More than half of OB/GYNs feel burned out by their jobs, giving them the second highest rate of burnout among physicians. The intense demands of the job make it a constant battle for many OB/GYN physicians to balance work with their own needs and time for family. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Many OB/GYNs are finding that locum tenens is a better way to practice that gives them greater control of their schedules, better work/life balance, and more time for themselves and their families.
Here are five ways working locum tenens is helping obstetricians and gynecologists practice in a way that is both flexible and rewarding.
1. Set your own schedule
Working locum tenens allows you to set your own schedule. You get to decide where, when, and for how long you work. You decide how much time off to take between assignments, and you can even choose what type of procedures you want to do.
OB/GYN Dr. Linda Holt ran a private practice for seven years before deciding to switch to full-time locum tenens. “I made the decision that I’d had enough years of doing office practice, and I just wanted something with more flexibility,” she says.
Switching to locum tenens has allowed her to adjust her work schedule to maintain a teaching commitment once a month at a large suburban teaching hospital in Illinois and still regularly take time off to pursue her passions.
2. More time to pursue your passions
Dr. Holt likes that locum tenens allows her to block out time to pursue her passion of serving medical missions. “That’s the beauty of locums. You can actually take chunks of time and do things,” she says. “I tried to do that a couple of times while I was at the practice, and it’s just hard to do. It created a lot of disruptions. I had a very solid practice, but most practices are not really set up to do that.”
OB/GYN Dr. Chastity Edwards says she enjoys being able to visit family more often. “I’ve spent more time with my family than they’ve spent with me in more than 20 years of practicing medicine since switching to locums.”
She has even invited family members to join her on some of her assignments. “I had my mom fly down to a town where I had a locums assignment that I thought was super charming. We rented a log cabin and stayed there and got to meet the townspeople and just do things that we ordinarily wouldn’t.”
Dr. Jaqueline Brown uses the flexibility of locums to take time off from OB/GYN work to travel internationally. “I work for three or four months and travel for about a month and do that repeatedly. I love my life now. It’s really worked out well for me.”
3. Take better care of yourself
Working long hours can make it difficult to maintain your mental and physical health. Dr. Brown touts the health benefits of working locum tenens.
“My friends have said, ‘You’ve reverse-aged 10 years!’ And my stress levels are so much lower,” she says. “That’s priceless. I find my work rewarding again, and I have time away from work for the things I enjoy. I love my life now.
Because she enjoys being physically active, Dr. Brown picks OB/GYN locum jobs that let her explore the outdoors. “I’ve been really trying to get to areas that have more wilderness. My favorite of all the places I’ve been is New Mexico because I really like outdoor activities like hiking and biking. I loved being near a National Park, and the good weather made it more feasible for me to do the things I like to do when I’m not working.”
4. Earn higher pay per hour as a locum OB/GYN
Because many locum assignments pay more per hour than a regular OB/GYN job, many physicians offset the time they take off by getting compensated at a higher rate for the hours they work. OB/GYN locums jobs pay, on average, $150 – $200 per hour or $1,200 – $1,400 per day.
Taking as much time off as she does, Dr. Brown admits she makes less than she used to in her old practice, but she also works less than one-third of what she used to work. “I make enough to cover my mortgage and cover my living expenses, contributing the maximum amount that I can per year for tax-free saving, and still look forward to doing what I want to do with my lifestyle.”
OB/GYN Dr. Ashita Gehlot began working locum tenens to pay off her medical school debt more quickly. “Locum tenens allowed me to aggressively pay down my student loans,” she says. “I’m able to pick up more shifts as needed if I want to make even more money. I make more money now than I did in private practice.”
Go deeper: How locums can help you pay off medical school debt
5. Focus more on patient care
Most physicians go into medicine because they want to take care of patients, and many physicians experience burnout because of the heavy burden of paperwork and other administrative duties. Locum tenens allows you to spend more time caring for patients and less time dealing with politics, meetings, and other administrative responsibilities.
Dr. Brown feels like she’s making a real impact working locum tenens. “On some assignments, I’d be the only OB/GYN in a two-hour radius. The patients are so grateful to really have somebody who is experienced, and I feel a lot more appreciated for my work as a locums than I did in my regular practice.”
Locum tenens helped Dr. Brown rediscover her love of medicine. “A lot of my life before was centered around the pressure to make money and see huge numbers of patients. I lost a lot of my joy for medicine. I found that I get more satisfaction out of medicine by doing locums than I did when I was working in a full-time practice.”
Like Dr. Brown, Dr. Edwards gets a strong sense of fulfillment from working locum tenens assignments in underserved communities, because she feels she can really make a difference there. “It’s like a mission trip where you’re serving a community that really needs a medical provider.”
“I love practicing medicine but was tired of the politics related to medicine, so I decided to give locums a try,” explains Dr. Edwards. “Working locums, you don’t have to be involved with all the meetings and extraneous stuff that goes along with being on staff.”
A more flexible OB/GYN career option
Locum tenens is a great option for OB/GYNs looking for a better work/life balance. It allows you to set your own schedule, pursue your passions, and rediscover the joy of being a doctor. Dr. Holt sums up her experience in one sentence: “Knowing what I know now, I would have done locums earlier.”
Weatherby Healthcare can help you decide if locum tenens is right for you. Give us a call at 954.343.3050 or view today’s locum tenens job opportunities.
