The Raising Trend of Locum Tenens in Today’s Healthcare Landscape
Locum tenens refers to healthcare providers who fill temporary positions either while permanent staff is taking planned time off or when an unexpected absence occurs. The practice dates back to the 1970s, but it’s becoming more popular than ever in today’s challenging healthcare staffing environment.
How Locum Tenens Works
When healthcare facilities need to hire providers on a temporary basis, they turn to staffing agencies that provide locum tenens work. The physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who take these jobs are highly qualified and typically find this kind of work very satisfying.
When a provider takes a locum tenens position, the staffing agency typically arranges everything from travel to housing. Housing is typically provided at no cost near the provider’s temporary work location, and the agency offers assistance with credentialing and licensing as needed. The entire process is simple for providers and healthcare facilities alike.
Why Locum Tenens Is On the Rise
The locum tenens industry has seen significant growth in recent years. This market growth can be explained by an ongoing physician shortage that has been occurring at an increasing rate across the United States. Locum tenens helps healthcare facilities compensate for staffing issues and can also help prevent high turnover rates.
Recently, state and federal regulations regarding locum tenens work have undergone changes that streamline the credentialing and licensing processes. These changes also help to explain the growth of the locum tenens industry, as do new healthcare policies like telehealth services. Changes in malpractice insurance have also drawn new providers to the field by offering greater protection for locum tenens workers so they can practice with more confidence.
Locum Tenens and the Gig Economy
The gig economy has transformed many industries, and locum tenens can be seen as one way in which it is transforming healthcare. People are drawn to this workforce solution for different reasons, with most citing flexibility and career autonomy among the top motivators.
As with other gig economy jobs, locum tenens workers are not full-time employees. They are considered independent contractors. This arrangement allows providers to choose when and where they want to work and experiment with different types of practices.
In-Demand Specialties
Locum tenens isn’t universally popular across all medical specialties. Some areas of healthcare provision are seeing more of a surge in the use of this staffing solution than others. Highly sought-after providers include:
- Nurse practitioners
- Family medicine doctors
- Radiologists
- Oncologists
- Gastroenterologists
- Cardiologists
- Anesthesiologists
- Psychiatrists
A combination of ongoing physician shortages in these fields and increasing patient demand for the services they provide has created a situation where many facilities need to find new solutions. Locum tenens providers can both offer a temporary solution to staffing shortages and help facilities retain their permanent staff members by increasing workforce flexibility and reducing issues with burnout.
How to Find Locum Tenens Providers
Healthcare facilities that need to find locum tenens providers to fill in for current or former employees can do so through medical staffing agencies. Not all healthcare staffing agencies work with locum tenens providers, but the top agencies will have no problem finding temporary physicians, nurses, and other professionals to fill healthcare facilities’ needs.
The first step is simple. Select a reputable healthcare staffing agency and reach out to learn more about the benefits of hiring locum tenens workers.
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