Variety and Career Satisfaction Meet on the ApolloMD Premier Travel Team

Physician Sara Gonzalez fully understands that her job description might sound incredibly hectic: 34-year-old traveling emergency medicine specialist with a young toddler at home and another baby on the way.

But Dr. Gonzalez credits the comprehensive, behind-the-scenes support of ApolloMD resources and her amazing work-from-home husband for the opportunity to pursue the medical career that she loves as a member of the ApolloMD Premier Travel Team.

“There’s never a dull moment in emergency medicine,” says Dr. Gonzalez, who joined ApolloMD in 2023. “You’re often rapidly task-switching. You’re constantly putting out fires and taking care of whatever comes through the door, no matter what or who it is. You just take care of people.”

A Career Path to Emergency Medicine

What led Dr. Gonzalez to emergency medicine? A year working as a scribe in a Ventura, CA, emergency department (ED) lit a spark that continues to fuel her career.

“I remember saying to myself, ‘You know what? This is awesome. This is what I want to do.’ From then on, I was sold.”

ApolloMD’s Premier Travel Team places emergency medicine physicians in top hospitals, teaching facilities, free-standing emergency departments, critical-access rural hospitals, and health systems throughout the U.S. Team members enjoy operational support, flexible schedules, coverage of travel expenses, excellent compensation and the opportunity to become a physician-owner of the employee-owned company.

“In fact the most rewarding part of emergency medicine is taking care of legitimately sick people,” she says with conviction. “That’s what I was trained to do: take care of people experiencing medical, traumatic, surgical, psychiatric and sometimes social emergencies.”

First Impressions

Prior to joining ApolloMD, Dr. Gonzalez earned her medical degree in 2018 from Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Studies in Buffalo, NY, followed by an emergency medicine residency at Duke University and a two-year stint in a rural hospital emergency department in NC. She notes that her schedule was erratic while working at the rural hospital.

As an emergency medicine travel team specialist with the ApolloMD Premier Travel Team, she now works predictable 12-hour shifts. “At ApolloMD, I’m just a doctor, or I’m just a mom,” she explains. “It’s a balance either way.”

She travels to emergency departments in multiple states, a work arrangement that enables her and her family to care for properties in both NC and Silver Bay (Ontario), Canada, near Buffalo.

Dr. Gonzalez acknowledges one challenge that comes with being a member of the travel team.

“The biggest challenge is going from site to site where no one knows you,” she says. “You haven’t had time to build relationships with the nursing team, the other providers or the consultants who are on call. You have to really make a good first impression and build relationships right away. Your first impression is the one you’ll face every time you return to that site.”

Advice From the Frontlines of Emergency Medicine

Dr. Gonzalez offers key insights and pieces of advice from her experience in the emergency department.

Working women/mothers in the ED: “A lot of working mothers choose to work nights in the emergency department, especially when their children are school-aged. They can go home in the morning after a night shift, get their kids ready for school, take them to school and sleep the rest of the day…and go to work again that night. Working the night shift isn’t necessarily a barrier for women and mothers. I think the type of position you choose – department vs. inpatient vs. outpatient site – is largely a determination of what kind of medicine and what kind of pace you enjoy. Can you handle the stress and pressure that an emergency room will bring? If you want a more steady-paced, 9-to-5 career, the emergency department won’t be for you.”

Advice on transitioning to a medical travel team: “As a travel physician, versatility is key, as practitioners often find themselves in diverse and unpredictable environments. Each assignment can present a unique array of medical challenges, requiring the swift ability to adapt to needs and conditions. Embracing the dynamic role allows travel physicians to deliver effective care while honing their expertise in a variety of medical situations.”

Those difficulties and challenges, however, are exactly what fuel her love of emergency medicine on the ApolloMD travel team.

For information about ApolloMD’s Premier Travel Team, please visit our website.