By Christine Whitmarsh, RN, BSN
Maryland offers an abundance of opportunities, especially for travel doctors seeking locum tenens jobs there. The state is easy to navigate with many highways, Amtrak routes and other modes of public transportation. The nearby nation’s capital along with several high profile professional sports teams provide for ample things to do during downtime for those who are travel doctors. Locum tenens can help with the Maryland physician shortage.
The state’s top industries include importing and transportation related to the bustling Port of Baltimore, and government, defense and aerospace projects related to nearby Washington, D.C. Maryland also boasts some of the most active bio-research,, life sciences, educational and medical research sectors in the country. This makes a locum assignment in the state especially attractive for residents wishing to gain intensive research and specialty experience.
A study by the Maryland Hospital Association shows that specialty areas in Maryland most in need of locum physicians are: primary care, emergency medicine, anesthesiology, hematology/oncology, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery, psychiatry, dermatology and orthopedics, with future shortages predicted in pediatrics and radiology. How many more choices does an aspiring travel locum physician need to select from? The same study showed that locum tenens jobs are most needed in Southern Maryland, Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore. Overall, the state is ranked 16 percent below the national average in number of practicing clinical physicians. Maryland’s shortage is predicted to worsen by 2015, especially since more than thirty percent of current practicing physicians are 55 years old, nearing retirement age.
As Maryland’s lawmakers brainstorm solutions such as modifying liability laws and developing loan forgiveness programs for new physicians and physician travelers, Locum tenens physicians are needed to provide the primary health care needed by the state’s more than five and a half million residents.
Sources: Insurance Journal, Wikipedia
Christine Whitmarsh is a Registered Nurse with a BSN from the University of Rhode Island. She is a freelance health journalist and medical writer and a contributor to Travel Nurse Source and Allied Travel Careers.
