There have been a lot of posts about how COVID-19 has forever changed the way physicians are recruited. I would agree with most of these articles, but here are some things you can do to make these changes better.

 

  1. To make sure you have face-to-face interaction, try to go to as many functions as the current situation allows. Whenever things do get better, and they will, don’t forget to do this.
    Make a goal and place it in your calendar. Show up to a breakfast grab and go. Come to a lunch and learn. Volunteer on an advisory committee if you are asked. All these things will help you grow not only as a physician, but as a person who happens to be a doctor.
  2. COVID has caused many people to re-evaluate what’s most important to them in life, including living closer to their family or near their hometown. As you enter your job search, be sure you’re accounting for your own changes in preferred location and lifestyle – and how they may impact your search.
  1. Instead of having to pay for a hotel and meals to attend an in-person career event, you can save money as many of those have now become virtual. This is an excellent way to be in touch with multiple employers in various areas. It also allows you, the physician, to see what hospital employers are offering in various parts of the country.
    Career fairs with PracticeLink offer a great resource to talk directly to hiring organizations.
  2. A virtual setting for the first interview is now the norm. This helps you avoid taking off work to interview in person until you are sure it’s an opportunity you want to pursue.
    Gone are the days where you took three days off only to find out you just wasted your PTO when the place you wanted to consider was looking for a physician, and you did not have time off to interview.
  3. Hospitals, organizations and groups are more aware of what your needs are, and they are more caring and understanding of you as a person, not just as a physician. The organizations need you to continue to provide care to their patients.
  4. Some organizations now have curbside onboarding practices! You drive through, complete your I-9 forms, receive your laptop, take your drug test and COVID-19 test, and are given your email address. You then sign in to your email with a password while you are there to make sure it all works and receive your virtual orientation schedule. Your in-person onboarding is one day instead of five, which basically goes over patient records systems, such as EPIC, and places you on the schedule. This is all completed after your credentialing and license have been approved.
  5. Being able to have the recruiter or the decision-maker at the hospital, facility or group communicate with you and the other key decision-makers electronically has been a game changer.

 

Now, the process is not as lengthy. The recruiter no longer must call the department heads or key people and wait until their survey has been completed. The step of compiling the information to hand over to the CEO, getting on the schedule and then submitting the offer to you is one that can be skipped.

Now the recruiter can do it all by the click of a button, and everyone can sign everything electronically. Some facilities did this before COVID-19, but it has forever changed the way people do business because you can do it this way, and it is so much more efficient.

The results and catastrophic events of COVID-19 have forever changed many of our lives and is something we will never forget, and may be living with for a long time. Recruiting physicians has also changed along with it. These are some of the changes I am grateful physicians can benefit from after many years of hard work.