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4 Ways Locum Tenens Prepares Providers for Medical Missions

If the idea of spending a period outside your clinical home base, traveling to another community, and focusing on direct patient care with fewer administrative tasks appeals to you, then perhaps you could be thinking about adding medical missions to your CV. For some physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified registered nurse anesthetists, caring for people in another part of the world fulfills both a philanthropic and professional spirit.

Before you do that, though, consider accepting locum tenens jobs. These temporary positions offer many of the same benefits and can help you prepare before setting off on a voluntary medical mission.

Locums Helps with Credentialing
Most organizations sponsoring medical volunteers mandate providers present a thorough personal and professional background check. Many of those same steps are covered by All Star Healthcare Solutions’ credentialing process. Every physician and advanced practice provider must be vetted before being presented for possible locum tenens assignments. Our Medical Staff Services specialists will confirm your education, training, board certifications, licensure, employment history, and professional references. By working with All Star prior to departing for a mission, you will have already gathered many of the forms typically requested and perhaps even scanned them for easy electronic retrieval.

Note: If you would like to contribute your services to an underserved area – or any area – in the United States, but not in your home state, All Star’s licensing experts will walk you through the procedure to obtain proper licensure.

Locums Helps with Acclimating
Stepping into a new clinical setting, whether it is across the state or across the globe, requires a period of acclimation. You need to learn what resources are available on site, adjust to the technology employed, and become acquainted with the staff. Accepting locum tenens opportunities allows you to find a system that helps you speed up the process. You become more accustomed to adjusting to a facility’s operational style and maybe develop shortcuts to forming professional relationships with new colleagues. This could prove beneficial when traveling to a foreign environment and joining others on a medical mission.

Locums Helps with Adjusting to Travel
Prepping for a work trip can be different than packing for a vacation. Locums contracts vary from a handful of days to a few weeks or more, depending on the needs of the hospital, clinic, medical practice, or other healthcare organization. (Discuss your schedule availability with your All Star consultant.) For quick assignments, you may be able to fit work clothes, toiletries, and other necessities in a carry-on bag or tote. Jobs that run more long-term will require a selection of off-duty outfits conducive to the locale’s climate and season. Knowing how to pack efficiently is something locum tenens professionals fine-tune with each assignment. That experience can be a valuable tool when gearing up to go abroad and suitcase space is at a premium.

Locums Helps Make an Impact
Locum tenens professionals enable facilities to secure continuity of care when dealing with staffing shortages as well as improve access to specialists. While in that temporary role, more of your attention can be directed to patient care; not divided by managerial or administrative duties. Many locums professionals say this is one of the unique benefits of the career alternative, and boosts career satisfaction. You are making an impact on patients, co-workers, and the community similar to the effect medical volunteers make when practicing abroad.

If you are looking to put your professional experience and expertise to work for an underserved community, consider choosing locum tenens first. Not only will temporary jobs offer valuable experiences before leaving on medical missions, but the career alternative also offers the schedule flexibility to accommodate time away to fulfill your goals.

Enlist All Star Healthcare Solutions to help you get started on a locum tenens journey. Call us at 800-928-0229, or contact us online.