From the U.S. to the other side of the world: 20 locum tenens physician stories
July 20, 2026
Twenty physicians…twenty different reasons to leave their comfort zone. Global Medical Staffing is one of the few locum tenens staffing agencies placing physicians in both stateside and international assignments, with decades of experience in international locum tenens work. Whether that means a weekend assignment a few states over or a year immersed in a brand-new country, we build the career to match how far a physician wants to go.
So why do some physicians choose to take a risk and try something new?
Renewed purpose.
More time with family.
A second chance at love.
A porch that faces sunset instead of a parking lot.
These 20 physicians found all of that and more through locum tenens, without giving up the specialty they trained for. Some took assignments close to home. Others crossed oceans. A few did both. However far they went, every one of them took control of where, and how, they practice medicine.
1. Dr. Christopher Canto, emergency medicine
Twenty-two years into emergency medicine, Dr. Christopher Canto is still chasing the same rush that drew him to the ER in the first place; he just does it on a bigger map now. His first assignment with Global Medical Staffing sent him to Rotorua, New Zealand, a sulfurous volcanic town where he spent nine immersive months working alongside the Maori community.
"It stuck with me forever," he says of that first taste of international medicine. He's since taken on Guam and St. Croix, thriving in the on-the-fly resourcefulness those smaller island ERs demand, and he says it's made him sharper everywhere else, too.
"You make do with whatever you have, and everybody pitches in," he says. "It definitely made me more versatile and helped me feel more confident in myself." When he's not in the ED, you can find him hiking every mountain he can find, mountain biking through New Zealand's trail systems, or diving (he got his scuba certification while on assignment in Guam). For Dr. Canto, locum tenens hasn't just been a change of scenery—it's been the cure for burnout, again and again.
Do it. Definitely go and do it... It's going to be a fantastic experience, and it's going to change your life for the better. So just do it.
2. Dr. Miriam Aboukar, psychiatry
Dr. Miriam Aboukar
After facing some health issues during her Harvard fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry, Dr. Miriam Aboukar found herself needing a different pace than traditional in-person practice could offer. Locum tenens gave her a way back into medicine on her own terms—first with short contracts, then full-time telehealth.
"It's been extremely flexible and has been one of the better places that I have been placed." The shift let her prioritize her health while staying fully engaged with patients, cutting her commute entirely and giving her more time with family. Dr. Aboukar's story shows how locum tenens can meet a physician exactly where she is, without asking her to put her career on hold.
I get to just spend more time in my community, less commuting...that's always the thing that money can't buy—time.
3. Dr. Michael Jones, family medicine and sports medicine
Fresh out of residency in 2023, Dr. Michael Jones took a rare leap: his first assignment straight into international locum tenens, working with Global Medical Staffing in rural northern New Zealand. He chose that specific location to work with the region's Maori population, becoming the local go-to for everything from skin cancer care to sports medicine to removing debris from patients' eyes with an 18-gauge needle.
Global Medical Staffing covered his flights, car, and housing: a five-bedroom home on the water with an avocado tree and citrus trees in the yard, where the back porch faced the sunset every night. "I had such a dreamy experience, honestly," he says. He nearly didn't want to leave after six months. Now in private practice in Salt Lake City, he says many patients tell him they chose to see him because of his time in New Zealand.
It's something that's fun to be able to say for the rest of my life—that I lived in New Zealand for a while.
4. Dr. Amy Thompson, OB-GYN
Sixteen years into practice, Dr. Amy Thompson finally checked a longtime bucket-list item off her list: international locum tenens. With locums, she had already hit her three bucket-list locations in the U.S.—Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine—and that experience that led her to Global Medical Staffing for her first international placement: a five-month assignment in Timaru, New Zealand, a coastal hub two hours from both mountains and ocean. "It was just unreal to be able to work internationally," she says. "The land itself was like living in a fairy tale." Between shifts, she threw herself into the adventure the country is famous for: hiking, paragliding, fishing, and climbing the world's highest waterfall via ferrata. She picks her locum assignments by location first, pay second, and says it has paid off every time.
To actually live there and be immersed in that culture, to work alongside people that have lived in New Zealand their whole life... that's something you can't get with just taking a vacation.
5. Dr. Marcus Mitchell, anesthesiology
Since leaving his W-2 job for full-time locum tenens work two years ago, Dr. Marcus Mitchell has taken assignments with Global Medical Staffing in Maryland, Indianapolis, and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He deliberately chose underserved communities that echo the one he grew up in. "I always wanted to be a doctor that can help decrease those disparities," he says. Locums has also fed a lifelong curiosity about the world: he's visited 20 countries in the past two years alone, something he says his old W-2 job never would have allowed. Through it all, he credits his recruiter with keeping every assignment running smoothly. "She's just very relatable. We've been working together for about two years, so if she sees an opportunity that will fit, she just calls me up," he says. "I definitely trust her."
I get to choose my locations. I really like to go to underserved communities, and that's kind of why I went into medicine... it's a win-win situation.
Go tropical: Locum tenens in the Caribbean
6. Drs. Holly and Paul Llobet, critical care/palliative care and internal medicine
Drs. Holly and Paul Llobet
Drs. Holly and Paul Llobet spent a decade barely seeing each other between back-to-back shifts working as physicians in upstate New York. That changed when they became a locum tenens couple, traveling and working together across New Zealand, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Saipan through Global Medical Staffing. "What locums did for my wife and me is we got a lot closer," Paul says. "Even though we were working in the same hospital, even though we were working in the same area, we've become a lot closer because of it." As a tradition: they travel with their wedding dress and tux in their luggage everywhere they go, so they can renew their vows every year, wherever they happen to be.
I think locum's life can work for anybody, really—you just have to have an adventurous spirit and be open to cultures, languages, food, and meeting people.
7. Dr. Greg Kapala, radiology
Dr. Greg Kapala
Dr. Greg Kapala had been hearing about international locum tenens for years when he finally decided to try it. "I really like traveling. I love hiking," he says. As he was nearing the end of his career, he thought, “I'm going to cut back a bit, not work full time. Locums seemed like the perfect way to finish up my career." He returned to New Zealand five more times through Global Medical Staffing, splitting his assignments between Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay, where a chronic radiologist shortage keeps the work steady. "It's just very comfortable," he says. "For me, it's like going home every time I go back there."
People don't go to New Zealand for locums to make money; you go for the adventure of it. But it's fun, it's a good life experience, and that makes it worth it—way more than a higher salary would.
Get all the facts: Working locum tenens in New Zealand
8. Dr. Clark Knutson, pediatric hospitalist
Dr. Clark Knutson
Dr. Clark Knutson worked exclusively with Global Medical Staffing after retiring from a career as an Air Force physician. He has taken locum assignments in Tasmania, Queensland, and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. When he tried stepping away from medicine entirely years later, he found full retirement wasn't the fit he expected. "When I stopped working full time, I went from working 60 hours a week to zero hours a week," he says. "Putting those brakes on really kind of threw me for a loop." A call from his recruiter brought him back, and he's been doing locum tenens steadily ever since. He'd had chances to work with other agencies over the years but always turned them down, valuing the straightforward relationship he'd built with his own.
My recruiter calls me and offers me a job, and then I can say yes or no, and there's no hard feelings either way.
9. Dr. John Gallehr, child and adolescent psychiatry
Dr. John Gallehr and his family
After more than 20 years in practice, Dr. John Gallehr felt his work getting stale. Then, a phone call out of the blue from Global Medical Staffing led to his first international locum tenens assignment in Christchurch, New Zealand. He enjoyed it so much that he took a second assignment and brought his family along. Global Medical Staffing handled the visa process for his husband and children and helped him navigate New Zealand's system from afar. "Global Medical was fantastic about filling out the forms, telling me what needed to be signed and how to proceed; they made it as smooth as possible," he says. His kids have picked up rugby and cricket and built friendships he expects will last a lifetime.
To come to New Zealand, where everything was new and fresh, was a wonderful way to recharge the batteries, to learn some new techniques, to learn about a different style of medicine and culture.
10. Dr. Sue Ming, neurology
Dr. Sue Ming
After 26 years of practice in Newark, New Jersey, Dr. Sue Ming reached a point in her career where she wanted to travel and bring her skills to new communities where they were needed most. She's taken assignments with Global Medical Staffing across Missouri, Washington, Alaska, Guam, and New Zealand, returning to Alaska and Guam several times, drawn especially to the Chamorro community in Guam and the Inupiat communities in Alaska, both of which have limited access to specialty care. "I feel like I was needed," she says. "I gave something that helped them, more than a well-cared population." When a typhoon hit Guam during one of her assignments, she and her colleagues kept the hospital running through a week without power, caring for dialysis patients and others who had nowhere else to go. Between assignments, she's made time to explore; she’s dived in Guam and chased the northern lights in Alaska.
Locums provides care to different populations with a new perspective. It's something that enriches me, my experience, and my insight into healthcare.
11. Dr. Rachael Consoli, OB-GYN
Dr. Rachael Consoli with a pediatric patient
Dr. Rachael Consoli has delivered babies on every continent except Antarctica—a feat locum tenens made possible. With Global Medical Staffing, she's practiced in St. Thomas, Guam, and Utqiagvik, Alaska, where she became the first OB-GYN ever to work in the northernmost community in the U.S. Before her, pregnant women in the predominantly Inupiat community had to fly to Anchorage and stay for weeks away from home for anything beyond the simplest deliveries. "We've helped a significant portion of women be able to stay in their home, with their children and their families, deliver, and go home at the end of three days, like everywhere else," she says.
I enjoy the novelty of locums: traveling, seeing new cultures, seeing new places, trying new food. I really enjoy that immensely.
12. Dr. Randy Sasich, pulmonary and critical care
After a career that took him from California to Idaho to Washington, D.C. and back, Dr. Randy Sasich took a six-month locum tenens assignment in Helena, Montana. He ended up liking it enough that he decided to stay for good. "I thought the medicine delivery was good here," he says, pointing to flexible scheduling, strong hospital support, and the chance to help build out a pulmonary ICU program from the ground up. The move also suited his love of the outdoors, with easy access to skiing and hiking most of the year. What started as a temporary assignment turned into a long-term home.
I love the flexibility of the administration, and not working 24/7 continuously. If you work hard for a week, you get a week off.
13. Dr. Anita Haugabrook, internal medicine/hospitalist
Dr. Anita Haugabrook (left) and her spouse Wendy
After a decade of hospitalist work on a rigid schedule, Dr. Anita Haugabrook found her quality of life declining and made the leap to locum tenens. She was able to balance a part-time hospitalist role in Atlanta with locums assignments across the country, building her schedule around the moments that matter most to her. "It just felt like for a good portion of my life there wasn't enough flexibility," she says. "Now I say, what's coming up? And I base my schedule around it." Beyond her locums work, she's had the flexibility to take medical mission trips to Panama, Guyana, Guatemala, and Haiti.
I always encourage people that locums is definitely the way to go, if you want a better quality of life.
14. Dr. Ronald Stiller, pulmonary and critical care
Dr. Ronald Stiller with his partner Angela
After retiring from a decades-long career at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Dr. Ronald Stiller looked to Global Medical Staffing to combine his two great passions: medicine and travel. He's taken a locum assignment in Walla Walla, Washington, nearly every month since 2017. Along the way, he met Angela, a telemetry technician at the hospital, who is now his partner. "I came here with absolutely no inclination to find a partner," he says. Since then, the two have traveled the world together, including Italy, Ireland, Scotland, with Australia and New Zealand next. He's been with Global Medical Staffing for so long, he counts his recruiters as personal friends.
I would not exclude a locums spot for a relationship. You meet somebody when you least expect it, and it happened to me.
15. Dr. Matt DeWys, emergency medicine
After 30 years in full-time emergency medicine, Dr. Matt DeWys wanted to shift to part-time without stepping away from the ER entirely. Global Medical Staffing made that transition easy. The agency got him credentialed not just at one hospital, but across the entire McLaren system in Michigan, giving him the flexibility to pick up shifts at whichever site had openings. "Credentialing is huge, and it's very much problematic at times and frustrating on both ends," he says. "Global Medical Staffing took care of that and made it easy." He picks up his fair share of weekend shifts without being locked into a rigid schedule. He credits that flexibility with keeping him working well past when he otherwise might have retired. He's now considering expanding to other states, or even international assignments, down the road.
If I didn't have this connection, I probably could have retired. But this is keeping me fresh.
16. Dr. Kay Hooshmand, occupational medicine
Dr. Kay Hooshmand and her daughter
Dr. Kay Hooshmand took a locum assignment in Montana with Global Medical Staffing chasing a simple wish for her daughter. She wanted space for her to run around outside, a farm-style life, with horses next door. "I didn't know the locums life before that," she says. "They said, ‘we're paying for your housing,’ and I was like, oh my gosh, we can live on a farm." The assignment gave her daughter a rural childhood experience, Dr. Hooshmand never expected to find in her own career.
Traveling is much easier than you think, and people are more accepting of you than you expect.
17. Dr. Elias Parsa, family medicine
Dr. Elias Parsa and a pediatric patient
After 12 years at San Joaquin General Hospital, including five as a residency program director, Dr. Elias Parsa felt himself settling into autopilot and craving a new challenge. So he took a six-month locum tenens assignment in New Zealand with Global Medical Staffing, bringing his wife and kids along for the ride. The move gave his family a new perspective, lifelong friendships, and the experience of a different healthcare system. Since then, he's continued saying yes to new opportunities, including a recent medical mission trip to Thailand. Dr. Parsa's story shows how stepping outside a comfortable routine, even after over a decade in one place, can open the door to a richer life and career.
I have always believed that one of the most important things you can do with this life is to serve others. This is the true passion that continues to drive me professionally and personally, and I feel so fortunate that I can work and make a difference as a physician.
18. Dr. Colleen Haynes, hospital medicine
A lifelong Hawaii resident, Dr. Colleen Haynes decided to try something different after years of practicing on the islands. So she took her first assignment with Global Medical Staffing in Saipan. She fell in love with the Pacific island, returning for two more stints. The gratitude of her patients stood out most. "I've never been told thank you so often as I was in Saipan," she says. "Even if they never asked me back or didn't pay me, I'd probably come back anyway just because of the way the patients treated me." Between assignments in Saipan and St. Thomas in the Caribbean, Dr. Haynes has found locum tenens to be the perfect way to keep experiencing new places without giving up the small-town, island life she loves.
I've never been told thank yous so often as I was in Saipan. That was the best part of the whole assignment.
19. Dr. Catherine Bjerum, infectious disease
Dr. Catherine Bjerum has worked locum tenens since 2012, choosing assignments that allow her to balance a demanding, unpredictable research schedule while returning to the places and people she loves most. With Global Medical Staffing, she's worked in New Mexico and all over Washington state, staying close to family along the way. Ultimately, she found she had no desire to return to a permanent role. "I have no desire to ever have a permanent job again," she says. Dr. Bjerum's story shows how locum tenens can give a physician the freedom to build a career around a life, rather than the other way around.
Locums was just really a lot more flexible, while other aspects of our life was still kind of up in the air.
20. Dr. Jason Heine, family medicine
Dr. Jason Heine and his family
Dr. Jason Heine and his wife, Shauna, always planned to raise their two daughters abroad for a stretch of childhood. They'd talked about it since before their kids were even born. Locum tenens finally made it possible. He took a year assignment in New Plymouth, New Zealand, and took the whole family along. It was Dr. Heine's first-ever locum tenens assignment, and his only one. His recruiter handled the job search, the paperwork, and the logistics of relocating a family of four across the world. The family spent the year immersed in New Zealand's natural beauty and its community-first culture, giving their daughters exactly the kind of formative, wide-open childhood experience they'd always dreamed of.
We always said we'd live internationally for some period of time with our kids and give them that experience. Locums with Global Medical Staffing is what finally made it possible.
That’s twenty stories of twenty physicians who decided to practice their way. Let us help you write your story! Whether that's a domestic assignment close to home or your first international locum tenens opportunity on the other side of the world, Global Medical Staffing has physician jobs to match. Search current locum tenens jobs or give us a call at 855.407.6961 to get started.