5 fresh ways to recruit rural doctors to flexible positions

Rural hospitals face a unique challenge: securing temporary physician coverage that feels permanent in its commitment. Traditional recruitment methods often fall short, leaving administrators to wonder how to compete for talent. The solution requires moving beyond generic job boards and embracing a more nuanced, strategic approach.

This article explores five innovative strategies designed to transform your locum tenens recruitment from a transaction into a compelling invitation.

1. Tap into the FIRE community & semi-retired physicians

The financial independence, retire early (FIRE) movement is composed of professionals, including physicians, who are highly skilled and seeking purposeful work that aligns with a lifestyle of freedom and flexibility. This demographic represents a unique recruitment opportunity for rural hospitals. Similarly, semi-retired physicians represent a vast and often underutilized reservoir of experience and clinical wisdom. These physicians want to build a career that allows them to apply their decades of skill without the burdens of a full-time practice.

In both cases, your messaging should highlight how a locum tenens assignment in your community facilitates their core goals, which include the ability to live in a low-cost area to accelerate savings, the opportunity to have an adventure between traditional career phases, and the chance to engage in meaningful, high-impact work unburdened by institutional bureaucracy.

• Target demographic: Financially savvy physicians in their 30s through 50s who are pursuing FIRE. They seek high-paying, short-term assignments that fund their goals and offer adventure and a break from traditional career paths.
• Marketing channels:
  • Personal finance and travel blogs, podcasts, and forums (e.g., White Coat Investor, Physician on FIRE).
  • LinkedIn and Facebook groups focused on physician finances or locum tenens.
• Marketing media:
  • Blog posts/guest articles
  • Digital ads
  • Interactive calculator
     

2. Utilize ‘boomerang’ physicians

A highly effective and often overlooked recruitment strategy involves engaging "boomerang" physicians, or those who grew up in your state but now practice elsewhere. This group possesses a powerful intrinsic motivation in the form of a deep, personal connection to the region and its people.

Your approach should be framed as an invitation to come home and give back. Marketing should leverage nostalgia and community ties, highlighting the opportunity to provide vital care to the neighbors, teachers, and friends who shaped their early years. To execute this, organizations can mine alumni databases from local colleges and reach out through community networks and social media groups specific to the area.

• Target demographic: Physicians who grew up in a rural area of your state but now practice in urban or suburban settings.
• Marketing channels:
  • Local school alumni associations and social media groups.
  • Regional and state-level medical societies (e.g., state AFP chapter).
  • Social media ads geo-targeted to major metropolitan areas where many physicians now reside.
  • Personal outreach from hospital leadership or staff who may know them.
• Marketing media:
  • Social media carousels/ads
  • Email campaigns
  • Blog content/personal stories
     

3. Engage new graduates through try-before-you-buy locum opportunities

Early-career physicians often face a daunting first step — choosing where to plant roots. Locum tenens roles can provide a low-risk, high-reward way for them to explore different practice settings while gaining valuable clinical experience. For rural hospitals, these assignments can become powerful recruitment tools: a “try-before-you-buy” pathway that allows new graduates to fall in love with the community, the team, and the local lifestyle.

Your messaging should counter common rural misconceptions by highlighting the unique professional and personal rewards these environments offer — broad clinical experience, close-knit teamwork, affordable living, and a lifestyle connected to nature and community.

• Target demographic: Residents and physicians in their first one to three years post-training.
• Marketing channels:
  • Residency program partnerships and alumni networks.
  • Speaking engagements at regional residency fairs.
  • Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn campaigns targeting early-career physicians.
• Marketing media:
  • “Day in the life” video tours.
  • Blog posts from recent graduates who chose rural locums.
  • Interactive maps showing adventure, community, and cost-of-living advantages.
     

4. Geo-fenced digital advertising

To cut through the noise of traditional advertising, health care organizations should consider the highly targeted approach of geo-fenced digital campaigns. This tactic involves serving digital ads exclusively to devices within a specific geographic location, such as a major urban hospital complex, medical conference, or specialty clinic.

This strategy allows you to position your opportunity in direct contrast to the recipient's current environment. When a physician is immersed in a hectic urban practice, an ad highlighting the clinical autonomy, work-life balance, and natural beauty of your rural setting can be powerfully compelling. The message is delivered when the contrast between their daily reality and an alternative is most acute.

• Target demographic: Actively working physicians experiencing burnout in large, urban hospital systems.
• Marketing channels:
  • Mobile display and video ad networks (e.g., Google ads, social media advertising platforms).
  • Geofences set around large hospital systems, medical conferences, and specialty clinics.
• Marketing media:
  • Short-form video ads
  • Simple display ads
  • Landing page
     

5. Specialized staffing agencies

While many staffing firms cast a wide net, the most effective partnerships are built on a foundation of deep, specialized understanding. Strong locum partners don't just place physicians; they staff dedicated experts who possess an intimate knowledge of the unique rhythms, challenges, and profound rewards of rural health care. 

Their recruiters act as skilled ambassadors for the rural health community and cause. They excel at articulating value to a curated audience of physicians who are genuinely seeking the right environment. It transforms the recruitment process from a transactional search into a strategic partnership, connecting with professionals who are prepared not only to excel in their role but to truly become part of a community’s story, even for a short while.

• Target demographic: The agency itself is the channel. Their demographic is their entire network of vetted physicians.
• Marketing channels:
  • The agency's internal database and recruiter outreach.
  • Co-branded marketing efforts between the hospital and the agency.
  • The agency's website and professional presence at health care recruiting conferences.
• Marketing media:
  • Authentic facility profile
  • Co-branded content
     

Building a sustainable future, one physician at a time

Recruiting locum tenens physicians in a rural setting demands a shift to relationship-focused outreach. By thinking past generic job boards and tailoring your approach to specific, motivated demographics, you transform coverage gaps into compelling opportunities. These innovative strategies allow you to connect with physicians who want purpose, adventure, or a connection to community. Embracing this nuanced approach is the key to building a reliable pipeline of talent, ensuring the long-term health of both your hospital and the community it serves.

NRHA adapted the above piece from Era Locums, a trusted NRHA partner, for publication within the Association’s Rural Health Voices blog.
 

About the author: Founder of Era Locums, Sigrid Boring has decades of experience in staffing rural hospitals and collaborating with rural health care experts. Working from the simple principle of improving doctors’ lives by connecting them with roles in which they can thrive, Boring has a proven track record of connecting physicians with facilities in need, improving fill rates, and helping hospitals preserve essential services.