Healthcare workforce projections can tell you where the industry is heading. Finding the right nurses for your facility requires a recruitment partner who understands your immediate needs and long-term goals.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects approximately 180,800 registered nurse openings each year, on average, from 2025 to 2035. Those openings reflect both employment growth and the need to replace nurses who retire, leave the workforce, or move into other occupations. [1]
For healthcare employers, this means recruitment needs can continue even when a facility is not expanding. Working with All Med Search gives your organization dedicated support in finding qualified candidates for permanent positions while your team focuses on patient care and daily operations.
National Projections Do Not Tell Your Facility’s Whole Story
BLS projects RN employment to grow 6% between 2025 and 2035, faster than the average for all occupations. However, national growth does not tell you how many qualified candidates are available for your night shift, emergency department, or upcoming service expansion. [1]
Regional workforce research reinforces this distinction. California’s April 2026 nursing forecast projects that modeled regional shortages will ease over time, while also identifying differences in nurse supply and population-based staffing benchmarks. Nightingale College’s overview of HRSA projections similarly highlights differences across states and between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan communities. [3, 5]
Your recruitment strategy needs to reflect the positions you actually need to fill.
All Med Search works with healthcare employers to understand their clinical requirements, hiring priorities, and candidate expectations. That understanding helps guide a search around the needs of your organization.
Finding Applicants Is Only Part of the Work
A resume can show a candidate’s experience. A successful search also requires understanding what that candidate wants from their next position and whether your opportunity aligns with those goals.
The National Academies’ The Future of Nursing 2020–2030 emphasizes the importance of workforce distribution, clinical preparation, and specialty expertise. It also discusses the knowledge and leadership that can leave an organization when experienced nurses retire. [2]
For employers, those considerations make it important to look beyond the number of applications received.
All Med Search helps connect your hiring needs with candidates whose experience and career goals align with the opportunity. Our recruitment process considers the details that shape a hiring decision, including clinical background, location preferences, scheduling expectations, and interest in a permanent move.
The goal is to help both sides make an informed decision about long-term fit.
Give Your Internal Team Additional Recruiting Support
Recruitment involves more than posting a vacancy. Candidate outreach, screening, interview coordination, follow-up, and communication all require time and attention.
When your internal team is managing multiple openings alongside other responsibilities, an external recruiting partner can provide additional capacity.
All Med Search can support your hiring process by:
- Identifying and engaging candidates for permanent healthcare positions.
- Screening candidates against the requirements you share.
- Communicating the details of your opportunity.
- Coordinating interviews and candidate follow-up.
- Helping maintain communication as candidates move through the hiring process.
This gives your team a recruiting partner focused on moving the search forward and keeping candidates informed.
Expand Your Search Beyond Your Local Market
When local recruiting efforts are not producing the candidates you need, it may be time to broaden the search.
All Med Search helps employers connect with candidates considering relocation, including Canadian RNs interested in permanent U.S. hospital positions where appropriate.
Recruiting a relocating candidate requires clear communication about more than the job itself. Compensation, orientation, community amenities, relocation assistance, and expected timelines can all influence a candidate’s decision.
We help communicate those details so candidates can evaluate the opportunity and employers can better understand their readiness to move.
Build a Hiring Plan Before Vacancies Become Urgent
Nursing education capacity is another reason to plan ahead. AACN reports that nursing schools turned away 92,672 qualified applications to baccalaureate and graduate programs in 2025 because of constraints that included faculty, clinical sites, preceptors, space, and funding. That figure represents applications, rather than individual applicants. [4]
Employers cannot assume that future graduates will meet every staffing need, particularly when a position requires experienced nurses.
Partnering with All Med Search before a vacancy becomes urgent allows time to clarify requirements, discuss candidate availability, and begin outreach around anticipated needs.
Whether you are preparing for retirements, adding services, or addressing recurring vacancies, an earlier conversation can help establish a more practical search timeline.
Keep Long-Term Fit at the Center
A permanent placement should be considered within the broader employee experience.
The University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing’s Fall 2026 magazine highlights nurse residency and early-career development efforts that emphasize peer connections, professional identity, and access to support. These examples illustrate the attention organizations are giving to nurses’ transition into practice. [6]
Employers play a central role in delivering that support. All Med Search helps candidates understand the opportunity before they accept, including the orientation, development, and workplace details your organization provides.
Clear expectations during recruitment give both the employer and the candidate a stronger foundation for the transition.
Partner With All Med Search
Workforce forecasts provide useful context. Your facility still needs qualified people to care for patients, support colleagues, and contribute to its future.
All Med Search helps healthcare organizations recruit for permanent positions with attention to clinical requirements, candidate goals, and long-term fit.
If your team is facing difficult-to-fill vacancies or preparing for future hiring needs, let’s discuss how we can support your recruitment efforts.
Contact Marni Allon at Marni@AllMedSearch.com or 858-414-6425 to get started.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Registered Nurses
- National Academies: The Nursing Workforce
- California Board of Registered Nursing: Regional Workforce Forecasts, April 2026
- AACN: Nursing Shortage Fact Sheet
- Nightingale College: Nursing Shortage by State
- University of Missouri: Mizzou Nursing, Fall 2026