The respondents to the 2018 Locum Survey reported on many aspects of the locum experience, like wellbeing, travel and the various benefits of locum work. Because of this research, the 2018 Locum Report was created and along with the trends mentioned in earlier articles, the report has also identified several challenges and opportunities for the locum sector in Australia and New Zealand.
This article will detail the challenges, what can be improved on and potential opportunities in the locum sector.
The Challenges
For many, one of the biggest challenges locum doctors face when they take on a new locum role is understanding the new systems and people they encounter. Starting at a new workplace always involves a learning curve, which for doctors, can sometimes be a relatively steep one. One of the chief problems locums run into is the onboarding process and more specifically, IT systems.
Establishing best practice on new systems proves to be time-consuming and overwhelming for locums, who have many other factors to consider when starting a new assignment. As a result, this difficulty in adapting to new systems can be significantly frustrating.
The overall onboarding process for locums when starting a new assignment has been identified as another key issue, with just 21.6% of locums stating that the onboarding processes of the hospitals they’ve worked with were ‘great’ or ‘excellent’. The nature of locum work further highlights these stats as a source of real frustration amongst the locum community.
The survey also shows that finding suitable locum work can often be a difficult task, with the process regularly taking people as long as eight days.
The Opportunities
Though these challenges detail certain difficulties for locum doctors integrating into a new work environment, they also represent opportunities for employers to improve how they onboard new employees and ensure the process is as smooth as possible.
Triple0 Customer Care Manager, Liz Hill, sees the report as a timely reminder to employers to ensure onboarding is as seamless as possible for new locum doctors working in their hospitals or clinics as this ensures a positive first impression.
“I think that hospitals often offer different onboarding processes and doctors may have various expectations around this in regards to what they need. Since I have been in my role, I have noticed a definitive improvement when it comes to onboarding, so it will be interesting next time we complete this survey to see if that percentage rises.”
By highlighting the challenges facing the locum sector, it opens the door for communication in regards to finding solutions or ways to improve processes for each party.
Closing Thoughts
Locum work continues to be an attractive option for doctors all over the world, and while there are challenges, there are ever constant opportunities for doctors, employers and recruitment agencies to continue working together on improving onboarding and various aspects of the overall process.
As this is the last article discussing the report in depth, we’d like to thank everybody who took part in the survey and shared their thoughts with us. We look forward to getting your input again next year.
To download the Locum Report, click here or if you would like to discuss any of the issues covered, get in touch with the Triple0 team.
