Medical locum work may be just right for doctors with a taste for adventure - but finding locum opportunities can seem intimidating, especially if you don’t have a lot of healthcare industry contacts. No matter - Your Doctor Jobs is here to help new locum physicians find the right roles!

Deciding on the locum roles for you

To determine what kind of locum roles you want you need to ask yourself:

• Where do I want to work? A city, in a regional town, or a remote area? What state?
• Do I want to work in the public or private sector?
• Do I want a standard GP role, or something with more diverse responsibilities?
• What size practice would suit me? Do I want to work in a big team, or more autonomously?
• How often do I want to change roles and practice location?
• What is my expected daily rate?
  

Your locum rate my differ depending where in Australia you are located.

Consider these points long and hard - they will be central in searching for your ideal job!

How do you get started as a locum doctor?

These four steps will help you to get started looking for locum work:

1. Prepare your CV and referees. While locums are in high demand, many medical practices will still only hire the doctors that are a personality fit for available roles. Ensure your CV is up to date and that you have Australian references who can vouch for your professional experience.
2. Check your visa. If you are not an Australian permanent resident or citizen, you will need to make sure that your work visa allows you to take on locum work.
3. Set up a limited company. This will make it easier to collect the payments you make as a locum practitioner. It will also be more straightforward to manage your accounts, secure malpractice insurance and record income taxes paid.
4. Contact specialist recruiters. A medical recruitment team can put you in touch with a broad range of locum roles across Australia, even assignments not advertised publicly. This will give you a broader range of options about where and how you work.
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The positives of trading your GP role for locum work

The pros of locum work are more complicated than many think. Some consider locum work a shortcut to higher remuneration. However, while locum roles tend to be higher paid per-day than permanent placements, this type of work offers more than just fast cash. Locum placements give doctors the opportunity to expand their medical knowledge and add new names to their professional contact book.

Here are a few other benefits of locum work:

Travel opportunities

Locum life can take you from major cities to bush towns, across every state and territory, all in the same month! It’s a dream for those with a taste for travel, giving doctors the opportunity to experience everything Australia has to offer in temporary assignments (the length and location is your choice). It also means you don’t have to take time out from your career to experience what life has to offer!

Working as a locum enables you to travel while still advancing your medical career.

Career flexibility

These assignments tend to be shorter term than other contract-based work. Locums are usually used to cover for another practitioner away from their practice. Roles can even be as short as a few hours or one day! The temporary nature of this work means you have more choice with your working hours and availability. This means you can easily build your schedule around family or personal commitments.

Trialling roles

Looking for your perfect job is hard. A role that seems ideal following an interview may not actually suit you once you start, and vice versa. Locum work gives medical practitioners the chance to test out a number of different kinds of clinics and medical positions all over the country. This is particularly useful for doctors earlier on in their careers, and can offer much needed clarity about the kind of medical specialisation you want to focus on and where you want to live.

To speak to Your Doctor Jobs’ recruitment team today, contact us here.