Finding the right candidate to fill a role is challenging in any industry. But the stakes are higher in the healthcare field. While usually all that matters is the new hire’s qualifications and experience, in medicine they must also have a compassionate, caring, and empathetic bedside manner or patient care will suffer.

Fortunately, there are several nurse practitioner recruitment firms on the market today that assist medical facilities with finding and hiring high-caliber healthcare professionals. In this article, we explore how nurse practitioner recruiting differs from talent acquisition in other fields, the benefits of using recruiters who specialize in healthcare, and how to pick the right one for your organization. 

Then we list eight of the best nurse practitioner recruitment firms around to make the selection process even easier for you and your team. All the information you need is right here at your fingertips, so let’s go ahead and get started!

Uniqueness Of Nurse Specific Recruiting and Hiring

Every job comes with its own unique set of challenges — both daily ones and those that impact the recruitment process. Nurse practitioners are no exception. Below we list several hardships and other distinctive aspects that pertain specifically to this field.

Shift Work and Long Hours

Nurses often have to work long and irregular shifts, including overnight and on the weekends. This can make it harder for them to balance work and family, not to mention how exhausting this kind of shift work can be. One challenge for nurse practitioner recruiters is to find qualified candidates with the right personality who can also handle this type of work schedule without burning out.

Physical and Emotional Demands

Providing care to patients in various states of health can be both physically and emotionally demanding. Plus, unlike many desk jobs, nurse practitioners are constantly on their feet and continually giving of themselves emotionally. It’s not easy. Hiring managers must assess each candidate’s resilience and ability to cope with stress, as well as their capacity for empathy and compassion.     

Continuing Education and Training

Nurse practitioners require ongoing learning and professional development to stay current with medical advancements and best practices. Recruiters must consider a candidate’s willingness and ability to pursue further education and training to maintain their skills and knowledge. Candidates who lack this drive don’t tend to make it far in the profession.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Nurse practitioners typically work as part of a team of other healthcare professionals that often include doctors, therapists, and technicians. Healthcare recruitment firms specialize in identifying candidates who possess the communication and teamwork skills necessary to effectively collaborate within multidisciplinary teams.

Regulatory Compliance and Documentation

Workers in the healthcare industry must adhere to strict regulations and guidelines, which includes accurately documenting their patient care. If they don’t, they risk compromising the safety of their patients, incurring legal/regulatory penalties, and increasing malpractice claims. Nurse practitioner recruiting firms prioritize candidates who demonstrate an attention to detail and compliance with regulatory requirements.

Why Work With A Nurse Practitioner Recruitment Firm?

Some hospitals and healthcare facilities try to go it alone, using their own in-house recruiting team, or choose to work with a general recruiting firm. While this is doable, it’s extremely advantageous to partner instead with a recruitment firm that specializes in hiring nurse practitioners. 

Several of the benefits of this type of partnership are listed below:

Specialized Talent Pool of Nurses

An in-house hiring team or general recruiting firm simply isn’t going to have an established network full of vetted nurse practitioners to tap into like a healthcare recruitment firm does. Recruiters that specialize in filling nurse practitioner jobs have access to a vast network of qualified candidates, including passive job seekers—ensuring you’ll have access to the best talent in the nursing field. 

Years of Experience and Expertise

Then there’s all the years of experience that certain recruitment firms have under their belt. They’re not new to the game. Their recruiters know exactly how to find and land top-notch medical professionals who’ll withstand the test of time. They also have the expertise and tools at their disposal to evaluate candidates not only on their qualifications and experience but also on their organizational fit and the specific requirements necessary to excel in a nurse practitioner role.

Streamlined Recruitment Process

When a recruitment firm takes it all off your plate, this means everything—from candidate sourcing and screening to interviewing, negotiating offers, and onboarding. This will save your organization tons of time and resources, freeing everyone up so they can focus on other priorities while the recruiting firm manages everything related to the hiring process.

Advanced Technology and Analytics

The right recruitment firm will also be cutting-edge. It’ll utilize advanced technologies like AI and machine learning to power its platforms, dashboards, and hiring processes just like talent acquisition firm MSH does with Aeon, its revolutionary AI-driven hiring platform. 

Beyond using enterprise technology, a top-notch recruitment firm will also provide its clients with regular analytics reporting and embrace data-driven decision-making. 

A Balance of Speed and Quality

Finally, unlike the casual in-house hiring manager, expert recruiters (who literally do this day-in-and-day-out) know how to strike the perfect balance when it comes to speed and quality. In other words, they don’t sacrifice quality to fill a role fast, but they also recognize that time is money and will move with urgency. 

How To Decide Who To Work With

So how should you go about selecting a recruitment firm that knows how to place nurses in advanced practice roles? The following criteria will help your team pick the best recruiter for its individual needs.   

It Has a Proven Track Record and Solid Reputation

Like anything else, it’s wise to examine the track records and reputations of the recruitment firms you’re considering before picking one. Look for red flags, like:

• they rarely or never work with healthcare-related clients
• their placed candidates have a high turnover rate
• they lack communication skills and/or transparency
• they make unrealistic promises. 

Stay away from any firms that exhibit any of these red flags! Instead, choose the one that consistently works with healthcare organizations, exhibits a low turnover rate, and is responsive, transparent, and realistic. 

It Offers Customized Recruitment Solutions

It’s important to look for a recruitment firm that will tailor its recruitment strategies to your healthcare facility’s specific needs and culture. Given practice settings can vary significantly in the medical field (for example, there are hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, community health centers, schools, private practices, and so on…) and each is so unique, recruiters must spend time understanding each organization’s culture, staffing needs, and long-term objectives. Armed with this information, only then can they personalize their approach and find the best candidates possible.

It Staffs Locum Tenens, Per Diem, and Full Time Positions

Employers looking to fill np jobs in particular should also seek a recruiter who knows how to staff the type of position they need to fill, whether it be locum tenens (temporary coverage due to staffing shortages or unexpected absences), per diem (short-term or occasional coverage), or full time. The right recruitment firm will end up being your one-stop-shop!

The 8 Best Nurse Practitioner Recruiting Firms in 2024

The time has come to unveil our eight top picks for 2024. Check them out right here:

1. MSH
2. AMN Healthcare
3. Triage Staffing
4. HealthTrust Workforce Solutions
5. Healthcare Recruiters International
6. CHG Healthcare
7. All Medical Personnel
8. CompHealth

Yes, we’ve put ourselves—MSH—right there at the top of the list! While we’re not trying to brag, we really believe in everything we have to offer and are incredibly excited to share that with you. We’re confident that we can quickly fill your openings with the highest-caliber candidates possible, just like we have for other notable healthcare clients like UnitedHealth Group.

But, of course, we want you to find the right fit, and we know we can’t be everyone’s perfect cup of tea. So, please take a look at all the information presented below and select the recruitment firm that’s going to work best for your medical facility and all its hiring needs. It’s our genuine hope that the summaries provided below will help you make the best choice. 

1. MSH

A leading AI-powered talent acquisition firm, MSH specializes in staffing healthcare teams of 20 to 1,000 with fully qualified and vetted medical professionals, including nurse practitioners. Our team of highly experienced recruiters knows just how to quickly source and land exceptional new hires who will mesh perfectly with your unique organizational culture. 

You deserve a healthcare recruitment partner who gets it. From BlueCrossBlueShield to Optum, Prosper, and Landmark, we work with numerous healthcare companies that’ll happily vouch for our expertise, data-driven mindset, and AI-enabled hiring platform, Aeon. Most of all, they’ll praise our ability to quickly build and scale top-notch healthcare teams—handling it all for you, from sourcing and screening candidates to interviewing, negotiating offers, and onboarding.   

Solutions Offered: Healthcare, medical role, and physician staffing; Consultative planning; Enterprise and campus RPO; AI/ML hiring experience platform; Advanced metrics and reporting; Talent acquisition process design and management; Talent intelligence; Talent community builds; Candidate experience and engagement; DEI guidance; Vendor management; Employer branding and value proposition identification; Job profiling; New hire onboarding; SLA and EEO compliance

2. AMN Healthcare

AMN Healthcare’s primary offerings include workforce staffing and talent management. It caters to clients with diverse staffing needs, from temporary and travel positions to permanent placements and temp-to-hire roles. In addition, AMN fills openings in various clinical settings, even schools, placing OTs, PTs, SLPs, Social Workers, Behavior Analysts, Psychologists, Nurses, Teletherapists, and more.

Solutions Offered: Nursing and allied staffing; Physician and advanced practitioner staffing; Medically qualified language interpreter staffing; Leadership staffing; Revenue cycle solutions staffing; Recruitment solutions; Managed services programs; Float pool management; Open talent marketplace; Consulting and talent advisory services; Vendor management systems; Scheduling and staff planning; Analytics; Virtual care

3. Triage Staffing

Based in Omaha, NE, Triage Staffing’s primary focus is on placing temporary workers in the following five acute care divisions: nursing, radiology, lab, rehab therapy, and cardiopulmonary. The temp agency also directly employs healthcare professionals, providing them with housing allowances and benefits. It prides itself on speaking the truth to its candidates with no sugarcoating so they know just what to expect when they take the job.

Solutions Offered: Temporary nursing, radiology, lab, rehab services, and cardiopulmonary staffing; Direct pay, housing help/allowances, and benefits for candidates

4. HealthTrust Workforce Solutions

HealthTrust Workforce Solutions strives to match the candidate’s lifestyle and preferences to the job type, which might include new graduate nursing apprenticeship programs, travel and per diem nursing jobs, local contract opportunities, locum tenens physician openings, interim leadership positions, or clinical instruction opportunities. A subsidiary of HCA Healthcare, the country’s largest health system, HealthTrust advertises that it gives clients “exclusive and direct access to HCA Healthcare’s vast network of facilities.”

Solutions Offered: Allied health staffing; Clinical instruction and services staffing; Corporate staffing; Interim leadership staffing; Locum tenens and advanced practice staffing; Per diem and permanent placements; Technician staffing; Travel nursing and local contract nursing staffing

5. Healthcare Recruiters International

HCRI is an executive search firm that serves the healthcare industry. In business for 35+ years, the recruitment firm helps candidates find jobs globally (in all 50 states and on five continents). Its recruiters place candidates in a variety of areas, including behavioral health, executive leadership, medical technology, digital health, psychiatry, pharmaceuticals, long-term care, home health, and more.

Solutions Offered: Recruitment process outsourcing; Diversity and inclusion; International recruiting; Direct hire; Contract-to-hire 

6. CHG Healthcare

Founded in 1979 to provide medical care in rural areas in the western U.S., CHG Healthcare has evolved into a large physician staffing agency that connects healthcare facilities with qualified medical professionals. The firm follows a locum tenens model that helps physicians fill gaps and work wherever is needed most. Its clients include hospitals, clinics, and medical centers. 

Solutions Offered: Physicians, nurses, and advanced practice staffing; Strategic consultations; Locums strategies; Telehealth support; Allied health professionals; Technology solutions

7. All Medical Personnel

A national healthcare temp agency founded in 1990, All Medical Personnel specializes in locum tenens, travel therapy, travel nursing, and allied health staffing solutions for businesses and government entities across the U.S. One of the largest medical staffing companies in the nation, it offers an exclusive vendor management service called Amplify MSP that solves various staffing pain points. The firm fills both temporary and temp-to-hire openings.

Solutions Offered: Locum tenens staffing; Travel nurse and therapy staffing; Allied & lab staffing; Pandemic staffing; Amplify MSP platform

8. CompHealth

CompHealth is a full-service medical staffing agency that fills both locums/travel and full-time positions for healthcare organizations. In business since 1979, the company negotiates pay and benefits on behalf of candidates and provides them with access to an online platform where they can track their hours, see assignments, and view their travel details.

Solutions Offered: Locum tenens staffing; Permanent healthcare staffing; Physician staffing; Nurse practitioner and physician assistant staffing; CRNA staffing; Therapy staffing; Pharmacy staffing; Medical lab staffing; Healthcare management

Choosing the Right Nurse Practitioner Recruitment Firm is Key

There are a million generic recruitment firms and staffing agencies out there. While that’s great for the average company, medical providers must find and use a recruiter who specializes in the healthcare industry—one who understands all its unique staffing considerations, nuances, and challenges—or risk falling behind on their hiring needs.

As luck would have it, healthcare recruitment firms with solid track records exist. It’s just a matter of doing your due diligence so you can identify the right fit for your facility, whether it needs to urgently fill temporary spots or scale full-time teams.  

If you’re seeking a recruitment firm that utilizes next-gen technology, tools, and strategies to fill open healthcare positions with speed and precision, look no further than MSH. Our team of recruiting experts is standing by, eager to learn all about your healthcare facility and its hiring needs so they can get to work for you. Contact MSH today to learn more!