Their own brief.
A clearer NP or PA search.

This page is for employers hiring a nurse practitioner or physician assistant: independent and group practices, surgery centers, hospitals, and healthtech companies adding an advanced practice provider. It is the deeper brief for those roles. The physician page remains the starting point for a physician search and a short introduction to advanced practice hiring. NPs and PAs looking for work can explore open roles.

Explore open roles → · Physician recruiting →

The work, the authority, the schedule, and the compensation questions are different. Write the criteria for the role itself: what the NP or PA will own, how they will work with physicians and the rest of the care team, and what “a good week” looks like in this setting.

• Define the specialty or service line and the patient population.
• State the scope of practice and any supervision or collaboration arrangement that applies where the role is licensed and practiced.
• Set the schedule, call, panel size or census, and any procedures the role includes.
• Write compensation questions for this role, not as a percentage of a physician package.

Be specific. A primary-care NP in a clinic, a PA in a surgery center, a hospital-based APP, and a clinical NP at a healthtech company are different searches. Your organization is responsible for the legal and credentialing requirements in the relevant state. Alivio does not provide legal or credentialing advice.

• Name the care setting and whether the work is clinic, hospital, surgical, telehealth, or a mix.
• Describe who the NP or PA works with, who they report to, and who is available for consultation.
• Say how much of the work is independent within the agreed scope, and how new or complex cases are escalated.
• If the role sits at a technology company, say how much is patient-facing and how much is product, content, or advisory work.

See nursing recruiting for nurse-leadership searches, and healthtech recruiting when the opening sits on a product or digital-health team.

Agree which qualifications must be established during recruiting and which checks belong to your formal credentialing, privileging, or payer-enrollment process. Recruiting conversations do not replace those checks.

• List required licensure, certification, and, where relevant, DEA registration for the specific role.
• Identify who verifies credentials and at what stage.
• Confirm the requirements for your state, payers, and, if applicable, hospital or surgery-center medical staff.
• Align the proposed start date with your onboarding requirements.

National recruiting reports treat nurse practitioners and other advanced practice providers as a recurring part of workforce plans, not a one-off substitute for a physician search. Use the figures below as industry context, not as a pay recommendation or an Alivio timeline.

AMN Healthcare’s 2026 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives (press release dated October 19, 2026) reports that nurse practitioners were its most requested search engagement for the sixth consecutive year, and that NP starting salaries in its searches held at an average of $180,000. These are AMN’s figures, from a representative sample of 1,293 permanent physician and advanced practitioner search engagements AMN conducted or had ongoing from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026. They describe AMN’s own searches, not the whole market and not an Alivio result, and they are not advice on what to offer. Source: AMN Healthcare press release.

The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment’s 2026 Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report (published September 16, 2026) covers more than 10,000 physician and provider searches active in 2025, from teams that recruit for more than 21,000 healthcare locations. AAPPR reports a median time to fill of 65 days for advanced practice provider searches, down from 80 days in 2024, compared with 119 days for physician searches. As of December 31, 2025, AAPPR reports that 31.8% of APP searches remained open, compared with 50% of physician searches. These are AAPPR’s industry figures, not Alivio timelines or results, and they are not a promise of how long a search will take.

A focused search starts with a brief built around the outcomes of the role, followed by targeted research and direct candidate outreach, recruiter-led assessment and candidate conversations, and interview coordination, feedback, and offer support. The search ends at the accepted offer. Your organization defines the hiring criteria, meets the candidates, and makes the final hiring decision.

• Alivio: the brief, market research, direct outreach, candidate assessment, interview coordination, and offer support.
• You: the hiring criteria and the final decision.
• You: credential checks, privileging or enrollment, and onboarding.
• You: the proposed start date and what happens after the offer is accepted.

One defined NP or PA vacancy stays on this page. A practice opening a new site, a hospital adding a group of APPs, or a healthtech company with several provider roles should read about hiring projects, which start with a defined set of roles and an agreed end point. Managed recruiting fits ongoing openings. A project plan is not a placement guarantee. Scope, fees, timing, and any replacement terms are agreed in writing before work begins.

Bring the NP or PA role you need to fill, the setting, the scope and collaboration arrangement, what is proving difficult, and when you would like the clinician to start. You do not need a perfect brief to begin. A submission through the hiring brief form does not create a paid engagement. Past results are not guarantees of future results.

Send a hiring brief → · How to prepare a hiring brief → · How a search runs →