More and more physicians are turning to locum tenens as a way to earn extra income, pay off debt, and explore the world. Podcasts are a great way to learn first-hand how physicians are fitting locum tenens work into their lifestyle. Here are our top five favorite locum tenens podcasts.
1. The White Coat Investor
Dr. Jim Dahle is an emergency physician who started The White Coat Investor to discuss all things financial with other medical professionals. He’s spent years learning how to manage his personal finances and invest to secure his own financial future, and his mission is to share his knowledge with other physicians.
The three main goals of the podcast include giving physicians a fair shake on Wall Street, spreading the entrepreneurial spirit, and connecting the community with the “good guys” in the financial industry.
In the episode, “Side Gigs, Women, and Demographic Changes in Medicine ,” Dr. Dahle interviews Dr. Nisha Mehta of Physician Side Gigs. Dr. Mehta discusses how working on the side has invigorated her and improved the longevity of her career as a radiologist, simply by doing things on her own terms.
>> View all White Coat Investor podcast episodes
2. ReachMD
With over 25 partnerships with medical societies and other partners, ReachMD is the largest physician learning platform in the nation. Their podcast features episodes covering just about every physician-related topic, including locum tenens.
Dr. Noel Lumpkin is an anesthesiologist who joined ReachMD to give her take on the basics of locums. She says she spent so many years answering questions about locums, she compiled them and wrote a book, which she titled Road Warrior Physician after a moniker a colleague gave her. In the episode, Dr. Lumpkin shares this analogy about locums:
“Doing locums is like cooking Thanksgiving dinner in someone else’s kitchen. You already know how to cook. You just simply have to look around and see what’s slightly different about their stove, their mixing bowls, where they keep their spices and so forth. The outcomes are almost always the same. You’re just going to cook things a little differently.”
>> View all ReachMD locum tenens episodes
3. The Financial Residency
Ryan Inman of The Financial Residency is a financial advisor who works exclusively with physicians and their families. He’s also married to a physician and has a keen understanding of the unique challenges faced by medical professionals. His podcast covers a wide range of financial topics, including the pros and cons of locums and how it affects income; how to negotiate income with recruiters; and other important issues, such as debt and burnout.
Dr. Cathy Carroll, a guest physician on the episode “Paying Off Student Debt With Locums,” shares how she paid off $160,000 in student loans in less than two years with income from locums. “I was making on average 50% more with locums than I could with a traditional hospitalist job,” says Dr. Carroll. “On top of that, the taxes were lower.”
In the episode, “Locum Tenens Combats Burnout,” Dr. Andrew Wilner, a neurologist and author of The Locum Life: A Physician’s Guide to Locum Tenens joins Ryan to talk about “cracking the code to living a successful and burnout-resistant life with locums.” Dr. Wilner shares how locums helped him achieve the work/life balance he was after, including “time with family, time to write, and time to practice medicine.”
>> View all Financial Residency podcast episodes
4. Docs Outside the Box
“Breaking the Typecast of Doctors just being Doctors” is the ethos of Docs Outside the Box, a podcast created by Dr. Nii Darko. Dr. Darko is a general surgeon “pushing past the limits of the status quo.”
In the episode, “Should I work for myself right out of residency?” Dr. Darko discusses why he decided to do locums right out of fellowship and other non-traditional ways to earn a living, including how to work for yourself. He educates on the differences between 1099, per diem work, and full-time employment, as well as pros and cons of locums.
A highpoint in his series are the Q&A sessions Dr. Darko hosts with his wife, an OB/GYN, such as the episode, “Ask Dr. Nii – 2 kids under 2 at home, Can I still do locums?” In these Q&A episodes, he answers questions related to locums like how to get started, how to choose locum recruiting companies and assignments, and even how much money to save for a cushion.
>> View All Docs Outside the Box episodes
5. KevinMD
KevinMD was created by Dr. Kevin Pho. His KevinMD podcast runs 15 minutes per day, 7 days per week, and aims to give a voice to “the many who intersect our health care system but are rarely heard from.”
To say that Dr. Pho covers a lot of ground is an understatement: you’ll find stories from medical professionals of many different specialties talking about a variety of topics, including locum tenens.
Dr. Sridhar Rajamani is a pulmonary physician and advisory board member of LocumTenens.com. In the episode, “How can we redefine locum tenens?” he chats with Dr. Pho about his own journey with locums, and offers this positive spin:
“Locum tenens clinicians help organizations expand their service lines, provide access to specialists, relieve existing staff workload, keep the operating room running, manage throughput in the emergency department, and cover call. They are also part of a growing natural progression in healthcare: telemedicine.”
He also debunks common misconceptions about locums with both insightful opinions and facts.