- Gig work is expanding to new professional areas such as nursing.
- One nurse said she uses gig work to make extra money and pay down debt.
- But the app points to a broader issue in her field, she said.
Sarah has a full-time nursing job during the day. A few evenings each week, however, she picks up shifts at other hospitals through an app called CareRev to make extra money.
Usually, the shifts are at night and within a little over an hour of her home in Wisconsin. Her husband stays home as their infant son sleeps, she told Business Insider.
"It's a way to supplement my income and pay down my debt so that when he is older, I can be present more," Sarah said of her son.
Sarah is among the nurses who have turned to the gig economy over the last few years. Instead of delivering food or driving people to dates, though, the app that she uses allows her to work at nearby medical facilities. She asked that BI not publish her full name for fear of retaliation from CareRev. BI has verified her work for the app.
Sarah previously worked as a travel nurse, so the idea of working at a hospital temporarily wasn't new to her. Many travel nurses are treated like regular employees for tax purposes and can make more — double, in some cases — what those with traditional positions make. Their contracts at one facility can last from a few weeks to several months. Meanwhile, nurses who use apps like CareRe usually pick up one shift at a time based on a hospital's needs. The apps function similarly to rideshare apps like Uber or delivery gig applikeas DoorDash.
Sarah has been taking shifts through CareRev for about two years, she told BI. She learned about the app while on a travel contract. It seemed like a good opportunity, she said. "I was always used to having two and three jobs to make ends meet."
Sarah earns between $70 and $80 an hour for shifts on CareRev. Those rates can surge to over $100 an hour if a nurse calls in sick at the last minute and the hospital needs to fill the shift with just a few hours of notice, she said.
She estimates that her earnings through CareRev are about twice as much as they would be if she worked those shifts through a similar full-time nursing job, she said.
She said she also appreciates not having to work extra hours or attend meetings that typically come with a full-time nursing job. Many full-time nurses that she knows pick up additional shifts without additional pay, Sarah said. "You're being told in order to keep your job, you have to work 48 hours a week when you only wanted to work 36," she said.
Since COVID, many hospitals have struggled to retain nurses. A 2021 survey, taken one year after the pandemic began in the US, showed that many nurses were struggling with working extra hours and mental health, among other issues. Many were even considering leaving the profession.
That turnover has created an opportunity for apps like CareRev, Sarah told BI. "There's just never enough staff in the hospital," she said. "It got worse after COVID."
Sarah also sees some potential shortcomings of apps like CareRev.
CareRev requires nurses with a specialty to have at least one year of experience in that area to take shifts, according to its website. That means that recent graduates with relatively little experience could use the apps, Sarah said.
"I don't think I would've went into travel nursing with one year of experience and been successful," Sarah said.
While the pay rates tend to be better on the apps than at a staff job, nurses also have to pay more of their costs out-of-pocket, including state licensing fees and certifications for areas of specialty such as pediatric care or working in an emergency room.
As independent contractors, nurses working on the apps also pay taxes out of their own pockets each year.
"I'm responsible for paying all of my licenses and all of my education," Sarah said. "When you're a staff nurse, those are things that are taken care of for you."
"I don't know that people take all of that into consideration when getting into this," she said of working nursing shifts through the gig apps.
CareRev did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
Are you a nurse who works as an independent contractor and has a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com