Alaska locum tenens bad for my EM career?

[Doctinez]

I've considered doing locum tenens up in Alaska after residency due to the attractive pay, and ability to hack away at my loans. Although I have read/heard that this type of work gives a physician a red flag in terms of labeling them unreliable, lazy, or not being committed to a productive career.

This may be true for some specialties, but is this applicable to EM?

I have known many EM docs that have balanced working at multiple locations, and not necessarily committing full-time to any of them, and were still reputable amongst their peers. I just don't see how given the flexibility of EM, that it would be able to carry this stigma. Additionally I have read that locum tenens in Alaska are typically much longer commitments than in the lower 48.

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[bravotwozero]

Is the pay really that good? ACEP salary survey said some of the lowest average salaries were in Alaska


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[Doctinez]

Is the pay really that good? ACEP salary survey said some of the lowest average salaries were in Alaska


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I agree that permanent positions may not be as competitive, but my interest was purely locum tenens. I would assume that if hospitals are using this method to recruit physicians (especially EM where 24hr coverage is mandatory), that their need to fill the spot would be dire and offer higher incentives, especially it being Alaska. I admit I have never actually met someone that has done locums tenens in Alaska, so I am just repeating what I hear. In reference to the ACEP salary survey, it does not include cost-of-living, malpractice, or tax burdens of the respective states. I only mention this because the claim is that you take home more in Alaska due to no income tax (of course every other tax is raised).

 

[DeadCactus]

Is the pay really that good? ACEP salary survey said some of the lowest average salaries were in Alaska


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A lot of the jobs are probably IHS and thus (relatively) low paying which would decrease the average. The locums and private practice pay is supposed to be good but no more so than the right areas of the continental US from what I've seen.

 

[deleted109597]

Although I have read/heard that this type of work gives a physician a red flag in terms of labeling them unreliable, lazy, or not being committed to a productive career.

Nobody in EM cares. As long as you don't have a CV that lists multiple consecutive single year contracts (ie, getting fired a lot), you'll be fine. Hell, even those docs still get jobs, they just have to try a little harder. There are nowhere near enough docs out there to fill all the jobs.
I don't have any idea what Alaska pays.

 

[heroesinahalfshell]

Is the pay really that good? ACEP salary survey said some of the lowest average salaries were in Alaska


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One of the other docs at a facility I work at did a 6 month locums stint in Junea, she really enjoyed it but said the pay wasn't anything special, made more working most of her other locums gigs

 

[bravotwozero]

One of the other docs at a facility I work at did a 6 month locums stint in Junea, she really enjoyed it but said the pay wasn't anything special, made more working most of her other locums gigs

That's what I figured. Not worth it financially


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[Doctinez]

Thanks for the feedback. I only considered this as a possibility to pay off loans faster (if the higher pay rumors were true). Wasn't ever really 100% about it. Thanks.

 

[Alvarez13]

I've considered doing locum tenens up in Texas after residency due to the attractive pay, and ability to hack away at my loans. Although I have read/heard that this type of work gives a physician a red flag in terms of labeling them unreliable, lazy, or not being committed to a productive career.

This may be true for some specialties, but is this applicable to EM?

I have known many EM docs that have balanced working at multiple locations, and not necessarily committing full-time to any of them, and were still reputable amongst their peers. I just don't see how given the flexibility of EM, that it would be able to carry this stigma. Additionally I have read that locum tenens in Texas are typically much longer commitments than in the lower 48.

I fixed your spelling errors concerning high locums pay.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

I don't think doing locums at the beginning of your career would give you some kind of black mark. The fear is that some stable group won't hire you down the road because you're likely to pick up and leave, but I think that fear is no big deal. My group avoids this issue by making it unattractive for someone not interested in a long term position to join our group. We just don't pay you all that much while you're in the partnership track. It all works out fine if you stay for the long run, but if you're going to pick up and move in less than 5 years, you're going to make less at our job than you could elsewhere.

The other fear is that you'll be looked at as a bad doc because you have a new job every year. I suppose if you have a 10-15 year record of a new job every year that's a concern. But doing full-time locums for less than 5 years (and being able to explain why you chose to do that- pay off loans rapidly, figure out what you want out of a long-term practice etc)) isn't a strike in my book.

It's also no big deal to do a little locums on the side for extra income as you have that stable job record to point to.

This all assumes you actually WANT to work in Alaska (or Texas) and/or that the job actually pays you really well. You'll have to verify that on your own, but I agree that you're more likely to make mucho dinero in small town West Texas than an Alaskan village.