The perfect locum: How to ensure you leave a lasting impression
Locum doctor jobs are a great way to branch out and try working in new locations without making a long-term commitment. With every locum you do, you are expanding your professional network. Beyond that, you have the opportunity to travel across Australia while offering your skill set to hospitals with a demand for qualified doctors.
Bottom line: Locum work is not just professionally appealing but fulfilling and exciting for any practising doctor.
The question then becomes: How can you ensure you are the best locum possible? With a limited time frame to make a good impression, a lot of new locums worry about leaving a lasting impression on their locum hospital.
A guide to ideal locum etiquette
Luckily, over the years, we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. The good news is: Memorable locum etiquette is pretty simple and definitely easily mastered. Let’s take a look at five tips for becoming the perfect locum candidate.
Arriving on the scene with a friendly demeanour and a helpful attitude goes a long way!
1. Make a good first impression
It may sound cliche, but first impressions really do have a big impact. On your first day of work, make an extra effort to be on your best behaviour. Introduce yourself to departmental directors, let them know you’re available to assist whenever they need you. Arriving on the scene with a friendly demeanour and a helpful attitude goes a long way!
2. Assist the junior staff whenever possible
Senior doctors have a tendency to leave a lot of work to junior staff members. Make a conscious effort to help new professionals out wherever possible. Whether this takes the form of mentoring or simply giving them a hand with an exam, people notice these small acts of kindness.
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3. Be flexible with new policies and procedures
Everyone has their own way of working, but when you are a guest in a new hospital you need to make sure you are acclimatising to the facilities policies and procedures. Work with the hospital, don’t make the hospital work for you.
Work with the hospital don’t make the hospital work for you.
4. Lead with confidence
This hospital hired you for a reason: You have the skills they need. Be confident in this fact and lead when you can. The more you can share different skill sets or strengths with your new colleagues, the better. Chances are, you can learn a lot from them too!
5. Do the work
When we conduct our exit interviews we ask hospital directors whether or not they would take on a given locum candidate again. While 95 per cent of the time we get a resounding YES, the other 5 per cent decline. A big part of this has to do with locum laziness.
Some doctors go into their locum assignment thinking it’s a working holiday. While holiday can certainly play a role in your time locuming, you still need to give your assigned hospital 100 per cent. Complete the paperwork, put in the extra effort and give your patients exceptional care and everything should work out just fine.
Leave a long-lasting impression
Building up a good relationship as a locum doctor at any given facility is beneficial for everyone involved.
When you build up a good rapport with a given facility, you can work as a locum for them in the future (with a lot less paperwork since you’ll already be on file). Hospitals love having a familiar face around and a lot of doctors love heading back to a favoured Australian destination with some regularity.
To learn more about best practices, download our Locum Guide to Australia today!
