Moonlighting, freelancing, substituting, contracting…whatever you call it, physicians working as locum tenens dates back to the seventies – 1979 in our case – and in 2018 more patients need health care and more healthcare facilities need your medical skills. It’s a growing job market!
The pool of qualified doctors who want to work as locum tenens is growing, too, in part because the profession is plagued by dissatisfaction, depression, and burnout. In fact, burnout rates are twice as high for medicine than other fields (per the Medscape National Physician Burnout & Depression Report for 2018). It’s one reason locum tenens holds such appeal for doctors of all ages and experience levels. Healthcare experts even suggest that bringing in locum tenens doctors can elevate the quality of a care at hospitals because it gives staff physicians time off (to help prevent burnout).
