Nurse practitioners topped the list of most-recruited providers in Merritt Hawkins’ report “2021 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives.”
“Covid-19 and other forces are changing the dynamics of physician and advanced practitioner recruiting,” said Tom Florence, president of Merritt Hawkins, a division of AMN Healthcare Services Inc. (NYSE: AMN). “NPs are coming into their own in a market that puts a premium on easy access to care and cost containment.”
There were 335 searches for nurse practitioners in the 12 months ended March 31, up 24% from 270 in the preceding 12 months.
According to Florence, NPs are being used to staff a growing number of urgent care centers and outpatient clinics that offer convenient access to care. They also are being recruited to provide telehealth services that feature direct access to care givers. Younger patients, in particular, are foregoing visits to traditional, office-based primary care physicians in favor of more convenient settings, Merritt Hawkins’ report indicates, softening demand for primary care physicians.
The average salary for NPs as tracked in the report was $140,000, a 12% year-over-year increase.
Merritt Hawkins’ report is based on a sample of 2,458 permanent search and advanced practitioner search engagements the company had ongoing or conducted from April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021.
Family physicians ranked as the second-most requested specialty. However, they comprised only 18% of the firm’s search engagements over 12 months, compared to 20% the prior year and 22% two years ago. By contrast, specialist physicians comprised 64% of the firm’s search engagements over 12 months, while advanced practitioners, including NPs, physician assistants, and certified registered nurse anesthetists comprised 18%, up from 13% the previous year.
The average salary for family physicians was $243,000.
The highest average starting salary for physicians as tracked in the report was $611,000 for interventional cardiologists, while the lowest was $236,000 for pediatricians.