Adapting the "Gig Economy" for Healthcare

[Maladroit, BSN, RN]

Fellow nurses, we have so many options for where and how we work, right? Is your current situation meeting your needs and working towards your goals? COVID-19 has changed so many things in the medical field. Maybe you don’t get the hours you need to sustain your household now. Maybe you’re stuck in a specialty where you aren’t able to keep up your nursing skills. We all have changing priorities right now. Most of us are thinking about how to adapt and prepare for what comes next.

As nurses, we can be so versatile in both setting and specialty; hospital, outpatient, home health, schools, travel — you name it! I know that before COVID started, most of us had a side-gig or two and it was considered kind of the “in” thing to do. Teaching a random class, taking a part-time or weekend job on top of the three 12’s at the hospital, etc. Personally though, I felt overwhelmed committing to another job on a consistent basis — being a parent makes that seem even less possible. It was hard enough to fit in all the meetings, trainings, and miscellaneous duties for my primary job!

One thing that is becoming mainstream, is the ability to pick up local PRN jobs in the “gig economy”. It seems rather ideal to supplement a main job salary with being able to pick up side jobs that fit your schedule; without the extra commitments. Not having to worry about extra things coming up (trainings, meetings, calls, etc.) on top of what you sign-up for, not being required to meet a minimum number of hours, and not having to do things you hate doing or don’t know how to do. MedHelperNow is one decent thing to come from 2020, which has tackled this for us. Maybe we needed someone to adapt the gig economy specifically for nurses and those who could use the help of a nurse, in a way that works for everyone.

Approaching this new gap in our healthcare system in this way doesn’t just benefit nurses either. Looking from the patient perspective, they’ll be able to hire nurses for tasks that normally they would go to the clinic for. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, non-urgent visits are either delayed or looking very different. Patients needing some support are struggling to pick up the slack when home health just can’t take care of everything. Where should they turn? Home health gets expensive quickly (if that’s even an option), other platforms aren’t decent alternatives either to look for healthcare help due to lacking necessary standards and trust that healthcare demands. People needed somewhere reliable and trustworthy to turn to for basic care that nurses can provide (under the guidance of your Physician).