Hire specialty nurses without doing the sourcing
Describe the unit. Expa finds the licensed RNs with that specialty experience in your market, reaches out, screens the ones who reply, and books your interviews. About ten minutes of your time.
Free to start. Cancel anytime.
3.3M+ registered nurses • 95% with verified personal data
Ten minutes, three steps
What happens after you hit start
Describe the role
Paste a job description or say it in plain English. No boolean strings, no filters to learn, no sourcing skill required.
Approve the shortlist
Expa finds the specialty nurses, contacts them, follows up, and screens the ones who reply. You approve or reject.
Take the interviews
Approved candidates land in your calendar. That is the whole job on your side.
In plain terms
How Expa sources specialty nurses
Expa is an AI-powered healthcare recruiting and clinician sourcing platform. It identifies licensed specialty nurses who are in-market, verifies their contact details, runs outreach over email, SMS and LinkedIn until they reply, screens the ones who respond, and books interviews with the candidates you approve.
There are 3,391,000 registered nurses in the United States, the largest clinical workforce in the country, and it is the most misleading number in healthcare hiring. Nobody hires a nurse. You hire a circulator, or a cath lab RN, or a NICU nurse. Specialty experience does not transfer between units, so the moment you filter 3.39 million by unit, by market and by shift, you are recruiting from a few hundred people, and every hospital in the region wants the same ones.
Expa searches on RN licensure and compact state status, unit and specialty experience, specialty certification such as CNOR, CCRN, RNC-OB, RNC-NIC, CEN and RCIS, years in the specialty, and shift. It covers OR, ICU, L&D, NICU, ED, cath lab, PACU and telemetry.
How the nursing market compares
| Profession | Employed in the U.S. |
|---|---|
| Registered nurses | 3,391,000 |
| Physicians and surgeons | 839,000 |
| Dental professionals | 370,900 |
| Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians | 351,200 |
| Nurse practitioners | 320,400 |
| Radiologic and MRI technologists | 272,000 |
| Physical therapists | 267,200 |
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024 and 2025 employment. These are national totals. The number inside your hiring radius is a small fraction of them, which is the entire problem.
Specialty nurses near Boise right now
A sample of what a search returns. Identifying details stay hidden until you start.
Boise, ID · 6 miles
9 years · orthopedic and general
Meridian, ID · 13 miles
6 years · adult ICU, CRRT
Nampa, ID · 18 miles
11 years · L&D and postpartum
No names, no photos, no current employers, no license numbers.
Why specialty nursing roles stay open
The unit is the job
3.39 million registered nurses, and almost none of them can take your opening. An ICU nurse is not an OR nurse. Filter to the unit and the national number stops meaning anything.
Every hospital nearby wants the same nurse
Specialty units in a metro compete for one small local pool, which is why travel rates set the floor on what an unfilled line actually costs you.
Nights, weekends and call are where the vacancies sit
Specialty units run around the clock. Outreach that names the shift, the rotation and the differential up front gets answered. Outreach that hides it does not.
Where specialty nurses get hired
Questions
How many registered nurses are there in the US?
3,391,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is the largest clinical workforce in the country and the least useful number in nursing recruitment, because openings are unit-specific. The pool for a cath lab RN in one metro is a few hundred people.
Why is it so hard to hire an ICU or OR nurse?
Because specialty experience does not transfer. A strong med-surg nurse cannot circulate in your OR without OR experience, and training one takes months you do not have. So every hospital and surgery centre in the region recruits from the same short local list, and travel agencies are bidding for the same people at rates that set the floor on what the vacancy costs you.
Can you search by nursing specialty and certification?
Yes. Unit and specialty experience plus certification including CNOR for perioperative, CCRN for critical care, RNC-OB and RNC-NIC for obstetric and neonatal, CEN for emergency and RCIS for cath lab, alongside state licensure and years in the specialty.
Do you source cath lab and NICU nurses?
Yes, and they are the smallest pools in nursing. Both are searched as distinct specialties rather than lumped in with general RN supply, because that is how the hiring actually works.
Can you find nurses with a compact licence?
Yes, and it is worth filtering on. A compact licence widens the radius you can realistically recruit from, which matters most in exactly the specialties where the local pool is thinnest.
Can you fill night and weekend shifts?
Yes, and it is where most specialty nursing vacancies sit. Expa filters for nurses whose profile suggests openness to off-shift work and names the shift and differential in the first message.
Do I have to do the sourcing myself?
No. You describe the role and approve a shortlist. Expa does the searching, the outreach, the follow-up and the screening, then books interviews with the candidates you approve. It takes about ten minutes of your time.
How fast will I see candidates?
A slate of interested, contactable specialty nurses within 48 hours of starting, often within 24. Time to hire from there depends on your interview process.
How much does Expa cost?
You can start free. For ongoing hiring, Expa pilots start at $6,000 for three months and cover all your open roles, with no per-placement fees. For comparison, a contingency agency placing a single specialty nurse typically charges 15% to 22% of first-year salary.
Start hiring specialty nurses in about ten minutes
Describe the role, approve a shortlist, take the interviews.
Hiring across multiple sites or six or more roles?
Managed sourcing for multi-site groups, health systems and staffing agencies. Pilots from $6,000 for three months, covering all your open roles.