A day in the life of a locum Intensive Care doctor

Dr David Silley is an Intensive Care doctor and Medrecruit locum. “Working in intensive care it is quite long shifts, we work 12-13 hour days. When I go off to do my locum shifts I try to fit in as many as I can.”

When you are working as a locum “you turn up, and are put up in accommodation next to the hospital,” explained David.

“Then you go into the hospital where you are straight into the wards, but thankfully, the medicine in Intensive Care is the same wherever you go, so it is pretty easy to just kind of get into the swing of things.”

David finds that what makes his locum shifts easier is that “often the type of people working in Intensive Care are very laid back and very friendly.”

David’s last locum placement with Medrecruit was at Waikato hospital on the North Island. “Waikato hospital is great! It is quite a big hospital, and they’ve got all the specialties which is good exposure to different things and the team was really friendly.”

One of the stand-out things for David was the team. “Everyone was really helpful the whole time and I never felt like I couldn’t ask someone what to do.”

David, who previously spent six months working as a doctor on an antarctic base likes mixing career with adventure. Locum work appeals to him because he gets to visit new hospitals and new locations.

“It is always nice going to new places. Waikato was quite a tropical place. I had 28 degrees days most days and getting some good sun was nice.”

“New Zealand really is quite a special place having so many landscapes and climates in such close proximity. You can drive one hour and be in a rainforest, and then drive an hour and be up in 3000 metre peaks, and then drive an hour and be in some tropical beaches.”

Originally from the UK, David observes that there are many similarities between the places but “ I think the dramatics of the landscape is very different.”

From a work perspective, David likes the fact that Kiwis “are quite laid back which is nice. It gives you the ability to find that work/life balance that I was after.”