Advanced practice provider hiring is booming across the industry as health systems navigate physician shortages and growing outpatient volumes.
Here is a look at three interrelated factors driving demand for APPs:
- Physician shortage: The nation’s physician shortage is a major component behind APP workforce growth. A recent report from Kaufman Hall shows the workforce gap between physicians and APPs is narrowing, with the latter now representing roughly 41% of providers in U.S. physician practices.
Nurse practitioner jobs are projected to grow 46% by 2031, making it the third fastest-growing occupation in the country. Physician assistant jobs are expected to grow by 28% in the same time frame. APPs are also entering the workforce at a higher rate, making up more than 60% of new provider entrants in 2020. - Outpatient care growth: As demand for outpatient services rises, health systems are increasingly adopting team-based care models to expand access and ensure physicians can focus on more complex care needs.
For the fourth consecutive year, nurse practitioners are the most requested type of healthcare provider, AMN Healthcare’s 2024 job search report showed. This reflects a growing reliance on APPs to meet demand in ambulatory and community-based settings, particularly in primary care.
Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Health is one example of this shift. The system plans to double its APP workforce by 2027 as part of a new primary care model in which one physician is paired with two advanced practice providers. The team-based structure is designed to offload administrative tasks and enable physicians and APPs to collaborate more closely, with each APP expected to expand access by 70%.
- Rising inpatient acuity: Services that traditionally took place in the hospital are increasingly being delivered in outpatient settings, with today’s inpatient population often presenting with more complex medical needs. In response, some systems are expanding the role of APPs on inpatient teams.
Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health, for example, anticipates greater reliance on APPs in the coming years to support inpatient teams as patient complexity grows and care teams adapt to more intensive needs.
“We will need to have more collaboration and people working together maximizing each other’s capabilities around the needs of the patient,” Daniel Roth, MD, executive vice president and chief clinical and community division operations officer at Trinity Health, told Becker’s.
