What is a Medical Staffing Agency?

A medical staffing agency is a convenient and cost-effective solution to fill nurse practitioner or physician assistant job openings for short-term vacancies or to assist with locating candidates for permanent hire.  A medical staffing agency, or recruitment firm, can assist clinics and hospitals with their search for qualified medical professionals to fill their nurse practitioner and physician assistant job openings.

Medical recruiters work with healthcare employers to find a good match for their job openings.  If an employer is interested in hiring temporary staffing or locum tenens staffing a medical staffing agency can provide medical staffing personnel to them on a short term basis.  Many clinics and hospitals find that hiring a temporary nurse practitioner or a temporary physician assistant from a medical staffing agency to be a good way to “try out” an employee they may be considering to fill a permanent nurse practitioner or physician assistant opening. Many NP’s and PA’s like to do travel assignments and will work with a medical staffing agency to find those NP or PA travel job openings.

A medical staffing agency also provides services to assist in searching, recruiting and hiring advanced practice clinicians for permanent positions or direct hire.  Medical staffing agencies have trained staff who will assess the needs of the healthcare organizations and then conduct a focused and widespread search for qualified candidates to fill the medical staff job opening.  The recruitment agency will also screen, conduct background checks and verify references of potential candidates as well as assist with salary and benefit negotiations.

Medical staffing agencies may work on a contingency basis which means the client pays nothing unless the recruitment firm finds a successful match.  A retained search means that the client pays a monthly fee to the medical staffing agency to fill the job opening.