Advanced Practice Recruiters is the nation's first recruiting firm dedicated exclusively to advanced practice providers, with a deep PA-only recruiter team placing emergency medicine, surgical, dermatology, cardiology, orthopedic, hospitalist, urgent care, and family practice physician assistants into hospitals, health systems, surgical groups, dermatology practices, and telehealth platforms across all 50 states.
We do not recruit physicians, RNs, or allied health staff. PAs are advanced practice providers trained in the medical model, and they require recruiters who understand NCCPA certification, Certificates of Added Qualifications (CAQs), state-by-state supervision rules, procedural privileging, and the medical-model training pathway. Our PA recruiter team brings exactly that depth.
Physician assistants train as generalists in the medical model and then subspecialize through on-the-job training, postgraduate residencies, fellowships, and Certificates of Added Qualifications. A surgical first-assist PA is not interchangeable with a hospitalist PA; an interventional cardiology PA is not interchangeable with an outpatient family practice PA. The subspecialty pathway, procedural skill set, and credentialing requirements differ substantially.
Generalist staffing firms routinely miss these distinctions and submit candidates whose procedural training does not match the role. The result is wasted interview cycles, withdrawn offers, and early departures that cost employers $85,000 to $150,000 per failed hire. Subspecialty-focused PA recruiting eliminates this friction by aligning every search with a recruiter who works only within that procedural and clinical vertical.
Our PA recruiters maintain relationships with PA program directors, postgraduate residency directors, AAPA constituent chapters, and surgical specialty PA societies. That depth produces candidate slates other firms simply do not see.
Every physician assistant search opens with a structured intake call between the hiring manager and a PA-dedicated recruiter. We define the clinical role, procedural expectations, call burden, OR or clinic split, supervising or collaborating physician model, compensation structure, geographic preferences, and the cultural attributes that will predict long-term retention.
Within 48 to 72 hours we present an initial PA candidate slate. Each candidate has been screened for NCCPA certification, state licensure or licensure-eligibility, DEA registration, CAQs as relevant, malpractice history, employment chronology, procedural skill set, compensation alignment, geographic seriousness, and clinical fit.
Through the interview cycle, our recruiters manage scheduling, reference checks, offer construction, counter-offer management, and start-date logistics. After acceptance we remain engaged through credentialing and onboarding to maximize show rate and one-year retention. Every PA placement carries a standard replacement guarantee.
PA placements operate on a contingency model with fees of 15% to 25% of the candidate's first-year base compensation. Employers pay nothing until the PA is hired and starts work. Surgical first-assist, dermatology, and other procedural PA subspecialties typically fall toward the higher end of the range due to scarcity; family practice and urgent care PA placements fall toward the lower end.
We present a subspecialty-matched PA candidate slate within 48 to 72 hours of intake. Most physician assistant placements close in 30 to 90 days. Timelines depend on NCCPA certification, Certificates of Added Qualifications (CAQs), state licensure status, DEA registration, supervision arrangements, and compensation alignment with the local market.
Yes. We place physician assistants in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories, across every state PA supervision and collaboration regulatory environment. We support multi-state telehealth searches and routinely manage compact-state and reciprocity licensure logistics.
We recruit emergency medicine PAs, surgical PAs (general, cardiothoracic, orthopedic, neurosurgery, plastics), dermatology PAs, cardiology PAs (invasive and non-invasive), hospitalist PAs, urgent care PAs, family practice PAs, urology PAs, gastroenterology PAs, and oncology PAs. Surgical first-assist and dermatology are among our highest-demand subspecialties.
Yes. We maintain new graduate PA pipelines for employers offering structured fellowship, residency, or formal onboarding programs. New graduate PA placements work best in family practice, urgent care, hospitalist, and emergency medicine settings with strong supervising-physician mentorship; they are generally not appropriate for solo specialty roles requiring procedural autonomy.