Nurse Practitioner: What is the cost of hiring?

What is a nurse practitioner?

A nurse practitioner (NP) is an advanced practice registered nurse who provides comprehensive patient care, including diagnosing conditions, ordering and interpreting tests, prescribing medications and treatments and managing overall care plans.

They combine clinical expertise with a patient-centered approach and can often practice independently or in collaboration with physicians, depending on state regulations. Hiring an NP can help expand access to care, improve patient outcomes and increase efficiency across your healthcare team.

Why hire a nurse practitioner?

An efficient nurse practitioner supports the facility as a skilled medical professional, in a role similar to that of a physician.

Contributions of a great nurse practitioner:

• Conduct patient screenings and perform physical examinations of patients
• Order labs and diagnostic studies
• Diagnose patients, prescribe medications and formulate treatment plans
• Review test results and refer patients to specialists if needed

Defining your hiring needs for a nurse practitioner

When hiring a nurse practitioner, consider the required specialty, such as cardiology, dermatology, pediatrics, emergency care or neonatal care. Specifying the type of nurse practitioner you are looking for can help you find candidates who are a good match.

Healthcare facilities most often employ nurse practitioners, full-time or part-time, as members of the medical team alongside physicians. However, nurse practitioners may take locum tenens assignments through agencies, similar to travel nursing, to fill short-term staffing gaps for healthcare facilities, such as when a provider is out on leave.

Types of nurse practitioners

Different types of nurse practitioners may have specific roles and responsibilities. These include:

• Cardiac nurse practitioners: Working on cardiac wards, these nurses care for patients who have acute and long-term heart conditions by prescribing treatments and educating them on heart health.
• Pediatric nurse practitioners: These nurse practitioners provide medical support and care to children, typically from infancy to early adulthood and may provide even further specialist care based on different childhood conditions.
• Psychiatric nurse practitioners: They diagnose and treat patients with mental health conditions, providing treatment plans to help improve or manage their symptoms.
• Family nurse practitioners: These nurse practitioners provide preventative and primary care to patients of all ages, including individuals and their families.
• Emergency nurse practitioners: Working in emergency rooms, emergency nurse practitioners have the training to diagnose and treat patients who require urgent care.

When writing your nurse practitioner job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on nurse practitioner jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Nurse practitioner
• Family nurse practitioner
• NP
• Pediatric nurse practitioner
• Psychiatric nurse practitioner
• Telemedicine nurse practitioner
• Advanced practice registered nurse
• Nurse practitioner, new grads welcome
• Women’s health nurse practitioner

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Where to find nurse practitioners

To find the right nurse practitioner for your facility, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Hire from within. Ask your nursing staff whether any are currently pursuing advanced education to become nurse practitioners.
• Network with professionals. Build and maintain relationships with other organizations, local universities and members of the nursing community. This may provide information on nurse practitioners currently seeking work.
• Search online. Some established nurse practitioners may be active on online forums or groups within their specialty’s professional association and actively seeking work.
• Connect with nurse practitioner professional associations. Some professional associations, such as the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP), maintain online career centers where employers can post job openings.
• Post your job online: Post your nurse practitioner job on Indeed to find and attract quality nurse practitioner candidates.

“Networking is a common way for nurse practitioners and employers to connect. If your facility already employs nurse practitioners, consider speaking with them to determine if they have NP colleagues who might be interested in a position.”

—Michelle Hensley, DNP

Skills to look for in a nurse practitioner

A successful nurse practitioner candidate will typically have the following skills and competencies, which may be gained through a variety of experiences, training or education:

• Master’s degree or doctoral degree in nursing
• Active nurse practitioner state license
• Certification as a nurse practitioner in the desired specialty (such as family nurse practitioner, pediatric nurse practitioner or psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner)
• Ability to make independent decisions based on sound clinical judgement
• Familiarity with the electronic health record (EHR) medical charting system is preferred

Writing a nurse practitioner job description

A well-crafted job description is where all these elements, skills, salary data and candidate search behavior come together.

A strong nurse practitioner job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position. You may also include information about your company culture and benefits to attract top candidates.

Ready to get started? See our full guide for writing nurse practitioner job descriptions.

Interviewing nurse practitioner candidates

To get a better sense of a candidate’s skills and experience, be prepared to ask questions about the following topics:

• Process to assess, diagnose and present treatment plans to patients
• How they’ve contributed to proactively improving patient care quality
• Managing complex patient situations through de-escalation or conflict management
• Reviewing test results and making informed medical decisions

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of nurse practitioner interview questions for examples (with sample answers).