How to hire LPNs in 2026: A complete guide for healthcare facilities
Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) are an essential part of nursing teams. As the percentage of the aged population continues to grow, clinics across the USA are looking to hire an LPN with market-related skills to support and enhance patient care.
This growing demand for LPNs is causing healthcare facilities to focus on proven strategies to hire skilled LPNs to support care delivery and to fill staffing gaps. This blog explains the key strategies or tips to assist you with LPN candidate sourcing over the long term.
Why facilities need proven strategies to hire licensed practical nurses
Most clinical owners need proven strategies to hire licensed practical nurses to manage growing patient demand and maintain a stress-free nursing team. A well-planned approach helps hospitals reduce dropouts, control staffing budget, and fix staffing shortages while ensuring the staffing process is completed in a stress-free manner.
Tips to hire licensed nurse practitioners
When a family-licensed nurse practitioner is staffing a hospital, owners must maintain a planned approach that balances speed and quality. To make recruiting a stress-free task and hire in a quick time, such as in 10 days, recruiters like you can follow these tips to reduce time-to-hire while attracting top talent.
Tip #1: Determine your staffing needs
The demand for skilled LPN professionals is always high.It sometimes increases with patient volume, seasonal trends, and unplanned dropouts within your healthcare team. It leads to workforce gaps.
These workforce gaps can damage your facility’s brand image and affect patient care if not addressed urgently. To overcome these workforce gaps, you must choose the staffing model that best suits your clinic. The two proven strategies for recruiting are listed below.
- Contractual staffing helps you quickly fill short-term gaps, especially during busy periods with increased patient volume.
- A full-time approach helps you maintain a stable LPN team and deliver consistent, high-quality patient care
These approved staffing methods will help your facility address staffing shortages quickly.
Tip #2:Increase your facility’s brand
In the competitive healthcare market, to overcome challenges related to LPN talent acquisition, recruiting managers must enhance the facility’s market presence and brand image. It helps you gain an upper hand while you plan to hire an LPN in your budget.
In order to increase your market presence as a recruiter, you must follow a few essential practices, such as :
- Maintaining an employee-friendly workplace.
- Providing competitive salaries on time to your employees.
- Encouraging with professional development courses.
- Facilities need to ensure that they are equipped with new technology.
These employee-friendly practices help you build and maintain a brand and assist you to hire an LPN in the competitive market.
Tip #3: Create a compelling job description
Hospital owners willing to hire must know how to create a detailed job description. A well-written job description helps you meet LPN requirements and reduces mismatches during the recruiting process.
Writing a compelling and attractive LPN job description ensures that job seekers clearly understand their role, responsibilities, and duties. This proven process helps healthcare managers hire LPNs faster and improves the quality of job seekers at your facility.
For example, if you want to hire in New York, you must verify that the candidate has a valid license and then draft a JD. A detailed infographic has been added to clarify the key responsibilities to include in an LPN job description.
Job description for a licensed nurse practitioner
Tip #4: Encourage employee referrals to hire LPNs
Maintaining the employee referral process is the most affordable strategy when you plan to hire an LPN. It is one of the most reliable and affordable recruiting methods in healthcare.
In the healthcare sector, the referral program is one of the most widely used processes because LPN hiring through internal networks provides access to skilled, experienced professionals, reducing screening time.
In order to maintain quality in referral programs, recruiters like you need to take steps such as :
- Communicate referral guidelines and role requirements, so your team can refer the right LPN.
- Encourage your staff with benefits such as a referral amount.
This will encourage and create a healthy environment to maintain a consistent pool of skilled professionals who can fill workforce gaps.
Tip #5: Partnering with nursing schools
Facilities must maintain formal partnerships with nursing schools to address LPN requirements. Partnering with nursing institutions will enable clinics to develop a structured academic plan for upcoming graduates, so they can hire skilled graduates.
Following a partnership approach helps healthcare owners reduce the impact of LPN workforce shortages in the long run by ensuring a consistent supply of skilled professionals to your facility when demand increases.
Tip #6: Offer attractive compensation
Attracting candidates with competitive pay is a vital strategy to overcome competition in the LPN talent acquisition process. As a clinical owner, you must understand that if LPN salary figures are not attractive, hiring LPNs can be challenging, and they may overlook your offer in favor of other competing clinics. To overcome this challenge, you must mention the salary range upfront in the job posting.
For example, if you are planning to hire in a state like Massachusetts, the average annual LPN salary is around $75,690, which can help you set competitive compensation expectations and manage your cost-per-hire effectively. A detailed, state-wise salary infographic has been added to streamline your LPN recruitment process.
Salaries of licensed practical nurses by state in the USA
State | Hourly mean wage | Annual mean wage |
California | $36.82 | $76,580 |
Rhode Island | $36.28 | $75,470 |
Washington | $36.26 | $75,410 |
Alaska | $35.70 | $74,260 |
Massachusetts | $35.29 | $73,400 |
Source: BLS
Importance of choosing modern platforms to hire LPNs
When facilities are looking to hire an LPN to improve patient care, they must follow structured recruiting strategies to quickly address workforce gaps, recruit within the allotted budget, and maintain high standards of workplace culture at their clinic. Most traditional agencies and free job portals may come with high markups, ranging from 40%–60%. Additionally, most traditional agencies rely on manual processes, which may delay your recruitment.
- To overcome these challenges, facilities should consider modern staffing platforms such as :
- Offering transparent pricing with no markups, ensuring predictable staffing costs
- Providing access to qualified healthcare professionals for both contract and full-time roles
- Streamlining the sourcing process by delivering qualified resumes within 2–5 days
- Helping recruiters to maintain a 10–12 day recruiting cycle when interview and onboarding workflows are optimized.
Healthcare owners can book a free demo to see how the platform helps them make planned recruiting decisions. LPNs can also check open jobs and apply for those that match their skills.
FAQs
What are the best strategies to hire licensed practical nurses for hospitals?
The most effective strategies include identifying staffing needs, offering competitive compensation, and building partnerships with nursing schools. Facilities should also invest in employer branding and referral programs. These methods help attract skilled LPNs and reduce workforce gaps.
What is the difference between contractual and full-time LPN recruiting?
Contractual LPN roles are ideal for short-term needs and help quickly fill urgent staffing gaps. Full-time roles, on the other hand, provide stability and support long-term workforce planning. Choosing the right model depends on your facility’s demand and operational goals.
Why are LPN healthcare professionals important for healthcare facilities?
LPNs play a crucial role in managing routine patient care and supporting clinical teams. They help reduce workload on registered nurses and ensure timely patient monitoring and documentation. This allows healthcare facilities to maintain efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and handle increasing care demand effectively
How does MedSquirrels reduce the cost of recruiting LPNs?
MedSquirrels follows a transparent pricing model with no hidden markups. Unlike traditional agencies, it allows facilities to manage their budget more effectively. This helps reduce overall recruitment costs while maintaining access to skilled professionals.
Can MedSquirrels support both contract and full-time LPN recruiting?
Yes, MedSquirrels supports both contract and full-time staffing needs. Facilities can choose based on their workforce requirements and patient demand. This flexibility helps clinics manage short-term gaps as well as long-term staffing goals.
