IntelyCare’s Chris Caulfield Shares Five Things DN Needs to Know About Gig Nursing

Even if you are not working nursing gigs at this point in your career, the field is booming! Gig nursing can be a long-term choice or a great option at different stages of your life. It’s a go-to for brand-new BSNs paying off student loans, nurses who need time to raise a family but also need income, and old hands (or in nursing, “old feet”) that have worn out enough sneakers to stock a Footlocker store and are ready for a lighter, at-will work schedule.

DailyNurse has been staying in touch with Chris Caulfield, RN, NP-C, the co-founder and Chief Nursing Officer of gig nursing agency IntelyCare, and Chris patiently complied with our request for a sort of ABC primer on gig nursing. Our aging, pre-“gig” economy generation associate editor is attaching a copy of the following with a very strong magnet to the DN refrigerator.

Chris Caulfield, RN, NP-C, co-founder and Chief Nursing Officer, IntelyCare.

DailyNurse Pre-Gig Economy Generation Associate Editor: Where and when did the nursing gig market first appear on the scene, and how much has it grown over the years?

Chris Caulfield: Gig nursing through traditional per diem agencies has long been a disorganized and inefficient option for nursing. Traditional agencies lack the operations and technology necessary to efficiently fill on-demand shifts, making it nearly impossible to meet both nurses’ and facilities’ needs.

But since 2015, data and technology-driven nursing gig platforms have been exponentially growing in popularity, disrupting the gig nursing industry by solving the problem of a traditionally inefficient marketplace.

DNPGEGAE: Are there any demographics that seem especially drawn to gig nursing?

CC: We’ve seen that young, parent-age workers looking for flexibility while providing childcare for their children is a large demographic for gig work. Nurses or nursing assistants continuing their education often do per diem nursing, as well, fitting their work around their studies. This demographic is usually open to adopting new and disruptive tech-driven solutions, so it’s no surprise that the early adopters are young people looking to streamline their work and fit it to their needs.

Gig nursing is also more prevalent in urban and suburban areas as opposed to rural areas. The higher density means a higher population of nurses and facilities, making it easier to match the supply and demand. It gets a little more complicated in rural areas, but they often have higher than normal populations of travel nurses, so accommodating the needs of travel nurses is a huge piece of the puzzle. In this case, tech-driven marketplaces will then emphasize assignments that are several weeks in advance for these areas instead of individual flexible shifts.

DN: How has the pandemic changed the nursing gig economy?

CC: The adoption of gig nursing grew exponentially throughout the pandemic at healthcare facilities, both large and small. There’s really two main types of gig staffing: travel nursing and per diem nursing. Historically, hospitals have utilized travel nurses at levels that have been growing steadily over the past decade. The demand and pay for these nursing assignments hit unprecedented levels during the peak of COVID hospitalization rates in major metro areas. However, as the wages went up, nurses began to travel to these high-paying locations but were canceled in the middle of their contracts due to census decreasing once additional lockdowns were put in place. The most in-demand specialty for hospital gig workers so far during the pandemic is ICU nursing. Meanwhile, many other specialties, such as operating room nurses, saw a decrease in demand due to canceled elective procedures. So many furloughed nurses with previous experiences in other specialties took the plunge into the gig nursing world. While this may seem great from a gig adoption standpoint, the main reason for this was Pandemic Assistance did not provide much for lower-waged healthcare workers who made a higher income during their unemployment period.

As compared with the longer duration of typical gig roles at hospitals, smaller healthcare facilities in Long Term Care (LTC) have a greater demand for ‘per diem’ requests. My organization, IntelyCare, has seen demand from LTC facilities spike to new highs during this time. As for the per diem, healthcare facilities have required additional protection levels to service their patients safely, including limiting the number of workers allowed in a facility at once, further exacerbating the already established issue of understaffed facilities. Other precautions include frequent testing for COVID, administering symptom questionnaires, providing in-app COVID training, and practicing contact tracing.

The forecast for gig nursing after the pandemic remains strong, as many workers are finding that the new technology available to them makes gig nursing a better option than they thought. While some nursing professionals have left the field altogether, others are looking for options that give a better work-life balance. As a result, demand for flexible scheduling will continue to grow both in temporary staffing as well as internal float and on-call pools that facilities employ.

In the next ten years, I believe that the strongest growth opportunities in gig nursing lie with the management of the shared resource and float pools amongst local healthcare facilities as opposed to outside-of-facility temporary staffing. As the technology continues to advance, I believe there will be less travel demand and more efficient utilization of local resources, leading to decreased turnover and fewer understaffing situations due to callouts.

DN: Can gig nursing be less stressful than a full-time position in a unit? If so, could entering the gig market be an alternative to quitting or early retirement for the many frontline nurses suffering burnout?

CC: Gig nursing provides a flexible opportunity for nurses to choose the date, time, and facility that works for them. Whether a nurse is raising a young family, continuing their education, needing a break from their typical shift requirements, or all the above, gig nursing is a great alternative to leaving the field altogether. Personally, I’ve taken pride in showing up to a shift where I’m replacing a nurse who would otherwise have to stay for a mandatory overtime shift. I not only have met the requirements of my personal life, but felt great knowing that the nurse who I replaced got to go back to a family that needs and loves them. From experience I know that a lot of nurses continue to work many years after they planned retirement just by working 1-2 shifts per month. For these nurses, their work as caretakers is part of who they are. Gig work allows them to continue to do what they love without the stressful assignments and burdensome hours. So, gig nursing’s flexibility is a great solution as it allows these nurses a viable option to go into “semi-retirement.”