Physician referrals

How to engage nurses and nurse practitioners as clinical trial referral sources

By TrialNotice · Updated
Nurse practitioner reviewing a clinical study summary with a patient in a primary care exam room
Short answerNurses and nurse practitioners are an underused referral source. Tufts CSDD found nurses refer a median of two patients into trials per year, and 45% never hear back from the site after referring. With more than 461,000 licensed nurse practitioners in the United States, many serving as primary care providers, adding them to outreach widens a site's referral network considerably.

What does research show about nurse referrals?

Tufts CSDD's survey included 1,255 nurses alongside 755 physicians. Nurses referred a median of two patients into trials per year, versus five for physicians (Getz, Applied Clinical Trials). Like physicians, nurses cited the inability to access information and insufficient information and time as key reasons for not referring, and 45% of nurses said they never received contact from site staff after making a referral (Tufts CSDD).

2
median patients nurses refer to trials per year
45%
of nurses never heard back after referring
461,000+
licensed nurse practitioners in the US

Why include nurse practitioners?

Because the workforce has grown quickly and many see the patients sites need. AANP's count of licensed nurse practitioners rose from 325,242 in 2020 to 461,246 in 2025 (AANP), and AANP describes NPs as primary care providers for millions of Americans in urban, rural, and underserved communities (AANP). A referral network built only on physicians misses a growing share of the clinicians managing chronic conditions.

Where do you find them?

Most nurse practitioners have National Provider Identifiers (AANP), so they appear in the CMS NPPES registry alongside physicians and can be filtered by specialty and location. Also include practice nurses, nurse navigators, and care coordinators at the practices you already contact.

How should outreach to nurses differ?

  • Same core information: the study, deciding criteria, location, and a named contact.
  • Practical detail: nurses often handle scheduling and patient questions, so include what the patient will do at each visit.
  • Close the loop: the 45% who never heard back is the easiest gap to fix. Confirm every referral.
  • Include them by name in physician practice outreach, not as an afterthought.

Related: how to follow up with referring physicians and how to build a referral network.

Get your study in front of the right local physicians

TrialNotice builds a physician referral pipeline around one active study. We identify relevant local physicians within driving distance of your site, send study aligned direct mail, follow up by email and LinkedIn, track engagement with recipient level QR codes, and route warm responses into your site team's workflow.

Talk to TrialNotice

Sources

  1. Applied Clinical Trials, "Tufts CSDD Study Explores Low Recruitment Rates"
  2. Ken Getz, Applied Clinical Trials, "Rebooting the Statistic That 5% of Eligible Patients Participate in Clinical Trials"
  3. American Association of Nurse Practitioners, NP Count Methods Snapshot (October 2025)
  4. American Association of Nurse Practitioners, National NP Week announcement (November 2025)
  5. CMS NPPES NPI Registry

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