Locum tenens in rural Oregon: Finding balance, purpose, and community
March 24, 2026
When Dr. Susan Taylor talks about her career, there’s no sense of restlessness—only evolution.
After four decades in obstetrics and gynecology, multiple cross-country moves, private practice ownership, hospitalist work, and now locum tenens assignments along the Oregon coast, she continues to focus on what matters most: work-life balance.
“I'm at the tail end of my career now,” she says. “I've done this for 40 years.”
And yet, her work in rural Oregon feels anything but like winding down. It feels intentional.
From the Midwest to the Willamette Valley
Dr. Taylor’s roots are firmly Midwestern. “I grew up in Iowa,” she says. She attended medical school there before moving with her husband to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for residency, where she eventually joined a busy private OB-GYN practice.
Her early years were high volume and hospital-based, complete with NICU support and complex obstetrics. Later, she and her late husband relocated to rural Montana for a few years before returning to Michigan.
But for her and her kids, the West continued to have a strong pull. “My husband was a biochemist—a computer science guy. He wanted to start a vineyard.
“He researched where in the country to think about putting in such a vineyard, and that is how we ended up in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Pinot Noir country.”
Practicing medicine in Oregon
After her husband passed away suddenly in 2018, her professional trajectory began to shift. Dr. Taylor tried to balance private practice with vineyard life.
“I left my office practice in 2019,” she explains. “For the next four years after that, I was a laborist and hospitalist at a big place in Bend, Oregon.”
High volume obstetrics in Bend, Oregon
In Bend, Dr. Taylor worked 24-hour shifts at a regional referral center, delivering 250-300 babies per month. The hospital had a NICU and full in-house support teams.
“Any delivery, you could just snap your fingers and the whole team is just right there, like less than five minutes.”
Her role was primarily obstetrics, including handling incoming transfers and complex patients, as well as supporting private groups. While demanding and structured, it was also grueling. “You're on 24, off 24. By the end of that stint, you often were pretty fatigued.”
After pursuing this work for a few years, she reassessed. “I kind of decided, okay, I need to keep my head in the game more at home.” She wanted to shift her focus to farming alongside her medical practice.
This decision ultimately led her into locum tenens work in rural Oregon.
Practicing OB in coastal Seaside
Her first locum tenens assignment began in Seaside, a small town along the Pacific coast.
“It’s been a good gig.”
Unlike Bend, Seaside is quieter and rural. The hospital has no in-house pediatrics or operating room team. Volume is lower, and resources require foresight.
“You have to be prepared for anything walking in the door. And then you also have to plan here.” She contrasts the two environments clearly: “Compared to Bend, where you could just snap your fingers and the whole team is just like right there, here you have to plan far enough ahead, you know, and kind of wing it in the meantime.”
In these smaller hospitals, locum tenens physicians help keep “all the plates up in the air.” That includes assessing anesthesia availability, coordinating OR teams, planning for neonatal needs, and even teaching.
“Sometimes the nurses in these small places haven't been exposed to as many kinds of disaster.” There’s a lot of teaching as you go, Dr. Taylor relays.
Rural OB locum tenens work is high stakes and requires a high degree of collaboration. As such, it is deeply rooted in community support.
Becoming part of the community
Dr. Taylor opts not to rotate her locums tenens positions across the country. She returns to Seaside regularly, typically once a month.
I feel like I'm helping out the community. I can let their providers get a break, you know, here from being on call all the time.
And after a few months, relationships formed.
“I feel like I know the people. I know the nurses that I work with. I know the providers that are here that I'm helping out, helping cover their call. That's a huge part of it for me. I like who I work with.”
Her presence provides real relief to permanent physicians. Dr. Taylor states, “It's not overwhelming for me, either.” She recalls covering extra days so a local OB could run Hood to Coast, an iconic Oregon relay race.
“She’s like, can you add on a couple of days up front so I can get out of here to do this? And I said, absolutely no problem.”
These relationships did not form overnight.
“I think it took a couple of months, but by the time that you're going in and out of labor and delivery and getting to meet different nurses, OB is kind of a small knit community.”
Lifestyle and work-life balance
The best part of choosing locums is just being able to really practice a better work-life balance that you don't get in many medical positions.
For instance, Dr. Taylor lives about 2.5 hours from Seaside on her vineyard farm. Her husband, now retired, often travels with her in their RV—along with their two dogs. If she gets called in, the hospital is less than ten minutes away.
She schedules assignments months in advance, allowing her to balance farming seasons with medical work. In this way, she can easily schedule around when she needs to be home to work on vines. The balance has brought her a new lease on life.
I don't feel obligated to do the running around, you know, no sleep for 24 hours. It's like I've been there, done that. I'm okay with being quiet.
She’s clear that this stage of life requires a different pace. “I'm semi-retired, I definitely don't do office practice anymore. I would never want to go back to that. But this combination—bouncing back and forth, keeping up the farm and home life—works well for me.”
Interested in working locums? Learn how locum tenens works in the U.S.
Why Oregon works for her
With locums, you just have to decide: Do you need a break? Do you want to be adventurous? What kind of practice do you want to try to cover?
Oregon’s diversity is part of the appeal. The coastline, vineyards, ski mountains, urban centers, and rural towns are all within reach.
“Oregon is cooler in the summer, at least along the coast here, you know, and it's very wet and rainy in the winter. So if you don't like a lot of rain, then don't do Oregon in the winter.”
She advises physicians considering Oregon locum tenens opportunities to think practically.
“Do you have a certain kind of weather that you're chasing?”
Skiers may head to the mountains. Beach lovers may choose the coast. Others may prefer Portland area hospitals within driving distance.
“You can kill two birds with one stone. Yes, you're working, but you gotta look at what you are going to do with your free time.”
For Dr. Taylor, proximity to her home matters. “I like to be close to home, so I can come and go and keep the farm on schedule.”
But she acknowledges that others choose differently.
“The world is your oyster.”
The broader value of locums in Oregon
Oregon offers physicians the opportunity to practice meaningful medicine while maintaining balance, connection, and flexibility, and Dr. Susan Taylor’s story exemplifies how locums and rural care in Oregon can align with both professional fulfillment and personal life.
When pursuing physician locum jobs in Oregon, “Be honest about that with your coordinator person so that then they can help you find that,” she advises.
Her current work is primarily OB-focused, something she now prefers. Locum tenens allows for tailoring.
“You can choose the type of practice that you want to do. You can choose the area of the country that you want to be in.”
At its core, the flexibility of locums placements can help physicians recalibrate and even prevent burnout.
After decades in private practice, Dr. Taylor sees how much the profession has changed.
“Private practice these days is a whole different animal. Patient expectations have changed, documentation has changed, the malpractice climate has changed.”
Locum tenens assignments in Oregon offer a way to practice meaningful medicine without carrying every administrative burden.
“Changing it up, meeting different people. It gives you a little boost.”
Interested in learning more about working locums in Oregon? Call us at 1.866.858.6269 or view today's locum tenens jobs in Oregon.