Your guide to becoming a locum doctor in Australia/NZ

When you’re ready for something new as a doctor in Australia or New Zealand – more variety, different experiences, meeting new people – then it may be time to switch to locum work. 

In this short guide, we’ll help you understand what qualifications you need to start locum work, some key things to think about and how to find your first locum position. 

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1. The pros and cons of locum work

Before digging into the specifics, it’s important to ensure you understand why you want to become a locum doctor in the first place. What do you want to achieve with your career? What is the intended outcome? 

If you can answer this question, it’ll help you better understand if this is the right move for your needs. Take a look at these benefits and challenges of locuming – do they match what you’re after? 

Pros of locum work

1. Flexibility: Locuming offers greater flexibility to travel, choose your schedule or change the type of work you’re taking on. You can make it fit your lifestyle. 
2. Work/life balance: The greater flexibility often allows for better work/life balance, helping you to avoid burnout. 
3. Pay: Locum positions often pay more to accommodate their urgency, or the casual basis of the contract. Some doctors also locum on top of their permanent position, keeping a mix of stable and locum income. 
4. Experiences: Working as a locum doctor gives you the opportunity to mix up where and how you work, meeting new people, going to new places and developing a broader skill set. This variety of experiences can be very professionally rewarding. 

Learn more: Benefits of locuming 

Cons of locum work

1. Unpredictable work: Locuming can be unpredictable at times. While signing up to a locum agency can help, it’s not always as stable or consistent as a permanent placement. 
2. Constant relearning: Every time you move to a new practice, you’ll need to learn their way of doing things. This can be a bit jarring, as you’ll be regularly relearning simple things and adjusting to how different teams operate. 
3. Patient relationships: It can be trickier to offer efficient care when you don’t know the background of your patients. Locum doctors often move around a lot, making it vital to learn how to build patient relationships very quickly. 
4. Colleague relationships: Some locum doctors worry about struggling to build relationships with colleagues too. But, if you maintain your usual professionalism, reliability and friendliness, this shouldn’t be an issue. Be polite, introduce yourself to everyone, and your network should expand. 

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2. Essential qualifications for locuming in Australia & New Zealand 

Any doctor can begin locum work so long as they hold general or specialist registration. 

Locuming isn’t open to other types of registrations due to the temporary and independent nature of the role. 

Working as a locum on a visa 

Overseas doctors are able to take up locum work in Australia and New Zealand if they are either citizens or residents, or they acquire a visa which specifically permits locum work (such as certain temporary skills shortage of working holiday visas). If this is relevant to you, you will likely also need the help from a medical recruitment agency like DNA to help you sort out the paperwork and find appropriate roles. 

Skills requirements for locum work 

Practices and hospitals will generally advertise for the specific skills they require, and will normally accept anyone with the appropriate medical fellowship. 

General locums are also an option, and here your amount of experience will help to dictate your eligibility and rate. Generally, the more experience the better, which is why many doctors wait to begin locum work until PGY-3 or 4.  

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3. Maintaining professional development as a locum doctor 

Keeping up with your CPD may actually be easier as a locum doctor, given the better work/life balance available. 

Here are some tips to think about: 

• Go into locum work with a plan. Figure out what skills or other development opportunities you’re searching for and plan them out in advance (and note what evidence your relevant medical board will accept). Look for courses that can offer points towards your progression, but won’t cost too much money, and put them in your schedule. 
• Ask your employers or colleagues about opportunities available at each placement. You never know what you’ll get unless you let people know you’re hoping to get involved. 
• Carry paper copies of relevant feedback forms to encourage impromptu learning opportunities, and to make it easy to get signatures. 
• Use your more flexible time to get involved in projects, take courses and seek out learning opportunities. 

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4. How to find great locum doctor positions 

Unless you’ve established a large professional network to call upon or you’re keeping a close eye on public job boards, it’s most likely that you’ll find suitable locum work through the use of a specialist medical recruiter. 

Why locum through an agency? 

In short, getting locum work through a recruiter makes life significantly easier. For example: 

• You’ll have specialists finding suitable roles, and keeping your work interesting and relevant – saving you time doing it yourself. 

• You’ll have someone to help you on the financial side, handling invoices on your behalf. 

• You can keep life interesting by coordinating with a recruiter about your evolving needs, professional goals and dreams of travel. 

At DNA Healthcare, we’re here for you. When you sign up as a locum doctor with us, we’ll help plan out your needs and goals, and place you in roles that offer professional satisfaction, financial success and a life less ordinary. 

If you have all the right qualifications then it’s easy to get started as a locum doctor. Simply get in touch with our team and let’s chat about finding your first locum position.