The growing need for urban locum workers
In its initial form, locum tenens work was established to help provide quality medical care to rural areas in the western United States. These areas were woefully underserved by medical professionals, and thousands of people lived without access to basic medical care. While rural areas are still an important component of locum tenens work, urban environments have, over the past 50 years, become an additional focal point.
Nearly half of the world’s population lives in an urban environment. This trend is unlikely to change anytime soon, and nearly all population growth in the next 30 years is projected to occur within urban environments. Naturally, this raises certain concerns in regards to ensuring that urban populations have easy, consistent access to standard medical care. One of the best ways to ensure this goal is met is to have an adequate amount of physician’s located in urban environments. Unfortunately, this is not always the easiest thing to accomplish.
Serving urban areas yields positive results
Historically urban environments tend to have a “rougher” feel than their rural counterparts. Urban medical facilities are often critically understaffed, and handle patient loads that have grown beyond their ability to properly serve. These factors further harm the medical facility because prospective physicians typically do not want to work in a facility that is struggling. Without some form of intervention, this cycle will continue and the medical facility will be unable to provide the level of care that it needs to. Luckily, this environment is where a locum tenens worker can really shine.
As a locum tenens worker, when you choose to work in an urban environment, you are making a profound impact on the population around you. Urban environments have increased concentrations of individuals with substance abuse problems, chronic mental illness, sexually transmitted diseases, and disabilities. These medical conditions can be particularly challenging to address, and become even more difficult to handle when there aren’t enough physicians to go around. If more physicians were able to provide medical treatment to these areas, the overall population would become healthier. In turn, this would lead to fewer patients straining an already fragile system, and better healthcare services for the entire area.
At Preferred Solutions, we are committed to finding staffing solutions for urban environments. Whether you want to serve urban communities in the United States or around the world, we are confident that we can find locum tenens work to suit your needs. Contact one of our representatives today, and see how you can help alleviate a growing problem in our global healthcare system.
