Stay Informed. Stay Healthy.

It is a fair assumption by most people that doctors should be among the healthiest people due to their job being about making others healthy. However, in reality this isn’t quite true.

There is a huge difference between getting a job, and getting the job you want. When it comes to your work and your career, you shouldn’t have to settle for second best. You spend most of your waking hours working, so it makes sense to ensure that you are in a role that will make you happy.

In today’s working world, working 8am-7pm is the new 9am-5pm. Thanks to staff cuts and higher expectations from employers, it is now the norm to push your hour’s way above the standard 40-hour work week.

It can be daunting having to write your very first CV, particularly when you’ve spent the past several years studying and don’t have any real experience in the field you’re hoping to carve out a career in.

Medical locums play a vital, sometimes underrated, role in the Australian medical system, providing much-needed respite for GPs in remote solo practices to emergency relief at all levels of the hospital system.

Most people assume that doctors, with all their years of medical training, are superheroes in white coats on a mission to save everyone in any circumstance! And there is a degree of truth in this. Most people enter the healthcare profession out of a strong personal desire to help others.

Doing locum work appeals to thousands of doctors each year who find themselves looking for more work/life balance and career flexibility or the challenge of practicing medicine in a wider range of medical fields.

Congratulations, you’ve finished medical school and now you’re looking for a placement but what exactly should you look for in a work environment?

When your primary task is to treat all manner of sickness and disease, and to even save lives, running a smooth and efficient business probably isn’t at the top of your daily to-do list. After all, if you’re working long days with a full list of patients, how do you have time to also manage the nuts and bolts of your practice?

Despite its grounding in science, medicine is a people profession. Doctors and medical staff find themselves dealing with patients at of all ages and cultures, sometimes at the most exciting and delightful times of their lives, like organising travel immunisations, or having a baby.

The issue of bullying in hospitals has made headlines recently following a number of reviews highlighting a widespread problem throughout Australia.

New South Wales Health reports that it has received 6474 flu notifications to date this year. This includes 2576 notifications in June, almost double the number in June last year.

There comes a point in some people’s lives where they entertain the idea of going back to study. This might be to further their current career, or could be to change career altogether.

A locum doctor is someone who is temporarily placed to fill a vacant position in a hospital or GP practice. This can be when the regular doctor is on leave, or when the practice is short-staffed.

There are many reasons why someone might choose to go locum. It could be for flexibility with hours and shifts, for travel opportunities, more money or for more well-rounded experience.

Making your mark in the medical profession can take years of study, hard work and dedication. While many graduates veer towards working in hospitals, plenty of young medical professionals are discovering that a career as a general practitioner can be incredibly fulfilling. If you are looking for a career as a GP, here are a few tips to help you along the way.

Once you’ve completed your medical degree, you will receive provisional registration to enter the workforce as an ‘intern’.

Considering the many ways that technology has quite radically altered our lives in recent years, it should come as no surprise that healthcare is also changing as a result of new developments. The medical jobs that are available today are likely to be quite different to how healthcare operates in the next couple of decades!

A locum doctor is a doctor who takes temporary placement when there is an opening left by another doctor who is away or when a practice is short-staffed

The world of a locum doctor is a transient one. Your job, by its very nature, is temporary, meaning, it can be hard to build relationships with your patients when you have such brief encounters with them before moving on to the next posting.

CORONAVIRUS. COVID-19. 2019-nCoV. These are some keywords I have been hearing in just about every conversation.

A new report by Professor Anthony Scott of the University of Melbourne takes a look into the future to understand what challenges Australia’s medical profession will encounter.

It has been a long road to decriminalisation. The NSW legislation is based on the Queensland Reproductive Healthcare Reform bill and removes abortion from our state’s 119-year-old Crimes Act to create a standalone health Act to regulate the procedure.

Patients have right to know that they’re protected by the various codes and ethics and pieces of legislation that govern the medical profession. These provide them with assurance that the professional treating them is ‘fit to practice’.

Being a locum Doctor appeals to many in the medical profession. Whether it is because you are between jobs, desire a more flexible career or possess the desire to gain first-hand experience in a wider range of medical fields, it can be an attraction option to pursue amongst the 72,000 medical practitioners currently working in Australia (ABS 2011).

If you’ve decided you would like to go locum, the best thing you can do is find yourself a good agency to team up with. Trying to find a placement on your own is possible but will end up being more work than is necessary.

Have you been thinking about going locum for a while, but aren’t sure where to start?

Locuming is the medical industry’s version of going freelance. The reason someone may choose to go locum will vary from person to person. Older, more experienced doctors may wish to have more flexibility in their lives, and do it for a work / life balance change.

An audit by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) conducted in 2011 shows that doctors are still working an unsafe amount of hours.

In Australia, there are currently over two million people classified as casual workers. A lot of these people are students, making their way through high school or university and working a few hours on the side.

It’s no secret that doctors are in demand for Australia’s regional, rural and remote areas. According to the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, the number of rural doctors who possess advanced skills training and can provide advanced medical services to patients has been steadily decreasing.

When you’re looking for locums or other medical team members, you probably know exactly what you need and have a specialist medical recruitment agency to help with the process. But how do you go about assessing candidates for the position of practice manager? Here are a few essential tips to help you find the right candidate to keep your practice running smoothly.

Welcome to Best Practice Medical. While you might call us a recruitment agency, in reality, we’re a little different and a lot more than that. We are a specialist health industry organisation that can help you, as a doctor, or a health facility representative, find your best fit.

Have you ever wondered whether a tree change might be for you? That is, swapping the big city life for a brand new start in the country. Although over two-thirds of Australians live in our major cities, moving to the country is a big dream for many people.

There are people who really thrive on the nine to five workday, and then there are people who benefit more from a flexible work environment. It seems that these days, it is increasingly popular to have flexibility in your work hours, and not only that, but it has actually been proven to be good for you!

It should come as no surprise to anyone that when compared to other Australia professionals, doctors are reported to have substantially higher rates of psychological distress, burnout and attempts at, or ideation of, suicide.

As GP practices grow larger and busier, effective communication with patients and team members is more important than ever.

Around the world opinions have been divided over the past few weeks as news surfaced from Belgium that three children had been given lethal injections by Doctors under the country’s laws which allows terminally ill children in ‘unbearable suffering’ to end their own lives.

Earlier this year the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists launched a review of its guidelines on fatigue to address the growing issue of doctor burnout.