Clasp Marketplace launches today. For the first time, healthcare students can compare jobs by what each one pays toward their student loans, the same way they compare salaries. Behind every open role is Loan-Linked Hiring, the model Clasp built to drive retention of clinical talent at a time when turnover plagues the healthcare workforce. An employer commits a set amount toward a clinician’s student loan debt and pays the servicer directly as that clinician stays.

For students:

  • Repayment on every opportunity. Each open role shows what the employer will put toward the candidate’s student loans, alongside a competitive salary.

  • Explore by role. Students can browse opportunities across their specialty in one place, comparing employers, locations, salaries, and loan repayment commitments side by side.

  • See your path to less debt. A loan calculator runs each commitment against a student’s real balance, turning different employer contributions into different payoff timelines.

  • Any loan, repaid directly. Clasp works with your employer to send money directly to your loan servicer each month for your existing federal or private student loans.

  • No clawbacks. If a clinician leaves, payments stop, but everything already paid stays paid.

  • Free and open early. Students can join as early as their first term. Clasp costs students nothing.

For employers:

  • Hire before graduation. Employers build a sustainable, long-term pipeline, recruiting students 12 to 24 months before graduation, ahead of the scramble for newly licensed clinicians.

  • Reach the right talent nationwide. Clasp connects employers with healthcare students and early-career clinicians across 48 states, helping employers reach people pursuing the degrees and clinical careers they need to fill.

  • Show students why they should choose you. Custom employer pages bring together loan repayment, employee stories, and the benefits of working for each organization, giving students a fuller picture of an employer before they apply.

“Healthcare is facing a massive talent shortage at the same time that the cost of becoming a clinician is keeping too many people from entering and completing these programs,” said Tess Michaels, Founder and CEO of Clasp. “Leading healthcare employers understand that solving the workforce shortage starts before graduation. They’re stepping up to help students afford the cost of their training, bring more people into these high-need fields, and build the workforce they’ll need for years to come.”

Rewarding staying, not leaving

Loan-Linked Hiring gives employers a way to make larger, longer-term financial commitments to clinicians while tying that investment to 3+ year retention. Nearly 50% of clinicians leave their first job within two years, and turnover costs the system more than $68 billion annually. Students are already signaling that this kind of support matters: in a new Clasp survey of 1,000 healthcare students asked to name the two factors that matter most in choosing a first job, nearly three times as many chose student loan repayment assistance as chose a sign-on bonus. Clasp reports retention more than 2.5x higher than traditional hiring models.

Thousands of clinical students across thousands of schools and programs are on Clasp, spanning nursing and nurse anesthesia, physical and occupational therapy, respiratory therapy, medical imaging, optometry, and veterinary medicine. Available jobs have grown more than 207% in 2026, and employers have committed more than $200 million toward clinician loans. Those hiring through Loan-Linked Hiring include Northwestern Medicine, Novant Health, OhioHealth, Rochester Regional Health, UMass Memorial Health, UNC Health Appalachian, Wellstar Health System, Lovelace Health System, BAYADA, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, Confluent Health, Therapy Partners Group, MyEyeDr., and VCA Animal Hospitals.

Clasp Marketplace is free for students and schools and is available at clasp.com/students. Healthcare employers can learn more at clasp.com/healthcare.

About Clasp

Clasp is a workforce infrastructure company that connects clinicians with healthcare employers and ties student loan repayment to tenure. Through its Loan-Linked Hiring model, Clasp helps healthcare employers secure talent earlier and improve long-term retention. The company was founded by Tess Michaels in 2018 while she was completing her MBA at Harvard Business School. Raised in a family of physicians, she saw how staffing gaps strain care teams and how student debt shapes where clinicians work and how long they stay.

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