How Practicing Locum Tenens Helped 3 Doctors Reach their Personal Goals

It’s January - for many people, that means it’s time to start working on those New Year’s resolutions. I have to admit, I’m not big on setting goals at the start of the year. Instead, I like to stick to my organization’s core values of continuous improvement and growth all year long.

I see January as a time to reflect on what I’ve accomplished or delayed the previous year. I can’t remember a time that a year turned out exactly as I’d imagined. Luckily for me, it’s usually turned out better!

Many of the doctors we work with at CompHealth are accomplishing personal goals through locum tenens.  If you are having trouble finding a way to turn your personal goals into reality, maybe these examples will inspire you:

Serving the underserved. After working as an emergency room physician for more than 20 years, Olabisi Jagun decided to give locums a try. Thanks to the flexibility of her assignment schedule, she’s now able to participate in medical missions to Africa.

During a visit to CompHealth she said, “Locum tenens allows me to have a wonderful quality of life. It enables me to make a good enough income working and have a comfortable life for myself and my family. I can also take time off to work on what is now becoming a real passion for me - traveling and doing medical missions in Africa.”

When she’s in the United States, Jagun generally works locum tenens in rural areas. She said she prefers these locations because she is able to “really make a difference in the lives of so many people.”

Pursuing your passions. Every doctor has something he loves to do outside of work. For neurohospitalist Andrew Wilner, that passion is writing. Over the years, he has written about neurology for various medical journals. When he decided to write his own book, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it while he was working full-time.

“My solution has been to work locum tenens, which has been fantastic,” he said. “I worked full-time as a neurohospitalist, which is seven days off and seven days on. On my week off, I was able to write. So I’d write for a week, work for a week, write for a week, work for a week, and that went on all year.”

A few months ago, Wilner finished his book, “Bullets and Brains,” and it’s getting great reviews!

Making time for travel. With such a busy work schedule, it’s tough for physicians to find time for travel. But that didn’t stop family physician Leon Books. When he was 52, he closed up his practice to travel with his wife. He said simply, “We wanted to do the traveling and enjoy it while we were healthy.”

The best part was that he was able to continue to practice medicine and support his family while they traveled. His locum assignments have taken him across the United States and around the world. Looking back, Books and his wife couldn’t be happier with the path they’ve chosen. He said, “We’ve loved it! We’ve had a wonderful time. We have not regretted our decision.”

I feel pretty lucky to get to work with doctors who inspire me to achieve my own goals, even if I don’t always accomplish them right away.