Locum tenens suits physician assistants who want flexibility, variety and control over when they work. Here is what the work is really like, what facilities expect, what it tends to pay, and how to land your first assignment.
You cover a clinic, hospital service or urgent care that needs a PA for a set period, from a few days to several months. You usually work in your own specialty with a defined schedule, a patient panel or service to cover, and a short orientation to the charting system and local workflows.
Settings vary widely. Primary care, urgent care, emergency medicine, orthopedics and surgical first assist can all be locum PA work, with very different pace, procedure load and supervision. Ask who your supervising physician is, how often they are on site, and whether you cover nights, weekends or call.
Facilities typically want national PA certification, recent experience in the specialty you will cover, and a clean work history. Expect credentialing steps such as license verification, certifications, references, background checks and health clearance, plus hospital privileging for inpatient and surgical roles.
Keep your documents current and in one place. Work history, references and immunization records most often slow a start date, and our guide to how credentialing works walks through the sequence.
Posted locum PA hourly rates commonly fall between the $70s and about $130, with primary care and urgent care toward the lower end and surgical, critical care and cardiothoracic work higher, sometimes well past that. Specialty usually moves the number more than anything else, followed by location, call and urgency.
Compare offers on the full picture: hourly rate, guaranteed hours, call pay, and whether lodging and travel are covered. Many locum assignments are contract rather than employee work, so benefits and taxes work differently than in a staff job. Ask a tax professional how that affects your take-home pay. For a framework, see how a weekly package is built.
Physician assistant employment is projected to grow about 20 percent over the next decade, much faster than the average for all occupations, with roughly 12,000 openings a year. Clinics and hospitals use locum PAs to cover vacancies, leave, growth and seasonal volume, especially in primary care, urgent care, emergency medicine and surgical services.
Procedural skill and independence get you placed faster. PAs who can run a full schedule, handle common procedures and learn a new charting system quickly have the most choices, and emergency, orthopedic and surgical experience are in steady demand.
Tell a recruiter exactly what you have done: specialty, settings, procedures and how independently you worked. Keep your documents organized and stay flexible on start date. To compare options, see what to ask before accepting an assignment, compare with locum tenens nurse practitioner jobs, and browse the full jobs overview.
They range from a few days to several months. Many run 13 weeks, and some sites offer extensions if the need continues and you want to stay.
Both are temporary, but locum tenens usually refers to physicians and advanced practice clinicians covering clinical practice, often with a different pay structure and contract terms than a travel RN package.
It depends on the agency and the assignment. Ask in writing which applies, since it changes how benefits and taxes work.
Most facilities want recent experience in the specialty because you are expected to start seeing patients quickly. Tell your recruiter what you have done independently.
No. Placement is free to you. The facility pays our fee.
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Tell us your specialty, settings and the states you will work. We only reach out when a role matches.