The Rise of Advanced Practice Providers Filling Gaps in Patient Care

The United States healthcare system is facing a growing supply-and-demand challenge. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) projects a national shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036. To help close these care gaps, especially in rural and medically underserved communities, healthcare organizations are increasingly turning to advanced practice providers, primarily nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs), to help fill the widening void.

Advanced practice providers are entering the clinical workforce at a significantly faster rate than physicians. In 2020, APPs made up more than 60 percent of all new healthcare provider entrants. Today, non-physician clinicians represent roughly 41% of the provider workforce in U.S. physician practices. The volume of care delivered by these professionals has expanded rapidly: APPs covered 25% of all U.S. healthcare visits in 2019, nearly doubling their 14% share from 2013.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of advanced practice providers is projected to drastically exceed the 3% national average growth rate projected for all U.S. occupations between 2025 and 2035.

According to the National Rural Health Association, NPs and PAs currently make up roughly 25% to 35% of the primary care workforce in rural areas, a figure that has grown rapidly over the last two decades. This reliance is largely driven by the persistent rural doctor shortage, as less than 10% of U.S. physicians choose to practice in rural settings despite these areas accounting for nearly a fifth of the nation's population. As older rural physicians reach retirement age and younger doctors increasingly gravitate toward urban centers, APPs have stepped up as the primary source of care in these communities—keeping local clinics operational and ensuring patients have reliable access to essential medical services.

The integration of APPs has driven a structural shift toward collaborative, team-based care models. In these models, physicians and APPs divide duties to maximize clinical throughput. APPs take on essential, patient-facing tasks outside the operating room, such as performing physical exams, taking histories, managing chronic diseases, ordering diagnostic tests, and handling routine follow-ups. This allows physicians to focus on highly complex diagnoses, procedural interventions, and surgeries, enabling them to practice at the top of their license. Properly structured collaborative models increase overall practice efficiency, improve patient appointment availability, and help mitigate physician burnout.

Although APPs continue to play a critical role in primary care delivery, workforce dynamics are shifting. APPs are increasingly moving out of primary care and migrating into high-demand specialty fields such as cardiology, oncology, orthopedic surgery, dermatology, and emergency medicine. This migration is driven by several systemic factors within clinical environments, including:

Workload and burnout: Traditional primary care is associated with heavy administrative burdens, large patient panels, brief visits, and extensive electronic health record (EHR) documentation.

Financial incentives: Specialties often offer higher salaries, sign-on bonuses, and more predictable hours with fewer call requirements.

Clinical appeal: Specialties offer narrower, clearer scopes of clinical focus and more procedural opportunities, particularly for physician assistants, who are trained to provide surgical care and assist in operating rooms.

Because the specialty migration of APPs threatens to worsen primary care shortages in vulnerable communities, health systems are implementing targeted strategies to support and retain primary care APPs. These strategies include:

Effective APP recruitment requires a strategy built specifically for how NPs and PAs search for opportunities.

Healthcare organizations have long partnered with medical schools to give student physicians clinical experience, and that same approach works well for advanced practice provider recruiting. Bringing NP and PA students into your practice for clinical rotations gives your team a firsthand look at how their skills and approach fit your care setting. If the fit is right, it also creates a natural path to bring them on after graduation.

The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) are worth building a direct relationship with. Most states have local chapters that support both graduating and experienced APPs during their job search, making them a valuable channel for reaching qualified candidates early.

APPs value work-life balance as much as physicians do, and they are drawn to roles that offer flexibility. Organizations expanding their APP staffing should consider part-time positions, telemedicine hours, and other scheduling options that give APPs more control over their time.

Practice independence is one of the biggest draws for nurse practitioners and physician assistants when choosing where to work. The more autonomy your organization can offer within your state's scope-of-practice regulations, the stronger your position will be in attracting and retaining APP talent.

Reach potential candidates through several routes at once, including word of mouth, job boards, email, social media platforms such as LinkedIn, and your organization's website.

A trusted recruitment partner has long been a valuable resource for physician hiring, and the same holds true as demand for APP recruitment continues to grow. A partner with a nationwide candidate network and the reach to connect with passive candidates can help your organization fill hard-to-fill APP positions more efficiently than an in-house search alone.

CI Health Group has extensive experience in both physician and advanced practice provider recruitment, across all 50 states. We work as a strategic partner, combining market intelligence, targeted outreach, and candidate relationship expertise to help you fill the roles that matter most. APP recruitment comes with its own playbook, one that looks different from a physician search. If you're building out your APP staffing strategy now, let's talk about what's working in your market and where CI Health Group can help.