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 six favorite locum tenens podcasts.
1. The Locumstory Podcast
The Locumstory Podcast features locum physicians, PAs, and NPs who share their stories and talk about their experiences working locum tenens, what works well, what doesn’t, and everything in between.
There are many things to consider as a locum tenens, like filing taxes as a 1099, negotiating locums contracts, job searches, and licensing. But physicians also want tips on how to combat burnout, health and wellness on the road, locums in semiretirement, and international locum tenens .The Locumstory Podcast covers these topics and more to help you navigate life as a locum tenens so you can live your best life.
In one episode “How to obtain your ideal job as a physician,” Dr. Dike Drummond, also known as the Happy MD, shares his tips on how to find your just-right job. Dr. Drummond explains how to determine what your ideal job is and the steps on how to land it. “I always ask physicians I’m working with: ‘What’s your ideal job, what would you run toward?’ Most doctors initially can’t answer that because they’ve only thought about what they don’t want. My job is to help them find what they want.”
2. The White Coat Investor
Dr. Jim Dahle is an emergency medicine physician who started The White Coat Investor to discuss all things financial. He’s spent years learning how to manage his finances to secure his own financial future, and his mission is to share his knowledge with other physicians.
The three main goals of the White Coat Investor 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, “Getting a Financial Plan in Place,” Dr. Dahle interviews certified financial planner, Sarah-Catherine Gutierrez, who answers questions like student loans and the SAVE program, HSAs, the importance of a written financial plan, and what a defined benefit is.
3. 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 the ReachMD podcast 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.”
4. 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. The Financial Residency 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.”
5. 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 one episode of the Docs Outside the Box podcast, “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 the 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.
6. KevinMD
KevinMD was created by Dr. Kevin Pho. His KevinMD podcast runs 15 minutes per day, seven 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 calls. 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.
Want more information about locums resources? Sign up for our Locumstory email
