nurseio is Redefining Healthcare Staffing for Nurses and Patients

In the crowded world of healthcare staffing solutions, nurseio stands out by combining cutting-edge technology with a genuine commitment to improving nurses' work-life balance and patient care. Founded by a team of passionate entrepreneurs, nurseio leverages the expertise of a seasoned CTO who previously developed successful scheduling software for home health. 

This interview delves into how nurseio differentiates itself in the competitive market, streamlines the process for nurses and hospitals, and continues to grow and innovate while staying true to its core mission of improving healthcare for both providers and patients.

Inside the Innovation: An Exclusive Interview with nurseio's Co-Founder

allnurses: Start off with your name, role, and organization.

nurseio: My name is Ryan Kober. I'm a co-founder and chief revenue officer at nurseio.

allnurses: Tell me a little bit more about the founding story behind nurse IO. Who are your partners? What inspired you guys to create the app?

nurseio: So there are three co-founders, and we actually acquired a small traditional staffing company about seven years ago that was kind of on life support; the guy was going to close the doors, and we were just entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, and saw an opportunity. So we bought the business, and about a year into it, we trimmed all the fat and started getting into it and realized we needed to leverage some technology to really drive this to where it could go. 

So we went through an accelerator called CodePlex in Phoenix and started building the app, you know, kind of rebranded to start building a business from the ground up from that perspective. And here we are today,  just growing the app and using the app to run the entire business.

All nurses: Are any of you tech guys, or do you have to hire developers to build it?

nurseio: No, we have a godsend CTO, who actually built and sold scheduling software for home health. He then kind of retired and sold that company, and we kind of lured him in to come be our CTO. He started out contracting with us, and we just let him fall more and more in love with what we were doing, and next thing you know, he came on with us full-time.

My background, I did technology sales at Cisco and ran an IT consulting company in the technology world prior, but I'm not a developer by trade or anything. The three of us are just entrepreneurs trying to build a good business, help solve this problem, and take care of the patients.

allnurses: It is a crowded space, so how is nurseio different from the other healthcare staffing companies or nurse staffing companies or apps?

nurseio: That's a really great question. You know, an app is an app to a certain degree, but I think our interface is doing a really good job of ease of use. And I think, ultimately, we're in it for the right reason.

We're a bootstrap company, we went and want to build a good sustainable business that is really driving to solve the problem, not just chasing dollars and going raising capital and doing all those things. We really want to build a good businesses to help solve this problem. So I think our hearts are in the right places, and I think that really shines through with this company — what we're doing is that we're doing it for the right reason.

allnurses: Can you walk me through the process of how a nurse can find and apply for an open shift? Then, on the opposite side of that, how do hospitals place the open shifts into the app?

nurseio: Yeah, it's really simple. Nurses can go to the website or download the app, whichever they prefer, and to start the onboarding process as a nurse, we validate and do all the credentialing upfront. So we take all that administrative burden off of the facility and take care of that for them. Validate, drug screen, and everything required for full-time employees. 

Same thing for facilities — we have a marketing team and sales folks who are out in front of facilities and hospitals, sharing and driving home the message of how we can help them manage their census and workforce issues and help them with some cost savings as well. So it's simple. On the facility side, they can go online, just join the same way, and make it as simple as possible for them to get help.

allnurses: Based on what you guys see internally and what you've heard from some of the facilities, how has this streamlined the process for filling open shifts?

nurseio: Yeah, so we've done a good job. We try to work with facilities to build what we call a "bench out" for them so that they have access to those familiar faces. So it's not just a new person every time that comes in. We try to have someone work there, and if they enjoy being there and the facility likes them, we build out a bench. Our technology addresses this and makes gains to efficiencies to ensure the shifts are filled. We can also build a bench out for facilities, and we're filling north of 90% of their shifts, so it's become a pretty good system for facilities to ensure their patients are being taken care of by familiar faces.

allnurses: What are some of the challenges that you guys have faced in launching the app? Is it more getting adoption from nurses or getting hospitals on board with the process?

nurseio: You kind of know that it's a crowded space today, I think it's just continuing to differentiate and show where we're different and how we're leveraging technology — where it needs to be leveraged. As much as we're an app, we talk about the platform, all these things, but at the end of the day, we're still providing a service, and we would pride ourselves in that service that delivers. I think if we can stay in front of people and deliver that message and prove that to people, we're going to win, and that's what we're trying to do.

allnurses: Have you heard some success stories from nurses or hospitals that love the app, saying it's changed their life or made things easier?

nurseio: I can't really tell you, but you can just look at the statistics. You know, post-COVID, even pre-COVID, I think nurses were just looking for — they love what they do, they're passionate about patient care — but they also want the work-life balance, right? And we offer that, we give that to them.

Dozens of stories of nurses who love the ability to pick up shifts and work when and where they want to work. And we pay them instantly — they finish the shift and we transfer funds to their account. So that's another avenue that's definitely putting us head and shoulders above others.

allnurses: What do you see for the future of nurseio, are guys expanding into other areas or adding new features to the app?

nurseio: Absolutely, yeah, without going too far and sharing all of our secrets. We are in about eight markets today, and we definitely have plans to expand nationally.

In regard to technology, we're constantly developing and doing things that we want to give nurses and facilities time back to do what matters to them — patient care. So the faster we can get them to post a shift and get that shift filled, the more time they have to do what really matters—and I think that's what's most important. So, our app is going to continue to develop with features that are going to deliver that.

allnurses: What role does AI play in that?

nurseio: We're using AI where it makes sense, I think that it's valuable in areas, and it's it can be scary in some areas —so we are going to use it where it makes sense. That's really what we're focused on, where we can be more efficient for our customers and our nurses and that patients are taken care of faster — that's what we're gonna use AI and it's definitely gonna play a role without question. 

allnurses: You guys have seen some good growth. Can you talk a little bit about your growth strategy and how you plan to keep that upward trajectory going?

nurseio: We have conversations about that every day. Our business is very interesting, there's the whole W2, 1099 dynamic that I think everyone's trying to figure out where it's gonna go. You know, we want to go work in states that welcome what we bring to the table — we don't want to have to go fight battles and prove what we're worth. We know we're solving a problem and taking care of nurses who need to be taken care of and getting them a path to do what they love on their own schedule.

We're identifying markets that make sense for us, and that's where we're going to grow the business. It starts with onboarding nurses, which seems to be pretty easy because nurses really appreciate the opportunity we provide them. So we're going to go into markets that make sense for us and onboard nurses that want to work and have that freedom and that work-life balance.

Then, in turn, find facilities that understand and view what we do differently. I think, the traditional terminology, registry,  that people used to view how what we do has changed. I think historically, it may have been nurses who couldn't get a full-time job for whatever reason, so they're viewed as at the registry, right.? And I think that's changed. People want to work differently now — they want their freedom and flexibility, as in work-life balance. I think facilities that are recognizing that and engaging with their nurses differently — they are going to be the ones that are going to reap the benefits of navigating this and finding themselves profitable and using us as a way to do that.

allnurses: Do you have any nurses on staff? Or do you talk to nurses about the features or how the app works just for ideas?

nurseio: Oh, yeah, we don't build it, we don't put any development hours in until we know that it's something that nurses want or facilities see value in. I think too many companies make this mistake — in their head, they think their idea is going to solve a problem and be a great feature, but if you don't talk to the user, it doesn't really matter.

We just built an advisory board and have some really, really high-level individuals — we have nurses, and two of them are part of the event we're at today, high-level individuals. We also just went through the Mayo Clinic, ASU med-tech accelerator in Scottsdale. That's an accelerator that hundreds of companies globally apply to, and we were accepted to be one of the eight that attended this year. A lot of really exciting things are working on with mayo right now.

allnurses:  Is there anything else that you'd want to share about the app or about the company?

nurseio: I mean, there's a lot I'd like to share. I just wanna be careful about what I do share. Like I said, we're bootstrapped, we're in this thing for the right reason. We get approached every day by VCs and private equity firms that want to buy us or invest in us, and that's not our path. We don't want to celebrate raising money. Too many people get caught up in the raising of the money and celebrating that, in our eyes that's not the victory. The victory is going to be sitting down with hospital administrators, and they're saying, "Hey, you guys are saving us money. You live in quality patient care" and that's the victory for us. That's our mission.

allnurses: Can you share where our audience can find you?

nurseio: We're available on the Apple and Android App Stores and on our website, nurseio.com. We offer both a web version and full apps for both nurses and facilities.

allnurses: Thanks for your time, Ryan.

nurseio: Thank you.