If you are a physician willing to practice in a rural community, your services are in high demand. The physician shortage in rural areas is nothing new; however, the demand is intensifying. A 2025 report from the Physicians Advocacy Institute (PAI) reveals a startling decline in the number of physicians and physician practices in rural areas. From 2019 to early 2024, the total number of physicians practicing in rural areas declined by 2,500, representing a 5% decrease. Rural areas also lost 3,300 medical practices, representing an 11% decline. The decrease in the percentage of independent physicians and practices is even more significant (43% and 42%, respectively), while the number of corporate-owned practices doubled.
As Regional Vice President of Physician Recruitment for Jackson Physician Search’s East division, I work with clients every day who are seeking physicians for their rural organizations. We collaborate to ensure their rural physician job is as attractive as possible, and from there, I connect them with qualified candidates who are open to the idea. These are physicians — probably a lot like you — who are seeking a better work-life balance, help with loan repayment, more time with patients, lower cost of living, and higher compensation. All of these factors contribute to higher levels of job satisfaction and potentially happier physicians. Perhaps this is why, according to a rural study from Jackson Physician Search and LocumTenens.com, 90% of physicians are open to considering a rural practice opportunity.
This is great news for rural healthcare organizations, which are in desperate need of physicians. It is also great for physicians who seek autonomy, flexibility, and the chance to make a difference. Rural health organizations are often better positioned to meet these needs, which means rural physicians have multiple reasons to be happier at work.
The Benefits of Rural Physician Jobs
Dr. K pulls his sports car into a parking spot at the West Texas hospital where he has worked for three years now. Admittedly, the small, critical care hospital isn’t exactly where he once envisioned himself going post-residency. However, now, he and his wife, who the hospital also employs, can’t imagine living and working anywhere else. They are paid well, enjoy a family-friendly community, and their employer gives them the flexibility they need to be involved in the care of their young children. While most of his peers from med school and residency are still drowning in debt and working 60+ hour weeks, he and his wife have paid off the bulk of their loans (thanks to signing bonuses and loan repayment), built the home of their dreams, and still manage to find time for each other, their kids, and their hobbies. He and his wife often wonder why more residents and fellows don’t seek out rural physician jobs. He wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Dr. K’s story demonstrates several of the benefits of rural physician jobs: a signing bonus used toward loan repayment, flexible schedules, a healthy work-life balance, and an affordable cost of living in a family-friendly community. It appears to be an ideal setting for a young physician (or physician couple) to build both a career and a family.
In the Jackson Physician Search and LocumTenens.com rural whitepaper, physicians practicing in rural areas were asked to reveal the top five factors that contributed to their decision to practice rural medicine. Improved work-life balance and higher compensation topped the list, cited by 46% and 44%, respectively. Not far behind was the “affordable cost of living,” cited by 42% of physicians practicing in rural areas.
1. Higher Compensation
In an article for NEJM Career Center, Jackson Physician Search President Tony Stajduhar shared that based on Jackson Physician Search data, physicians practicing in rural areas typically earn between 5% and 10% more than their urban and suburban counterparts. However, this does not account for incentives such as signing bonuses or loan repayment offers that organizations often use to sweeten the initial offer.
In the Jackson Physician Search and LocumTenens.com study, higher compensation was the most common reason physicians practicing in urban or suburban locations said they would consider rural medicine, cited by 64% of physicians surveyed. However, for those practicing rural medicine, compensation was cited as a reason by 44%.
2. Affordable Cost of Living
While the rural physician’s salary is only slightly higher, the lower cost of living in most rural communities can make the salary go much further than it would elsewhere. Especially as housing costs continue to rise all over the country, physicians in rural areas are more likely to find affordable housing than those in metropolitan areas.
3. Family-Friendly Environment
According to the Jackson Physician Search and LocumTenens.com whitepaper, 26% of rural physicians attributed their decision to practice in a rural area to their family’s preference or to their perception that it was a better place for children. Rural physicians are three times as likely to feel they live and work in a family-friendly environment as their suburban counterparts.
4. Work-Life Balance
Improved work-life balance is the most cited reason physicians say they decided to practice rural medicine. Perhaps because of flexible hours, job sharing, or simply a more relaxed work environment, rural physicians have more time to pursue hobbies and personal relationships that often get neglected by busy physicians in urban settings. This could explain why some studies report significantly lower levels of burnout among rural physicians compared to their urban counterparts.
5. More Time with Patients
According to the aforementioned Jackson Physician Search and LocumTenens.com rural healthcare study, rural physicians are more likely to say their organization is “patient-focused.” The autonomy granted to rural physicians gives them more control over scheduling, meaning they can allocate more time with patients if needed. The lower patient volumes at rural health organizations may also allow for more time with patients.
As Dr. A prepares for her day in the small, family medicine clinic in northern Idaho, she considers the patients on her schedule. On the job for over a year now, Dr. A is happy to say she recognizes most of the names and can even speculate on the cause of each patient’s visit. Her job as a rural family practitioner is nothing like the one she left behind at a big health system in Denver. There, she saw patients on a conveyor belt, spending no more than ten minutes with each before moving on to the next. Here, she has time to get to know them, ask about their lives, and help them make decisions that can improve their health. For this, they are grateful, and for the first time in her twenty-year career, she feels professionally fulfilled.
Dr. A’s story is similar to those of many physicians for whom increasing administrative burdens, reimbursement issues, and the corporatization of medicine have caused them to question their decisions to practice. According to a joint report from Jackson Physician Search and LocumTenens.com, Is Medicine Still a Calling? Exploring Physician Attitudes about Purpose in Medicine, more than half of physicians say their sense of calling and passion for medicine has decreased over time. When asked what keeps them going during challenging moments, “connecting with patients” was the most common answer — something that may be easier to do in rural physician jobs.
6. Professional Fulfillment
While physician job satisfaction is slowly improving, rural physicians are more likely to find satisfaction due to the autonomy, flexibility, and work-life balance often associated with rural physician jobs. As previously mentioned, more time with patients also contributes heavily to a stronger sense of professional fulfillment, as 49% of clinicians cite patient interactions as the most meaningful aspect of practicing medicine.
Dr. T sits down for a cup of coffee at the hospital cafe after completing his morning surgeries. He will see patients in clinic this afternoon, but then, he’ll have four full days off in which he and his wife plan to explore their new community. He spent his whole career working 10- and 12-hour days, five or six days a week, and he had grown tired of the constant hustle. And yet, Dr. T still didn’t feel he was quite ready to hang up his white coat. This was one reason the job in the foothills of the Appalachians had been so appealing — the opportunity to work part-time. The fact that he’d also be building the mountain house of his retirement dreams was just an added bonus. It seemed too good to be true. He only wished he’d made the move sooner.
Like many physicians approaching retirement age, Dr. T was hoping to ease into retirement by practicing medicine part-time. According to a 2023 physician retirement study by Jackson Physician Search, only 12% of physicians said they planned to take a full retirement, and nearly a third indicated they intended to continue working part-time. Rural healthcare organizations provide an ideal setting for these physicians as they may not have the patient volume to support a full-time physician. Or, if they do, they are more willing to allow job sharing or make other flexible arrangements to win over the candidate.
7. Flexibility
Due to the severity of the physician shortage in rural areas, rural healthcare organizations are often prepared to offer physicians more flexibility than they will find in other settings. Physicians in every stage of life can appreciate this perk, from those starting a family to those approaching retirement.
The numerous benefits of rural physician jobs make it easy to see why rural physicians may find greater happiness in their work. While higher compensation and healthy work-life balance are the primary reasons for considering and deciding to practice rural medicine, other factors, such as more time with patients, greater autonomy, flexibility, and a lower cost of living, also contribute to physician satisfaction. As more and more physicians weigh their employment options, there is reason to think you, too, could find what you are looking for in a rural physician job.
If you are open to practicing in a rural area, the Jackson Physician Search recruitment team is eager to learn more about your needs and connect you with an opportunity that aligns. Contact us today or start searching rural physician jobs online now.
About Neal Waters
Neal’s career in retained physician search began more than 15 years ago. Early on, he recognized the strain an entire community feels when there is a shortage of physicians to meet patient demand. Since his first successful placement, Neal’s passion for identifying the best providers for each healthcare organization with which he recruits has grown.
Neal serves as Regional Vice President of Recruiting. In his role, he serves as a mentor to a growing team of Jackson Physician Search recruiters. He also enjoys collaborating with in-house recruiters who are dedicated to optimizing their physician recruitment and candidate acquisition strategies. Likewise, Neal specializes in helping physicians, especially residents and those early in their careers, advance their professional careers by finding the right fit.
