Beyond Medicine: The Change Management Skills Locums Bring

In the ever-evolving healthcare landscape, locum tenens professionals often “do more” on their assignments than use their clinical skills. 

Their medical expertise is crucial, of course, yet these professionals also bring a true wealth of experiences and skills that can benefit healthcare facilities considerably. 

Let’s look at some of these often-overlooked skills and attributes that make locums terrific assets to your healthcare team. 

Extremely flexible and adaptable 

Locums tend to be master of adaptation. They move from one medical setting to another easily, showcasing their ability to assess new environments and get up to speed on different protocols quickly. They often integrate easily into existing teams. 

Such adaptability often is a catalyst for positive change within a healthcare facility as locums often introduce new perspectives and approaches to patient care. 

Change management experts 

Many locums have worked in dozens of healthcare facilities. As a result, they’ve become skilled in change management. They’ve participated in many organizational changes, providing them a great perspective on what works and what doesn’t.  

These experiences often prove invaluable to our clients’ facilities, particularly when they are going through transitions or implementing new procedures.  

Crisis management skills 

Many locums are brought on during high-patient demand. Which often are high-pressure situations. They’ve also worked in across many different medical environments. 

Such exposure almost always results in robust crisis management skills, such as dealing with an unexpected surge in patient demand and subsequent resource shortages. AS a result, many locums bring a calm and experienced approach to stressful situations.  

Culturally competent 

Assignments in different cities/towns/geographic areas and in diverse healthcare settings helps nurture cultural competence. Locums often develop a strong ability to connect with patients and colleagues from different backgrounds. Such a skills is especially valuable in maintaining – or even improving – patient communication and satisfaction in diverse communities. 

Tech adaptability

Locums by necessity must become familiar quickly with different electronic health record (HER) systems and other healthcare tech across their various assignments. This often makes them highly adaptable to tackling new-to-them technology.  

They often can also provide insight into the best practices they’ve picked up from their various assignments, helping to streamline your facility’s adoption of new tools and systems.  

Emotional intelligence 

Moving to new assignments regularly is a great way to strengthen and grow one’s emotional intelligence. Locums often are experts at reading social cues, changing their communication styles as needed and building rapport quickly with new colleagues. Such skills are invaluable in medical settings where teamwork is crucial. 

Problem solvers 

Moving to different healthcare settings regularly and experiencing each facility’s challenges tends to sharpen one’s problem-solving abilities. Locums also often can bring new ideas to a facility’s long-standing challenges having seen for themselves how other medical sites addressed them. 

Medical skills always take top priority with us when we assign locums to our clients’ healthcare facilities. Yet we also know that locums can enhance our clients’ operations, culture and quality of patient care. 

Learn more about SUMO Staffing’s locum tenens staffing services.