Rural ED job opportunities

[KeikoTanaka]

What do you do, if lets say, you want to live in X town that is quite rural but the only local hospital (within 2 hours) is not actively "Seeking" ED doctors? Do you just hope they start looking soon? Do you bite the bullet and commute ~90 minutes to the other hospitals until a job opportunity opens up? This is the one tough thing about ED compared to other specialties - you can just open up an OP office somewhere, but with ED you kinda need a hospital. I suppose you could do urgent care in the mean time while picking up shifts at the place that's 90 min away like 3-4 times a month?

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[Birdstrike]

What do you do, if lets say, you want to live in X town that is quite rural but the only local hospital (within 2 hours) is not actively "Seeking" ED doctors? Do you just hope they start looking soon? Do you bite the bullet and commute ~90 minutes to the other hospitals until a job opportunity opens up? This is the one tough thing about ED compared to other specialties - you can just open up an OP office somewhere, but with ED you kinda need a hospital. I suppose you could do urgent care in the mean time while picking up shifts at the place that's 90 min away like 3-4 times a month?

Rural hospitals in towns like you describe are usually the most in need and often are the ones flying docs in via locums companies to fill the gaps.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Most humans live near where they work.

 

[KeikoTanaka]

Rural hospitals in towns like you describe are usually the most in need and often are the ones flying docs in via locums companies to fill the gaps.

So you think even if they're not actively posting the job in their careers page online, they still might look into you?

 

[Birdstrike]

So you think even if they're not actively posting the job in their careers page online, they still might look into you?

Definitely possible.

 

[Birdstrike]

Most humans live near where they work.

Insects, too.

 

[fahimaz7]

Is this in a town that is desirable or one that isn't? Here in CO, the smaller towns like Steamboat, Salida, Vail, Winter Park, etc have very low turn over and are rarely hiring for that reason. Many of these sites are staffed by a SDG and wouldn't advertise through the hospital anyways.

 

[EctopicFetus]

You want a rural job i can find you one.

 

[Porfirio]

What do you do, if lets say, you want to live in X town that is quite rural but the only local hospital (within 2 hours) is not actively "Seeking" ED doctors? Do you just hope they start looking soon? Do you bite the bullet and commute ~90 minutes to the other hospitals until a job opportunity opens up? This is the one tough thing about ED compared to other specialties - you can just open up an OP office somewhere, but with ED you kinda need a hospital. I suppose you could do urgent care in the mean time while picking up shifts at the place that's 90 min away like 3-4 times a month?

Cold call the department and ask to talk to the department director

 

[Alvarez13]

Cold call the department and ask to talk to the department director

Exactly

 

[wholeheartedly]

Unless it's a highly desireable area, odds are they're staffing with locums and don't have a job posted because they've given up. Other possibilities, maybe they don't want to pay for an actual EM doc.

I'm not a doc but I've worked in fancy tertiary places and very rural places. Don't go in all gung-ho to be there.Yes let them know you have an interest, but make sure to thoroughly vet the place you're walking into. My hometown hospital is a frickin disaster right now and it's really sad because it was a pretty decent place back in the day. My current rural shop is much better, high quality nurses and other allied health staff. You don't want to get yourself into a situation where you can't deliver good care because of system issues or staffing issues.

 

[KeikoTanaka]

Is this in a town that is desirable or one that isn't? Here in CO, the smaller towns like Steamboat, Salida, Vail, Winter Park, etc have very low turn over and are rarely hiring for that reason. Many of these sites are staffed by a SDG and wouldn't advertise through the hospital anyways.

The town im thinking of is Camden, ME. There's actually like ~3 hospitals within an <60 minutes from each other. I'd say it's similar to those CO towns in that its wealthy but rural?

 

[fahimaz7]

The town im thinking of is Camden, ME. There's actually like ~3 hospitals within an <60 minutes from each other. I'd say it's similar to those CO towns in that its wealthy but rural?

I don't think many of the Maine towns are all that competitive, but some do offer low turn over (York for example). I trained in Portland and have a lot of friends who stayed around at CMMC, York, SMMC, Penobscot, Stephen's, MMC, etc. Most sites were hiring/recruiting every year for at least one spot. To put that in perspective, our group in CO receives 10-20 random inquiries a month...

 

[KeikoTanaka]

I don't think many of the Maine towns are all that competitive, but some do offer low turn over (York for example). I trained in Portland and have a lot of friends who stayed around at CMMC, York, SMMC, Penobscot, Stephen's, MMC, etc. Most sites were hiring/recruiting every year for at least one spot. To put that in perspective, our group in CO receives 10-20 random inquiries a month...

Awesome, so you did your residency @ MMC in Portland? Could you tell me about that spot? It's actually by #1 dream spot to train (If you couldn't tell). Obviously if you want more information about me and/or don't wanna share publicly here, feel free to PM me!

 

[hoot504]

I'd say get into and finish residency first...

 

[fahimaz7]

Awesome, so you did your residency @ MMC in Portland? Could you tell me about that spot? It's actually by #1 dream spot to train (If you couldn't tell). Obviously if you want more information about me and/or don't wanna share publicly here, feel free to PM me!

MMC is a great spot to train. Half of the battle of surviving residency is finding a balance between work and your private life. For me, being able to live close to the hospital, have no traffic, great food, good access to outdoor activities, etc all improved my quality of life. 5 minute commute or less for the majority of us. The staff is great and the off-service rotations are good. Autonomy is graded with experience. It's not a gun and knife club, but the medical exposure is stellar.

 

[KeikoTanaka]

MMC is a great spot to train. Half of the battle of surviving residency is finding a balance between work and your private life. For me, being able to live close to the hospital, have no traffic, great food, good access to outdoor activities, etc all improved my quality of life. 5 minute commute or less for the majority of us. The staff is great and the off-service rotations are good. Autonomy is graded with experience. It's not a gun and knife club, but the medical exposure is stellar.

Im so glad to hear that it's amazing! I'm so psyched to try and do my trial rotations there... ahhh one day