How One Patient’s Question Turned a Florida NP Into a Locum Tenens Traveler

For the Florida-based nurse practitioner, locum tenens meant more control over her time, unexpected clinical growth and meaningful connections far from home.

Demetria Rutledge was used to asking the questions. As a nurse practitioner, she spent her days learning about her patients’ lives. Then one of them turned it around: Why did she become an NP?

Her answer was simple. She wanted to help people.

The patient had a suggestion. She could travel and do that, too.

Until that moment, Rutledge had never considered locum tenens, the temporary clinical staffing model, as a career for nurse practitioners. Temporary work, to her, meant uncertainty, something to avoid rather than pursue. But she went home and searched for nurse practitioner jobs. She found Barton Associates. She started asking questions.

And still, she balked.

“I’m not doing it,” she recalled telling her first recruiter.

The recruiter didn’t hang up. Instead, they kept the conversation going and invited her to lay out her concerns. Eventually, Rutledge accepted an assignment.

“I’m so glad I took that first step,” she said.

It carried her from Florida to Oregon. It also changed what she believed a nursing career could give her, and what she could offer a community she would only call home for a defined stretch.

Why Do Nurse Practitioners Choose Locum Tenens?

Rutledge entered practice with ambitions familiar to many clinicians: do good work, help patients, perhaps one day build a practice of her own. The reality came with a catch. The work followed her home.

Clinicians have a name for it: “pajama time,” the hours of administrative work that begin after the workday officially ends.

Flexibility was her first reason for exploring locum tenens. The earning potential caught her attention, and so did the chance to travel. She wanted to practice without feeling bound to the corporate demands of a single workplace.

What she hadn’t anticipated was how much unfamiliar settings would teach her.

“You’re not going in to be temporary. You’re going in to make a difference,” she said.

That line has become her operating principle. The length of a contract, she says, doesn’t decide how seriously she takes the patients, colleagues and community in front of her.

A Rural Oregon Locum Assignment

One remote Oregon assignment began with a flight into Boise, Idaho, then a drive of nearly three hours through the mountains. Somewhere along the way, her phone lost service.

The town offered few of the conveniences she knew from home. It had a locally owned coffee shop and a small grocery store stocked with produce from nearby farms.

At first, she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

Then she met the people. Patients arrived with honey, cookies, cakes and homemade sourdough. At the start of one week, someone left freshly cut flowers in her office.

“This place was a small town, but the people had a big heart,” she said.

The assignment upended her assumptions about temporary work. A clinician could arrive for a limited time and still become someone a community trusted, appreciated and wanted to see again.

The clinical team made her better, too. She learned knee injections and how to interpret X-ray images from colleagues who were generous with what they knew. Working where resources are scarce introduced her to a different rhythm of care. Looking back, she wonders what else she might have learned had she stayed longer.

“I learned that I am adaptable,” she said.

The Medical Assistant Who Made a New EHR Make Sense

Another early hurdle will sound familiar to any clinician who has changed workplaces: a new electronic health record.

Rutledge knew Cerner. The assignment ran on Epic. Before she arrived, she watched YouTube tutorials, worried the unfamiliar system would swallow her.

The person who got her through the first days was a medical assistant who had been at the office for years. She knew which providers had useful documentation shortcuts, how to customize the system and how to set reminders. She asked Rutledge how she liked to work, then helped configure Epic around that workflow. She kept checking in as Rutledge learned.

The lesson stuck, and Rutledge now carries it into every new assignment: ask questions, and respect everyone’s expertise.

The person with the most useful answer may be whoever knows the daily workflow best. Front desk staff, medical assistants and other team members all help a clinician understand how an unfamiliar practice really runs.

She brings the same attentiveness to patients. In family practice, her work spans disease management, women’s health and some procedures. She tries to hear both what patients say and what they leave unsaid.

“Always listen and hear what’s not being said,” she said.

What the Travel Photos Leave Out

Rutledge loves the parts of locum life that photograph well: new places, good meals, a sunrise over Mount Hood.

She is just as quick to describe the work behind those moments. Licensing and credentialing demand attention. Travel takes planning. Leaving home means arranging for everything there to be handled while she’s gone.

Time away from family is a real tradeoff.

That is why recruiter support has been central for her. She values someone who checks on her arrival, asks how the first day went and helps her work through questions as they come up.

Her first Barton recruiter helped her take the initial leap. When that recruiter left, Rutledge considered leaving, too. The relationship had mattered that much. A thoughtful handoff to her next recruiter kept her going.

She describes that support as having someone in her corner, especially when she’s walking into a new city or workplace.

What to Ask Before Accepting a Locum Tenens Assignment

Rutledge’s enthusiasm doesn’t mean she says yes to everything.

Before she agrees to an assignment, she wants to understand the organization’s values, patient volume, expectations and orientation plan. A clear ramp-up matters. She wants to know how the team will help her get established.

Then she asks interviewers two questions of her own.

Rutledge’s two interview questions
1. “What makes you stay at your company that you work with?” She wants to hear what brings them back, including on the hard days.
2. What three changes would you make to improve employees’ workflow if the organization gave you the budget?

The answers help her see past the polished version of a workplace presented in an interview. They reveal what a leader values and where that leader sees room to improve.

If the interviewer can’t answer, she takes that seriously when deciding whether the assignment fits.

Freedom, in One Word

Asked what has changed most, Rutledge needs only one word: “freedom.”

On the assignments she described, she has been able to finish work without the evening charting that once consumed her personal time. Learning the systems and understanding how responsibilities are divided helped her protect that boundary.

It has left room for tours, exploring and experiences she had rarely known as a native Floridian. During a yearlong Oregon assignment, she watched winter give way to spring, summer and autumn. She saw cherry blossoms and turning leaves as someone living there, not passing through on vacation.

She calls this chapter “Livin’ La Viva Locum,” a phrase that came to her while listening to music on a road trip.

For now, she wants to work in every state where she holds a license. Eventually, she may look for assignments closer to home and become what she calls a “local locum.”

Her plans leave room for both. The work still centers on caring for people. But her own time and peace of mind now have a place in the equation.

“You deserve freedom and you deserve peace of mind,” she said.

To explore locum tenens assignments with Barton, head to our jobs page.

FAQ: Locum Tenens for Nurse Practitioners

Can nurse practitioners work locum tenens?
Yes. Locum tenens isn’t limited to physicians. Nurse practitioners like Demetria Rutledge work temporary assignments across settings, including family practice and rural clinics.

Why do nurse practitioners choose locum tenens?
Rutledge cited flexibility, earning potential, travel and less exposure to the administrative demands of a single employer, plus the clinical learning that comes with new settings.

What should I ask before accepting a locum tenens assignment?
Ask about the organization’s values, patient volume, expectations and orientation plan, and how the team will help you ramp up. Rutledge also asks what keeps interviewers at their company and what three workflow changes they’d make with the budget.

How do I learn a new EHR on a locum assignment?
Ask questions and lean on colleagues who know the workflow. Rutledge moved from Cerner to Epic with the help of a longtime medical assistant who showed her shortcuts and customized the system to her workflow.