Guest Aidan Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Definition please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve U of T Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 locum n : someone (physician or clergyman) who substitutes temporarily for another member of the same profession [syn: locum tenens] Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University http://www.dictionary.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Certain physician specialties are more likely than others to work in their own offices or clinics (eg. a family doctor). When they want to take a vacation/leave of absence/conferences or anything else, it still costs overhead to maintain the office (your monthly rent check or mortgage is still due, and your staff can't all leave and then return to fit your schedule), and for this, you hire a locum. A locum is a temporary fill-in doctor who comes into your office, and continues to see all your patients for you during your absence. In return for getting to use your office, the locum agrees in advance to pay a fraction of his/her earnings to the original physician (like "renting" out the office). In that way, your patients aren't stranded without a doctor, the office continues to generate some revenue to cover overhead costs, and the locum gets a chance to travel around and work in a new location and a new style of practice. Both the original doctor and the locum come out happy. As a very general rule, locums are more likely to be recent residency graduates who want to travel around a bit, work in a variety of medical settings, and in general just get exposed to as many different medical offices and settings so that when they finally settle down and purchase their own office/clinic, they've got enough experience to know what they like and what they want. Of course, hospital-based specialists who are on vacation (ie. Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine) may need to use locums as well (in order to provide patients with reliable access to care), it's just that anesthesiologists and Emerg docs don't have to worry about their offices losing money while they are vacationing... because they don't have offices in the first place! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aidan Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Thanks for the in-depth response Ian! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aidan Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Regarding the great Sir William Osler -- is the correct pronunciation "Oss"-ler or "Oh"-sler? I know this sounds silly, but I've just gotta know! I recently talked to two people about him, and they both pronounced the name differently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest medicator007 Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Not at all a silly question Aidan... It has been quite a large discussion at McGill, one that the Osler Society has spent quite some time looking at, hey we were drunk:p . From what we can best tell, the proper pronunciation would be "Oh-sler"... this is the more British manner and is the manner in which all of our medical historians pronounce his name. On the other hand the more common manner is the "Oss-ler" version, which from what we can tell is the more watered down pronunciation. Just my thoughts on the matter. Medicator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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