Amid a nationwide nursing shortage and persistently high rates of burnout in health care, tech companies have proposed a potential solution: nurses should join the gig economy. This proposal is intended to help hospitals fill shifts more efficiently while also offering flexibility to an exhausted workforce.
Even before COVID-19, there was a shortage of nearly 200,000 nursing professionals. Once the pandemic hit, desperate hospitals attempted to fill the gaps with expensive travel nurses. But there are often more health care workers available locally, explained Will Patterson, CEO of health care staffing platform CareRev. “There’s this huge disconnect between supply of local professionals and the health care systems,” Patterson told Axios. “We’re trying to keep these people in the industry.”
CareRev is an example of a mobile app that has been addressing this demand by credentialing and connecting health care workers with health systems in need. The facilities pay workers through the app, plus a percentage and subscription fee. The company completed a $50 million Series A funding round in April 2021.
A lot of funding has been directed toward similar models over the past year, including for the nurse staffing apps connectRN, TrustedHealth, ShiftMed, and Nomad.
However, there are concerns about the scarcity of benefits and workers’ rights with gig employment, as well as the possibility of wages being driven down.
Source: Axios, January 26, 2022.