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LocumWorld
Zen and Art of Locuming
The term locum originally comes from the Latin phrase ‘locum tenens’ used for a person who temporarily fulfils the duties of another. For example, a Locum Doctor or Nurse is a fully qualified doctor or nurse who works in place of their regular counterparts, when they are absent due to any reason or the hospital is short-staffed during busy periods. Sometimes, these temporary working Doctors and Nurses are also called ‘Temps’ or ‘Agency (worker)’. In North America however, the full version ‘locum tenens’ is commonly preferred and the act of doing locum work is commonly called ‘Moonlighting’, which essentially means holding an extra job in addition to one’s main job. Other countries where term ‘Locum’ is commonly used are Australia, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Whereas, in the UK the term Locum is almost exclusively used for doctors, there are a number of other professionals working in short-shifts including IT Engineers web designers, teachers, etc. IT professionals and Engineers also use ‘contracting’, when working in short shifts.
Sometimes, people regard Locums as a person with relatively low skills. However, one needs to understand that despite the relatively shorter duration of their jobs/ shifts (sometimes can be as short as one hour or less), these professionals are still fully regulated by their respective professional bodies and thus have to conform to all mandatory requirements and must possess all necessary skills required for the position in question.
The role of Locum Recruitment companies like MedStar is becoming increasingly important in this context.
They must follow rigorous vetting procedures as per GPS
(Govt. Procurement Services- Click here for link Buying Solutions/ PASA/ BSO (Business Services Organisation in Northern Ireland- Click here for link guidelines. The companies must make sure that the Locum doctor or nurse they are putting forward for any job must meet all essential criteria for the required position and has completed the required qualifications from a recognise institution. This is a responsibility of the Locum Company to check that all documents for the Locum candidate are up to date.
Overview
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Locum means temporary worker
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Locums are fully registered with and regulated by professional bodies
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Locum companies play important role in helping doctors to become fully compliant to PASA regulations
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A number of different patterns are seen in doctors working as locum
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You need to be fully compliant before you can start working as a locum
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In spite of your busy schedule its important to find some time to do locums if you wanna gather invaluable clinical experience and earn extra cash
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A number of doctors in UK are opting to work as full time locum and MedStar can help you in setting your goals there
It is interesting to see that different people do Locum work for different reasons and hence a number of patterns are being observed in ‘Locuming’ (doing the Locum work). First is a category that we can call ‘Great Thinkers’. These people always ‘think’ that they will do some Locum work to earn a bit of Extra Cash/ Experience. However, the motivation rarely goes beyond that and consequently they end up daydreaming if they could earn that Extra Cash to buy a new car or sofa or a treasured holiday that they’ve been planning for all that long! If asked, they will mostly put it to lack of a time, busy departmental postings, a non-compliant rota, or family. This all is true, as doctors and nurses are very busy professionals. In fact, these two professions could easily be one of the world’s ‘most overworked’ and underpaid professions. They work for long tiring shifts involving unsocial hours, leaving little time for themselves and their family (after all, hospitals, especially the acute units like EDs run 24x7,
365 days a year, without break!). However, coming to ground reality. Whereas, we do agree, they are very-very busy, possibility of doing few Locum shifts is always there. Our advice to these folks will be; start finding some time for doing those odd shifts that can fetch some extra cash for them as well as invaluable experience. After all, where there is a will, there is a way. One of the best places to start with in that regard could be your own hospital. Find out from your rota coordinator or medical staffing if there are any locum-shifts available in the hospital or other nearby hospitals of the same trust. Try to target any bank holidays or long weekends when most of the people are off. Negotiate a good rate for yourself or if you think you’re getting a rate that is quite low for the given position, you can always contact MedStar to check if same shift can be done through us. Remember, the average hourly rates paid for the same post while doing it through us could be quite higher when compared to the ‘internal locum rates’ given to doctors/ nurses directly.
Second category of Locum Doctors/ Nurses is ‘Registration Freaks’. These folks are one step ahead of their ‘Great Thinkers’ peers. But just one step. Not miles. They fancy doing locum work and hence understand the importance of getting registered with locum companies. These guys try to get registered with many locum agencies by just ‘submitting their CV's to them but never submit ‘all required’ documents. Not surprisingly, these ‘Registration Freaks’, almost invariably end up never doing a locum. And hence dream of earning that extra cash or gaining extra experience remains a dream only. The reason is simple. In order to qualify as ‘Registered’ with any locum company you need to be ‘compliant’. And what this literally means is that you have to submit ALL your ‘required’ documents to your locum company so that they can verify your credentials before putting in your CV for any position. For any good locum company it is paramount to follow Buying Solutions/ Business Services Organisations (BSO)/ NHS Employers’ guidelines rigorously. And what this essentially means is that Locum Company won’t be able to help these ‘so called Registered’ doctors/ nurses in finding any locum work as they are far from being compliant. Getting only a CV hardly ever helps for fetching a locum position.
Getting you Occupational Health checks done: Screening for a number of contagious diseases like HIV 1&2, Hepatitis B, C, A, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Tuberculosis (only if you have been in any country with high incidence of TB cases). If you’re working in UK as a doctor, you must already have these things done, as it is important for you and your patient’s safety. So it’s a matter of sending the same tests results to us after scanning them and getting them updated, in case some of the tests are out of date or any booster needs to be taken.
Second thing is GMC/ NMC Registration: Now you will say, ‘Are you kidding? How can someone work in UK as a doctor/ nurse without having GMC/ NMC Registration?’ Exactly. That’s the point we are trying to make. We need to see your GMC/ NMC Registration Certificate before we can offer you any work.
Other certificates include: ATLS, APLS, BLS courses. You should be doing these courses anyways as a part of you CPD (Continuing Professional Development). If you having any difficulty in booing any of these courses, let us know. We can help you out in booking these courses. Just call one of our friendly Placement Consultants and they will be delighted to help.
Evidence of Basic Qualification/ Higher Qualifications: Also, don’t forget to include your Basic Qualifications Certificates like MBBS, MBChB, etc. you will have to provide an authorized and notarized translation for all qualifications if they are in a language other than English. Also send, certificates of Higher Qualification like MRCS, MRCP, MRCOG, MRCPH, etc, if you have any.
Verification of your Identity, Address, and Eligibility to Work in the UK: Next is establishing your eligibility to work in the UK. This can be done by seeing your passport/ visa or National ID card (if you are a EU Citizen). I am sure you will have all required work permits and visa if you are working in the UK but in order to be absolutely certain (and before offering you any locum work) we will have to check the concerned documents and take their copies.
The next category of locum doctors/ nurses is ‘Once in a Blue Moon’. Whereas they get registered and complete all required formalities, they rarely end up doing a locum. Either they do a couple of shifts initially, after registration and then stop or do occasional odd shifts every other month. After doing an initial few shifts they stop answering their phone or replying to their emails. It’s not entirely clear why they do this but apart form the genuine issues, I would attribute it to the- dominating ‘masterly inactivity’! Clearly, if the aim is to do more locums to gain more experience and earn extra cash, one has to show consistency. It may be worthwhile to set some targets like how much you want to earn or how much experience you want to gather. You can use our ‘Dream-Weaver’ to calculate what it takes to earn your dream money or gain that invaluable experience, you’ve been longing for. Or just call our friendly consultants and they will gladly guide you through.
The next level of locuming is doing locum off and on or as and when free. People in this category do more locums than their peers in previous three categories. They are more proactive and answer about 40-50% calls from Locum Companies and mostly work either during their annual leaves or when the are off. They also sometimes go to the extent of calling to their Recruitment Consultant and check about jobs available. The only thing that they can improve upon is if they can provide their availability to their Recruitment Consultant, it will increase their chance of getting a locum more often. Timely response to an email, voicemail, or text from Locum Company remains as imperative as for anyone else.
Weekenders, as the name might suggest, prefer working on weekends when they are mostly free. These are mostly doctors/ nurses working in the specialities where weekend on-call is not required, or they are actually free during that period anyway. They give their availability by typically stating – ‘available all weekends’. These guys sometimes also work during the weekdays or during their annual leave or when they are off. They beat all previous categories in gaining invaluable experience, encompassing a number of specialities in a number of different hospitals and settings. This enriches their CV's and boosts their confidence like anything. It goes without saying that they earn a decent amount of cash that sometimes can be 3 to 4 times of their salary from their regular job!In order to increase their takeaway payments they can contact for free and best advice here..
Last category is Full-timers. These are the daredevils who really mean business and dare to work on full time basis. Initially it was thought that mostly FMGs (foreign medical graduates) do full time locum but the trend is changing now and increasing number of UK graduates opt for working as a full time locum. Doctors are becoming attracted to work as a locum in full capacity due to different reasons. Medicine is a very long career. Whereas, Engineering or IT Professionals tend to ‘settle’ after finishing their four to five years’ graduation and start earning, it’s actually a beginning for the career of a medico. Holding a postgraduate qualification is a must after finishing your basic medical degree. If you are looking to apply for a Speciality Training Program, it will take somewhere between 5-7 years. Moreover, before you can apply for that you are supposed to spend some time in hardcore research. So many students take career breaks to do a research degree like BSc, MD or PhD. After finishing your ST Training, you are expected to have a few fellowships under your belt! Therefore, by the time you can say that I am fully qualified you have already spent over 13 – 15 years of your life and you will ‘start’ your career as a consultant. It’s an open secret now that getting a consultant post is not a piece of cake and there could be a big ‘bottle-neck’ there. During the training, it is a common practice to move from one place to other. The medical training is called ‘Rotation’ for some reason! All these long years of training and education invariably delay doctors’ ‘settlement’ and up until they are consultants they are not sure where they going to spend their lives and the place they gonna belong to! This creates a sense of insecurity in them especially in this age of fast growth where comparison with other professionals is inevitable.
Many doctors in UK are now opting for doing full time locums for a year or two. This can be considered equivalent to taking a break for doing research or spending time doing electives. Working as a full time locum gives you few advantages like you are still working in a full clinical capacity as compared to doing research where you mostly spend time working in labs and therefore lose your clinical experience. On top of that, most of the research jobs are not very well paid whereas working as a full time locum you can earn a real fortune. There are people walking away with over quarter a million pounds in a year’s time who worked hard as a full time locum! Money is not everything but having some savings in your bank account boosts your confidence like anything and you can plan your future in a better way. You can start thinking of buying a house to move in with your girlfriend and starting a family, and buying your dream car. If you are a family person, locum gives you much more flexible time shifts as compared to any other full time job. We are not trying to undermine the importance of doing good research by any means but at the same time, value of early settlement and starting a family cannot be overlooked. Its paramount to strike the right balance where you do some quality research and publish some high-impact peer reviewed publications and at the same time earn good money, whilst continuing to gain invaluable clinical experience to lead a productive life. Its always a good idea to set some targets in terms of how much experience you want and how much you want to earn.
Our DreamWeaver tool can help you in setting your goals. If you’re planning to work as a full time locum, speak to one of our friendly consultants and they will be more than happy to help you out.
Apart from above mentioned facts, locum experience can also be invaluable for long term planning in doctors’ careers. Medicos mostly face a big dilemma which specialty to opt for. This becomes especially difficult in absence of proper career guidance. As pointed out by Dr Philip Morgan correctly in his article published in British Medical Journal- (BMJ Career Focus - http://www.bmj.com/content/314/7074/S2-7074)- that locum doctors mostly see many more aspects of the profession than doctors working entirely in one specialty, in only one region, who are often prone for developing tunnel vision and can lack a broader perspective towards their medical training. He also points towards the well-known fact of locum doctors earning better money as well as making big savings on income taxes by legitimately offsetting their expenses.
Following resources can be helpful in making informed choices if you planning to work as a locum doctor in the UK:
*Morgan P. Locum experience can be invaluable for long term planning, according to Dr Philip Morgan. BMJ 1997; 314 doi: 10.1136/bmj.314.7074.2. http://www.bmj.com/content/314/7074/S2-7074
*Cresswell J. Finding the rogue in locum row. Hospital Doctor. 24 Oct 1996: 28–30.
*Thenabadu A. How to be a good hospital locum in the UK. SAMJ 1995; 85 (10): 991–2.
*Stocks DA. How to be a GP locum. BMJ 1989; 289: 309–10.
*Revans H. Flexible working. General Practitioner 25 Oct 1996:43.
*Jones P. Errors by locums. BMJ 1996: 313: 116.
*Macherla R. Locum doctors are undervalued. BMJ 1993:
CRB/ Access NI/ Disclosure Scotland: This remains one of the most important prerequisites to have Enhanced Criminal Record verification if your work involves working with vulnerable adults and children, and as a doctor/ nurse, that’s part of your day to day life at work. MedStar have got proper arrangements in place to get CRB done online, in a matter of less than a week (if everything is clear). Get in touch with one of our Recruitment Consultants to fast track your CRB/ Access NI/ Disclosure Scotland, today! Just to clarify, CRB is Criminal Record Bureau that is mostly done in England. AccessNI and Disclosure Scotland are its counterparts in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Other certificates include: ATLS, APLS, BLS courses. You should be doing these courses anyways as a part of you CPD (Continuing Professional Development). If you having any difficulty in booking any of these courses, let us know. We can help you out in booking these courses. Just call one of our friendly Placement Consultants and they will be delighted to help.