From targeted recruitment incentives to community partnerships, less conventional but practical programs may help rural hospitals and clinics successfully attract top medical talent
by Intelliworx
Recruiting providers is a complicated, expensive and time-consuming process. The persistent shortage of healthcare talent adds layers of complexity.
To that end, there’s a voluminous body of healthcare recruiting statistics that is troubling:
- The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates the U.S. “will face a physician shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036.”
- “Nearly half (48%) of hospital executives” surveyed by FTI Consulting found that many “believe that their hospitals are not fully equipped to handle current patient volumes.”
- “More than half (58%) of health system executives expect workforce challenges, such as talent shortages, the need for upskilling, and retention issues, to influence their organizational strategies in 2025,” according to Deloitte.
It’s worth noting this is happening at a time when the number of independent physicians in rural areas is falling precipitously. Unfortunately, backfilling those positions has left rural health care employers with yet another higher hurdle to get over:
- Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute found that new physicians are less likely to accept a rural position.
We examined some of the reasons why rural areas are losing independent healthcare providers in a previous post. We’ve also looked at the healthcare recruiting sector through the lenses of Porter’s Five Forces – a widely used business framework for methodically examining a competitive landscape.
From our vantage point, it’s clear the market has evolved. Yesterday’s healthcare recruiting playbook is in need of an update. By contrast, this post takes a look at some of the more creative strategies some healthcare organizations might try.
1. Dedicated bid to attract big city residents
A family member of the Intelliworx team is a third-year surgical resident in a rural facility. This doctor started their residency earning $65,000 annually and recently earned a $5,000 pay raise. With massive student debt and the growing cost of living, it’s barely enough to survive.
Once completing the residency, this doctor had their mind set on returning to a large municipal hospital – to be closer to medical innovation. However, after hearing about these plans, their rural employer is making a bid to retain her: they’ll pay for her fellowship in a big city and offer her a significant salary increase if she returns to the rural facility after this fellowship.
It’s the best of both worlds and this doctor seems inclined to take that offer – and suggests it’s one that providers in similar shoes would take as well. In fact, a scholarly literature review of nearly 40 studies suggests that exposure to rural healthcare early in a medical career can have a positive effect on retention later on.
2. Offer dedicated coaching for scholarship applications
There are many scholarships dedicated to providers interested in working in rural facilities. It’s a chance to get the training a provider needs – and finish with little or no debt.
Examples of scholarships include:
- Rural Hospital Stabilization Program;
- Quest for Rural Experience Scholarships (for NPs & PAs);
- Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program; and
- Healthcare Professional Scholarship Program (Veterans Administration).
Scholarship applications tend to be complicated to complete. Many panels look for certain characteristics in such applications. Rural healthcare facilities that master the details and provide coaching or seminars have an opportunity to stand out as a better employer among competitors.
3. Make a pitch for nurse practitioners
Nurse practitioners make up 25% of all rural primary care providers – up by nearly 18% since 2008. Advanced practice providers (APPs), which include NPs, consistently rank among the top searches requested by outside recruiting firms.
However, not every state credentials NPs with “full practice authority.” Consequently, those that do are more attractive to prospective providers and they have a higher percentage of NPs in their workforce.
The autonomy to manage their work is a cultural factor that’s important to providers. This means rural facilities located in geographies that credential APPs with full practice authority have a competitive advantage in recruiting those providers.
4. Target older physicians
Lost Rivers Medical Center in Idaho was on the brink of bankruptcy several years back. Yuki Noguchi, a long-time correspondent for NPR, reported:
“The hospital declared bankruptcy and was on the cusp of closing. Like many other rural hospitals, it was beset by challenges, including chronic difficulties recruiting medical staff willing to live and work in remote, sparsely populated communities. A hot job market made that even harder.”
The Center turned things around, in part, by focusing its recruiting efforts on older physicians:
“He [the hospital CEO] targeted older physicians — semi-retired empty nesters willing to work part time. He also lured recruits using the area’s best asset: the great outdoors.”
It wasn’t a quick win, but the program did work in due course and the facility ended up “fully staffed.”
5. Offer child or daycare programs
Many healthcare employers offer a range of special incentives to join their organization. We’ve compiled benchmarks for compensation, performance bonus, moving expenses, tuition reimbursement, yet one we don’t see as often is child or daycare services.
A policy brief by the National Rural Healthcare Association calls for expanding “subsidies for rural childcare programs” as a lever the government could pull to attract more providers to rural locations. Even so, an employer could tackle this program on their own, or even partner with like-minded rural facilities to field an initiative.
Such programs match up well with research showing the work-life balance is among the most magnetic qualities of working in rural healthcare.
6. Support careers for provider spouses
Many families today have two-income households. Since there are fewer job opportunities, or at least the perception of fewer jobs, for the spouses of medical providers in rural areas, this is an important but often overlooked obstacle.
Studies show spousal satisfaction is one of the most important factors for effective “community support programs.” A community hospital or clinic is a de facto networking hub. Those rural facilities that dedicate resources to building out programs to help spouses find gainful employment are better positioned to win over providers.
7. Pool a collection of rural resources
We’ve mentioned partnering a couple of times in this piece so far because it’s a strategy that has worked. For example, the Rural Health Information Hub published an article describing how a handful of hospitals teamed up for a successful recruiting initiative:
“Working collaboratively also allowed these hospitals to pool resources and host what they called ‘focus weekends’ or ‘fly-in weekends.’ The hospitals shared the costs of hotel rooms for the potential recruits and conference rooms for meetings, and hospital CEOs personally provided ground transportation.”
It wasn’t just the hospitals either – but the entire community working together:
“Wealthy farmers and other business owners lent private planes to fly recruits to the area and a state farm bureau funded a steak dinner. A local zoo held a private event where the recruits and their families could feed some of the animals. Immigrant and refugee community members hosted meals to showcase the different cultures in the area.”
The results were pretty compelling, too:
“The hospitals hosted three focus weekends, resulting in a total of 20 physicians signing contracts with a participating hospital.”
Pooling resources turned would-be competitors into collaborators that produced better outcomes for all involved.
Get a handle on human resources
Any program designed to improve recruiting providers is contingent on organizing and streamlining the process. Rural healthcare facilities have a smaller talent pool to choose from, and among those, nearly 4 in 10 will refuse a job offer if the process is chaotic. Getting a handle on turnover, vacancies and emerging recruiting needs is an essential building block for setting more creative recruiting programs up for success.
Key Takeaways
- Rural healthcare providers face persistent workforce shortages, with physician shortfalls projected to reach 86,000 by 2036, making creative recruitment strategies essential.
- Offering unique incentives such as funding fellowships in urban centers in exchange for returning to rural practice can improve retention among early-career providers.
- Recruitment programs that include scholarship application support, nurse practitioner autonomy, and targeted outreach to semi-retired physicians can expand the candidate pool.
- Work-life balance initiatives such as childcare programs and spousal career support address lifestyle barriers that often deter providers from rural positions.
- Collaborative community efforts such as shared recruitment events and pooled resources can transform competition into collective success in attracting medical talent.
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See the software for yourself! Healthcare Workforce Management is designed with rural healthcare recruiting in mind because, in our assessment, rural areas have the greatest need. Contact us for a no-obligation demo.
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