Hey what's up guys my name is John and I'm an Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant.
And in today's video I'm gonna be sharing with you guys eight per diem moonlighting PA salaries.
EIGHT!
Because you know your boy John won't let you guys down.
Moonlighting or working per diem essentially is picking up a second job
outside of your primary employment.
So in this video I'm going to explain what is working per diem or moonlighting as a PA?
Those incredible PA moonlighting salaries.
And then lastly I'm gonna share some caveats behind those salaries.
And please guys before we get started just take a millisecond and hit that
like button down below. It really helps our channel out, so much.
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Alright, so let's get started.
So in general, moonlighting or how I like to say it - working per diem.
Per diem literally means “by the day” in Latin.
That you are working a second job;
you're going to a job to pick up an extra shift or two here or there.
While we use the term moonlighting...
You don't necessarily have to work at night.
Moonlighting or working per diem shouldn't be confused
with something known as Locums Tenens which is more or less travel medicine.
So you can work as a nurse or a Physician Assistant or even a doctor
and travel to different facilities and locations around the world and pick up
various contracts spanning anywhere from a couple weeks to several months at a time.
For the purpose of today's video I'm not talking about travel medicine,
but we can share that in a different video.
In a recent forum a few PAs shared and commented on how much money they're making
moonlighting or working per diem.
One PA near New York City had a critical care job and they were earning $80 an hour
with a bonus
and they claimed that they earned $50,000 last year as a 1099 contractor.
There was another PA who committed to
two shifts in the emergency department earning a hundred dollars an hour as a W-2 employee.
Which came out to $25,000 extra that year.
One PA shared that they were working in urgent care for seventy dollars an hour
just two Saturdays per month.
For a commitment of two-to-four shifts a month,
there's a PA working in hospital medicine making $90 an hour.
A psych PA said that they would moonlight during the weekends...
They would earn anywhere from $600 to $1400 every weekend.
One trauma PA worked per diem said that they were making $65 an hour which resulted
to an additional 12 to $18,000 a year that they were earning on top of their regular job.
Lastly, we have a PA in California making $130 an hour per diem.
And another person claimed that they were making $150 an hour, however I'm not sure
where they were or what specialty they were in.
In general, moonlighting is going to pay you an additional $5 to $15 above your normal
hourly PA salary.
However it could also pay time-and-a-half over your regular PA salary.
So I know that some of you guys are hearing these
per diem moonlighting salaries and just salivating right now.
There are a few caveats to moonlighting as a Physician Assistant.
First and foremost, a lot of per diem or moonlighting gigs don't
really have a long intensive training period attached to
it. They kind of expect you to be up to speed in regards to the medicine.
So that means these jobs usually aren't very appealing for a new
grad PA looking to pay their student loans very quickly.
The next issue about per diem gigs is that they will usually
always have a minimum commitment required of you.
Most job listings that I've seen will usually ask you to do
anywhere from two-to-four or even possibly six shifts a month.
They may ask you to commit to weekends where traditionally they
have staffing issues they may also ask you to work
night shifts it can impact things like your social life, your family life, and relationships.
So there should be a balance, right?
This could possibly lead to burnout between your regular job and your per
diem gig especially in a specialty like urgent care where as a per diem urgent care provider
you will probably be seeing 30, 40, maybe even 50 patients a day at some locations.
A lot of these per diem gigs, unless they're in the middle of nowhere, you're
usually fairly active at work.
The lack of benefits.
So a lot of the per diem jobs will give you malpractice,
however some of them will try to even skirt that.
Whether you are a 1099 employee or a W-2 employee makes a big difference because if
you are a W-2 employee you effectively only have to pay one half of the payroll taxes.
A lower priority.
Some jobs will prioritize their per diem people but a lot of jobs will actually
fill in the full-time people and then kind of have you working the more inconvenient shifts
whether that means weekends nights or holidays those are usually when they
want to use per diem people to kind of fill in the gaps in the schedule.
So I don't want to be a downer. I'm going to talk about some of the pros
of working per diem, which is obviously additional money.
Secondly is the ability to see a profession outside of what you typically do every day.
Maybe you go get a per diem wound care gig, dermatology gig, critical care gig,
or something like that where now you're learning and being immersed in a different
aspect of medicine and that might actually help you in your everyday regular job.
Lastly having a per diem gig is a good safety net if anything happens to your
regular main job and you have a good rapport with your per diem
job, you might have a full-time position lined up for you ready and waiting.
So guys get out there go get that dough and go learn a different aspect of medicine
moonlighting or working per diem for another job.
Guys, that's all for today's video. If you have any questions or comments leave
them down below, I'd love to hear from you guys.
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And guys, stay safe out there. Have a great rest of your day.
Bye bye.