Advanced Practice Clinicians find Jobs with Indian Health Services

For many advanced practice providers, locum tenens jobs with Indian Health Services may be a bit of a mystery. They may know that the US government provides medical services to people of Native American and Alaskan heritage, but they often don’t know much beyond that simple fact.

Temporary nurse practitioner jobs with Indian Health Services are not hard to come by – at least that appears to be the case to Leigh, a nurse practitioner working at Pine Ridge IHS in South Dakota. “Almost everyone in my hospital is a contractor,” she explains. “Only a handful of the doctors and nurses are there permanently. That can be frustrating for the patients, who will probably never see the same provider twice.”

It’s challenging for advanced practice providers too. “Things don’t always happen according to plan around here,” she says. “You come to expect things to be delayed or not work right. It’s kind of like going on a medical mission. You need that same mentality. You have to go into it knowing that things may not go as planned but you’re here to do something good.”

Of course it can be hard to “do good” when the funding isn’t there. “It’s tough because most of the time, if a patient needs to be referred out, there’s just no money for it,” Leigh says. “Unless the patient is going to die that day, it’s unlikely they’ll get immediate treatment.”

Leigh works in an outpatient family practice clinic. While her background is in neurosurgery, she feels like it’s been good for her to broaden her scope of work. The clinic gives her the opportunity to see all kinds of patients. This is her first venture into temporary nurse practitioner jobs, and half way through her six-month contract, she’s still enjoying it. “South Dakota is really beautiful – picturesque,” she says. “I’m from Mobile, Alabama so it’s a big change, but I’ve loved getting to know the local people. That’s been very rewarding.”

Admittedly, she hasn’t had much time to socialize with the locals, as her schedule keeps her extremely busy. She works 8 am to 6:30 pm every day, and 3 nights a week until 9 pm. She’s works a lot of weekends too, but she doesn’t seem to mind. “This has been good for me,” she says. “I’m not sure what comes next, but coming here and just focusing on work, it’s allowed me to take a breath.”

She partly attributes AdvancedPractice for her good experience. “Michelle has been great to work with,” she says of her recruiter. “And they’ve really worked with me to find housing I’m comfortable in. The whole hospital is staffed with contractors and we all talk,” she continues. “And from what I can tell AdvancedPractice is one of the best.”

Children of the Plains Draws Attention to Pine Ridge
NPs and PAs Sign Up for Locum Tenens Jobs on Indian Reservations

Michelle Jernigan, Recruiter from AdvancedPractice.com (left), recently had a chance to travel to South Dakota and visit with some of the locum tenens providers we have placed. 

The trip was especially timely as several weeks later ABC Television's 20/20 aired the special:  Hidden America:  Children of the Plains which focused on the plight of the Lakota tribe at the Pine Ridge Reservation.  Pine Ridge is one of the facilities where AdvancedPractice.com has a government contract to place locum tenens NPs and PAs.  Since the airing of the program AdvancedPractice.com has had an outpouring of response from NPs and PAs interested in working government locum tenens.