I didn’t start locums for the same reason I work locums jobs today. And honestly, that’s the whole point.
When I first made the leap from full-time W-2 employment to locums, it was a strategic move. I was building a startup and needed to control my schedule. I couldn’t be at the mercy of a hospital scheduler telling me when and where to show up — not while I was also serving as a Chief Medical Officer for a new company.
But here’s what I didn’t expect: the longer I’ve worked locums, the more physicians I’ve met who chose this path for completely different reasons. While every single one of them is unique, they usually fall into one of these seven categories.
If you’ve ever wondered what locum tenens is, how it works, or whether it’s worth it, the answer depends less on the job itself and more on what you want your career to look like.
From maximizing locum tenens income to reducing physician burnout, traveling, transitioning between jobs, or easing into retirement, physicians use locum tenens jobs for very different reasons.
What Is Locum Tenens and How Does It Work?
Locum tenens is a flexible physician work model where clinicians take temporary assignments at hospitals, health systems, and clinics that need coverage. Physicians typically work as independent contractors, choose their assignments, and control how often — and where — they practice.
Unlike traditional employment, locum tenens jobs allow doctors to adjust their workload, income, and schedule over time.
How Physicians Use Locum Tenens to Maximize Income
1. The Maximizer
Some physicians do locums to stack shifts and maximize their earning potential. They find positions with strong pay rates, work intensely for a stretch, and bank what they earn.
I get it. When I found positions that let me work four days a month and match my old full-time salary, the math changed everything. Four days of clinical work gave me twenty-six days for building businesses, being with my kids, and living the life I designed. The earning potential in locums is competitive — and for some physicians, that’s the primary draw.
Using Locum Tenens to Reduce Physician Burnout
2. The Burnout Survivor
Then there are physicians who come to locums because they’re drowning. They love medicine, but the system has worn them down. What they need is a different way to work, space to breathe, and a chance to remember why they became doctors in the first place. Leaving medicine isn’t the goal, but escaping the grind is.
Locums gives them permission to practice on their own terms: fewer shifts, less administrative burden, limited politics, allowing them to fall back in love and focus on patient care.
Locum Tenens as a Bridge Between Physician Jobs
3. The Career Transitioner
Some physicians need a bridge. Maybe they’re between jobs. Maybe they’re shifting specialties or moving to a new city. Maybe they’re stepping away from a role that wasn’t the right fit and need a stopgap while they figure out what comes next.
Locums is that bridge. You stay clinically active, you keep earning, and you buy yourself time to make the next move without the pressure of a gap on your CV or a gap in your income. I’ve been there. When I moved on from my first startup and was building two new companies without taking a salary, I knew I could always fall back on my clinical skills to fill the gap while getting those businesses off the ground.
Traveling as a Locum Tenens Physician
4. The Explorer
Some physicians want to explore the country or the world. They pick up assignments in new cities, experience different hospital systems, and treat every placement like an adventure. Some are drawn to mission work and want to help the most vulnerable populations. Some even bring their families along.
I’ve built my own version of this. I earn points and miles when I travel for assignments, and I use them to plan trips with my four kids. We’ve taken incredible vacations funded by work travel. And the freedom of never having to ask permission for time off? That feeling never gets old.
Working Locum Tenens in Your Own City as an Independent Physician
5. The Local Independent
This is the one people don’t always think about. Not every locum physician or provider is chasing travel or a dramatic lifestyle change. Some physicians simply want to work in their own city, at hospitals they already know, without being an employee.
They opt out of the employment model, not the location. No institutional politics, no mandatory committee meetings, no annual reviews. They practice medicine on their own terms, in their own community, as an independent. It’s a quiet kind of freedom, but it’s freedom nonetheless.
Using Locum Tenens to Transition Into Retirement
6. The Transition Planner
I’ve met physicians approaching the end of their clinical careers who use locums to step back on their own terms. No abrupt retirement. No awkward conversations with administrators about reducing hours. They simply take fewer assignments when they’re ready and more when they want them.
It’s retirement designed by the physician, not dictated by a contract or an institution. That kind of autonomy matters, especially after decades of someone else controlling your schedule.
Building a Business While Practicing Locum Tenens
7. The Entrepreneur
This was me. I needed clinical income while building companies, and I needed the flexibility to do both. Locums gave me that bridge.
I trained for years to become a pediatric emergency physician. I never wanted to give that up. But I also couldn’t ignore the problems I saw in healthcare: problems I believed I could solve by building something new. Locums let me stay credentialed, stay sharp clinically, and still pour energy into the ventures I was creating.
Benefits of Locum Tenens for Physicians at Every Career Stage
What strikes me about all of these physicians is how different their motivations are, yet the same solution works for each of them. Locums isn’t a one-size-fits-all career move. It’s a flexible tool that adapts to wherever you are in your career and whatever you need right now.
And your reason might shift over time. Mine did. I started for flexibility and entrepreneurship. Today, I stay because of the lifestyle, the freedom, and the community I’ve found.
The Part Most People Don’t Think About
Here’s what I wish more clinicians understood before they start: the type of locums clinician you are shapes the kind of support you need.
If you’re maximizing income, you need an agency that finds you high-quality, well-paying placements consistently. If you’re recovering from burnout, you need an agency that respects your boundaries. If you’re working locally as an independent, you need someone who understands your market. If you’re building a business on the side, you need a partner who understands that your schedule isn’t negotiable.
This is why agency choice matters so much. I’ve heard stories about agencies that don’t pay on time, that cut corners on malpractice coverage, that treat physicians like commodities. A physician left without malpractice coverage is the worst outcome I can imagine in this space.
I work with Barton Associates because they’re building something different — a community around the locums lifestyle, not just a job board. They help me with the financial side and I hold career management in my hands. And having a physician voice at the executive level (that’s me, their Chief Medical Officer!) means they’re listening to what clinicians actually need.
Whatever type of locums clinician you are, or might become – the right partner makes all the difference.
Is Locum Tenens Right for You?
Maybe you already know. Maybe you’re still figuring it out. Either way, the path is yours to design. That’s what makes locums powerful: it doesn’t tell you who to be. It meets you where you are.
