Can the Locum Tenens Sector “Save” Healthcare?
Burnout among healthcare workers is reaching heights that are… well, are there adjectives that truly can describe it?
- The Mayo Clinic surveyed physicians in 2021 and found that 63 percent of them experienced burnout in 2021, a huge increase from 38 percent in 2020.
- The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) that in a 2022 survey that 45 percent of both RNS and LPNs experienced “feelings of burnout at least a few times a week during 2022.”
- In 2021 (during the pandemic), only 57.1% of physicians said they would become so again if they could “revisit” their career choice, a decrease down from 72.2 percent in 2020.
- More than 25 percent (28.7 percent) of healthcare workers who were surveyed said they wanted to leave their job within two years.
- So did 41 percent of nurses asked the same question in the same survey.
Looking at those stats, one reasonably could argue that healthcare is “broken.”
If permanent staff are stretched thing and working long hours with little rest, their burnout will – likely sooner rather than later – take a toll on the quality of patient care. (If it hasn’t already.)
Could more locum tenens use be the answer?
Some benefits of locum tenens staffing in any medical facility:
An easing of pressure on permanent staff
What if full-time nurses and doctors weren’t always on the edge of exhaustion? What if locum tenens pros hired to cover shifts, handle patient volume increase, fill vacation/leave vacancies, etc. could give your full-time team members room to….breathe?
An example: a rural hospital struggling with ER physician shortages brings in one or two emergency locum physicians for a three-month period? This could allow the full-time ER doctors to take much-needed time away to rest and recover without compromising the facility’s patient care.
The promotion of work-life balance
Locum tenens is a major source of staffing flexibility for all types of healthcare facilities. Bringing in locums lets these healthcare pros choose where and when they work, helping them build a better balance between a career they love and their personal/home/family lives.
Four Steps to Using Locum Tenens Staffing to Help Your Permanent Healthcare Staff
- Partner with a reputable, experienced locum tenens recruiting firm.
- Identify the pain points your permanent employees are facing and build a strategic locum tenens staffing plan (with the recruiting firm).
- Create an onboarding process that gets your locum pros integrated smoothly and quickly into your facility.
- Understand that partnering with a locum provider means you can offload a lot of the scheduling, credentialing and recruiting of temporary staff. This means you’ll be able to fill in locums quickly – and seeing the benefits of having them onboard quickly —
Pro tip:
Maintain relationships with 1-3 experienced locum staffing partners and, as you work together, build a list of the pros they send you in various fields. This lets you ask the staffing company to send the same people to your facility again (and again?), helping to fill in expertise gaps quickly as they come up over the next months/years with locums who a) have the skills needed and b) already know the ins and outs and needs of your particular facility and its patients.
Learn more about SUMO Staffing’s locum tenens recruiting services.