the same income. It’s important to note that while the income is good, it can be a source of contention between you and the colleagues you’re working alongside. You are getting more for the same job, and you have less skin in the game than they do, as you are a temporary physician.

When this situation arises, consider that hour-per-hour, you are making more. However, your work arrangement is much more inconvenient for you compared to a local working in the
same facility. If you live in Florida but do locums in Montana, you’ll lose a day of travel in each direction – days you could be making money in a local facility. You’ll have to rent a car, stay in a hotel, do paperwork for every meal and have considerably more inconvenience than you would working in your local ED.

Your overall schedule is more flexible

Because you are traveling, your schedule will often be in blocks. You may consistently work X number of shifts in a row, and that’s it for the month. The shifts themselves may be undesirable because you are filling in holes that they cannot fill at that facility. They may also be undesirable because the facility is trying to keep the dedicated, permanent physicians happy during a time when they’re hiring locums.

Often, you will work a string of days or nights in a row, and that is your entire commitment for the month. The undesirable shifts are a sacrifice you will have to make in order to work locums, but your overall schedule is actually more flexible. Aside from those five days in a row that you are working, you have the other 25 days of a month off and are making more money in those five days than you would be making at home, hour per hour.

You must adopt the mindset of “That’s my week to work.” You get your head in the game and you focus exclusively on performing well for that time. The time ends, and you get back to your life, with the remaining days that month to do whatever you want.

You end up with increased amount of scheduling flexibility because your shifts become predictable and are carved out.

New systems and people mean growth

In emergency medicine, you will have a fundamental skill set. New systems mean that you will find new ways to apply use these fundamental skills. By putting yourself in unfamiliar environments, you will learn a tremendous amount yourself and the flexibility and applicability of your knowledge. When you ultimately decide to work in only one environment, you’ll know what you want and what you don’t. You will learn multiple electronic medical records, which is like being fluent in several languages. You will learn which systems do and do not work. You will learn multiple workarounds for every system, which will make you indispensable in any system.

Jumping from hospital to hospital and doing so in a functional way is an invaluable skill. It’s necessary in leadership, teamwork, and developing rapport quickly and easily in high stress situations. This is a learned skill that would be harder to acquire if you only stayed in one place for your entire career.

New people to work with also means new ideas and experiences. You will not have the monotony of seeing the same places and the same problems when you work locums. Locum tenens is an exciting opportunity and a chance to start fresh as frequently as you’d like. With new experiences, new people and situations, you will invariably grow as a physician. If you take the plunge, remember to keep a good list of your contacts and grow and cultivate the relationships and networks that you form in order to explain why you took the locums position should you ever decide to work in only one situation.

If you choose to do locums, it isn’t for the rest of your life – it’s for as long as you want it to be. So, consider this job option as a way to grow and no matter what you do, remember – it’s temporary.

**Editor’s note: To view locums opportunities, check out our locum tenens physician jobs**