St. Louis, MO. September 15, 2016 — With their services rapidly growing in demand, nurse practitioners and physician assistants enjoy growing career options as healthcare employers compete to hire them at an unprecedented rate. PracticeMatch, a national corporation providing healthcare recruiting resources and clinical candidate leads to healthcare employers across the US, surveyed 1,070 advanced practice clinicians regarding their career goals and job preferences to provide some insight on today's highly competitive recruiting climate for NPs and PAs.

With the launch of our new career resource and job matching service designed specifically for NPs and PAs, we wanted to understand the professional needs and expectations of these highly sought-after advanced practice clinicians, to better assist them with their job search in today's frenetic hiring market, states Mike York, Chief Operations Officer of PracticeMatch. The overwhelming demand for NPs and PAs is great for their careers, but can be overwhelming for job seekers. Our new AP Match service can help to streamline the process by providing direct access to top healthcare employers at candidates' fingertips, York adds.

According to the survey findings, advanced practice clinicians are quickly realizing their value and leveraging their status as hot candidates in the healthcare market. More than 80 percent of respondents have been contacted by a recruiting firm, and about a third expect to change jobs within the next few years, according to the survey results. Nearly 16 percent of PAs, and 19 percent of NPs expect to change jobs within one year.

The PracticeMatch survey revealed additional insights helpful to healthcare employers recruiting advanced practice clinicians. Employers will need to be prepared to offer competitive salaries and incentives to relocate, such as signing bonuses or relocation reimbursement, as almost half of respondents (43%) are unwilling to relocate any distance for a new job, and only 20 percent of candidates are willing to relocate outside of their geographic region. Top two priorities for a new job are "higher salary" and "better work/life balance," with "better hours" ranking third on the list of incentives for finding a new job, which they expect to find relatively easily, within six months.

As a leading provider of online recruiting resources and job matching services for physicians and healthcare employers for over 25 years, the PracticeMatch team is excited to expand this proven career resource to include advanced practice clinicians, who are a vital, growing sector of the healthcare workforce, states Mike York. Nurse practitioners and PAs provide quality health care to millions of patients, and we are pleased to be able to help employers and advanced practice clinicians find one another in an efficient, effective way with our new APMatch online service.

The new APMatch database includes 45 specialties of thousands of advanced practice clinicians across the country. Detailed search criteria, background information, and detailed reporting and tracking will help candidates and employers track their success as they communicate directly with interested parties to form a mutual, productive employment relationship for the long-term.

More than 83 percent of advanced practice clinicians surveyed indicated that they would prefer to be contacted directly by employers, as opposed to third-party recruiters; to that end, APMatch provides candidates direct access to the employers they want to consider for their next career opportunity.