Locum Tenens vs Permanent: Charting Your Surgical Career Path
As a new surgical graduate, you stand at a significant career crossroads. After years of rigorous training, the time has come to decide your next professional move. While many surgeons traditionally pursue permanent positions, locum tenens roles present a compelling alternative, offering a different set of benefits and experiences.
Understanding the distinctions between these two paths is key to making an informed decision that aligns with your personal and professional goals. This guide compares locum tenens and permanent surgery opportunities, explores the job outlook for each, and provides essential tips to help you launch your career with confidence.
Locum Tenens vs. Permanent Placement: A Side-by-Side Comparison
Choosing between a temporary role and a permanent one involves weighing factors like career flexibility, financial goals, and work-life balance. Each path offers unique advantages and potential drawbacks.
The Locum Tenens Surgeon: Flexibility and Diverse Experience
Locum tenens, meaning "to hold the place of," involves taking on temporary assignments to fill gaps in hospitals and clinics. These roles can range from a few days to several months.
Pros:
- Ultimate Flexibility: You control where and when you work, allowing you to create a schedule that fits your lifestyle, travel goals, or family commitments.
- Diverse Clinical Exposure: Working in various settings—from large urban hospitals to small rural clinics—exposes you to different systems, patient populations, and team dynamics, rapidly broadening your experience.
- Higher Earning Potential: Locum roles often offer competitive, and sometimes higher, hourly or daily rates compared to salaried positions.
- Avoid Burnout: The ability to take extended time off between assignments can be a powerful tool for preventing professional burnout.
- Test Drive Facilities: Locum work allows you to experience a hospital’s culture and workflow before committing to a permanent role there.
Cons:
- Lack of Stability: The temporary nature of assignments means there is no guaranteed long-term income stream.
- Constant Adaptation: You must be able to quickly integrate into new teams, learn different EMR systems, and adapt to varying hospital protocols.
- Credentialing Hassles: Each new assignment requires a credentialing process, which can be time-consuming.
- Limited Benefits: While agencies provide malpractice coverage and often handle travel and housing, benefits like health insurance and retirement plans are typically self-managed.
The Permanent Placement Surgeon: Stability and Career Growth
A permanent placement is the traditional career path, involving a long-term employment contract with a hospital, healthcare system, or private practice.
Pros:
- Job Security and Stability: A permanent role provides a predictable salary, consistent work environment, and long-term job security.
- Comprehensive Benefits: These positions typically include a full benefits package with health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and malpractice coverage.
- Career Advancement: Permanent roles offer clear paths for growth, such as becoming a department head, taking on leadership responsibilities, or becoming a partner in a practice.
- Community Integration: Staying in one location allows you to build deep relationships with colleagues and become an established member of the community.
- Familiarity and Efficiency: Working with the same team and systems allows you to develop an efficient workflow and deep professional rapport.
Cons:
- Less Flexibility: Your schedule and vacation time are determined by your employer, offering less personal freedom than locum work.
- Administrative Duties: Permanent roles often come with non-clinical responsibilities, such as committee meetings, administrative tasks, and on-call schedules.
- Geographic Limitation: You are tied to one location, limiting your ability to travel or explore different practice settings.
- Potential for Burnout: The demanding nature of a permanent surgical role without built-in breaks can lead to professional fatigue over time.
Job Outlook for Surgeons: Opportunities in Both Paths
The demand for surgeons remains strong across the United States, driven by an aging population and physician shortages. This robust market creates ample opportunities in both locum tenens and permanent placement sectors.
For locum tenens, the need is particularly high in specialties like general surgery, trauma surgery, and OB/GYN, especially in rural or underserved areas. Healthcare facilities rely on locum surgeons to cover vacancies, manage patient load during seasonal peaks, or fill in for staff on leave. Holding multiple state licenses, especially through the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC), can significantly expand your opportunities.
For permanent placement, healthcare systems are actively recruiting to build stable, long-term surgical teams. While opportunities are widespread, competitive roles in desirable metropolitan areas may require more experience. Specialized fields like neurosurgery and cardiothoracic surgery often have fewer, but highly sought-after, permanent openings. New graduates will find many facilities eager to hire and mentor them, recognizing the need to cultivate the next generation of surgical talent.
Crafting Your Surgeon Resume
Your resume is your first opportunity to make a strong impression, whether you are applying for a temporary assignment or a permanent position. Structure it to highlight your qualifications and clinical expertise effectively.
Resume Tips for All Surgical Roles
- Use a Chronological Format: Start with your most recent experience and work backward to clearly show your career progression.
- Include Essential Sections: Ensure your resume has sections for education, licensure, certifications, a detailed procedures list, and work history.
- Highlight Your Surgical Logs: Emphasize the volume and complexity of cases you've handled. This is critical for demonstrating your hands-on experience.
- Keep It Clean and Concise: A polished, easy-to-read resume reflects your professionalism. Always submit it as a PDF to preserve formatting.
Common Resume Mistakes to Avoid
A flawless resume signals attention to detail. Steer clear of these common pitfalls:
- Unexplained Gaps: Briefly account for any time between positions.
- Vague Language: Be specific about your procedural experience and accomplishments.
- Missing Information: Double-check that your state licenses, NPI number, and contact details are included and up-to-date.
- Typos and Grammatical Errors: Proofread your resume multiple times to avoid simple mistakes.
FAQs for New Surgical Graduates
It's natural to have questions as you begin your surgical career. Here are answers to some common queries we hear from new graduates.
Can new graduates find good surgery jobs?
Yes, absolutely. Many facilities are open to hiring new graduates for both permanent and locum tenens roles, provided they have strong credentials and a solid clinical foundation from residency.
How quickly can I be placed after residency?
The timeline varies. For permanent roles, the interview and hiring process can take several months. For locum tenens, it's often possible to secure your first assignment within a few weeks of becoming available, depending on credentialing.
Is malpractice coverage provided?
Yes. For permanent roles, your employer provides malpractice coverage. For locum tenens, your agency provides it. For example, AMN Healthcare provides comprehensive malpractice insurance with tail coverage to its physicians.
Are travel and housing costs covered for locum tenens roles?
Yes, travel and housing are typically arranged and covered by your locum tenens agency, making it easy to work in different locations without incurring out-of-pocket expenses.
Start Your Surgical Journey Today
Embarking on your post-residency career is a defining moment. Whether you choose the stability of a permanent role or the flexibility of locum tenens, you have the opportunity to build a rewarding surgical practice. Both paths allow you to build your skills, make a difference in patients' lives, and find the perfect professional fit.
If you’re ready to take the next step, our recruiting consultants are here to guide you. They can help you navigate the process, find roles that match your goals, and set you up for success from day one.
