Are you Locum Curious?
Just a short time ago I was sitting in your seat, but from an academic hospital job making the leap seems impossible: How does it work? Where do I find jobs? Isn’t credentialing a pain? I don’t get healthcare coverage!? What if it doesn’t work out?
You don’t know what you don’t know.
It is scary.
It will feel anathema to your current job because it is.
Working for yourself, controlling your own schedule, avoiding hospital politics – there’s a reason why you are here. Maybe you realize that your inputs (blood, sweat, tears, prolonged patient family conversations, finishing charts from home at 10pm, etc.) don’t yield improvements in outputs (no bonus, no increased compensation, no leadership roles, no improved vacation times).
Maybe you realize that you will, more or less, continue to make the same income with the same vacation for the next 20 or 30 years. To some physicians and nurses, that is a blessing. To others, that is a curse. You’ve peaked: you continue toiling and punching the clock until you retire just like many other blue and white collar jobs around the country – only yours requires odd hours, the neglect of your health and sleep, immense stresses, and the inevitably of being sued for doing your job.
If you could snap your fingers and make the perfect balance of life and work and pay, what would it be?
How many days each week would you work? What would you do with the other days?
How much sleep would you get? How often would you workout, run, swim, bike?
Would you pick your kids up from school?
Would you work holidays and weekends and nights anymore?
Would you be able to make all those weddings and parties that you’ve missed over the course of your training and career?
How refreshed would you be to see patients, to help, and to listen to them?
How much time would you take with each one? With teaching?
Would you take a pay cut to make some of this a reality?
If you could snap your fingers to make your life better would you do it?
Of course you would.
But are you willing to work for it? Are you willing to do things that the people around you aren’t willing to do? Stop being miserable and stop commiserating with your work friends about how frustrating the situation is. Change the workplace for the better or leave – voice or exit.
Choose a better life.
When you’re new to something, the absolute best thing you can do is just get started.
Keep Calm and Carry On.
Whenever you’re ready to consider a different path, reply to this email [email protected] or message me directly on the socials here:
Tell me how I can help your specific situation and find a way for you to take control of your time.
Help Patients. Work Less.
Do More of Everything Else.
