How Gig Nurses Can Stay Safe

Demand for healthcare professionals is at an all-time high due to COVID-19, and this includes gig nurses. Unlike other industries that are shuttering or moving to remote interaction, the nursing profession is facing unprecedented demand. Nurses cannot self-quarantine; they are on the front lines providing care to patients in need day in and day out. Now that the world is in the throes of a pandemic, the question, unfortunately, isn’t if nursing professionals will get sick, but when. And when full-time staff numbers begin to dwindle due to sickness, quarantine, and lack of willingness to work, who will step into healthcare facilities and continue to provide much-needed care?

Gig Nurses Will be More in Demand than Ever
Before COVID-19, the healthcare industry was already facing a staffing crisis – the nursing shortage. The U.S. simply does not have the number of nurses necessary to meet the rising demand for direct care.
Fortunately, gig brands have emerged to help optimize the nursing workforce. Driven by smart matching technology and data science, gig work allows nurses to achieve a greater work-life balance. For healthcare facilities, it allows them to augment their own full-time staff, helping to reduce staff burnout and turnover. In times like these, where full-time nursing staff will inevitably burn out (or worse, become exposed to the virus), gig nurses will be integral to filling the gaps in care that facilities desperately have.
It’s worth noting that the gig economy in nursing, for all its merits, also comes with the alarming reality of extra touchpoints of care. Gig nurses that build their own schedule through staffing apps are likely moving from facility to facility, working varied shift times, and interfacing with more patients — which can increase the risk of exposure across multiple settings. If gig economy companies working in healthcare proceed without necessary caution, they have the potential to exacerbate the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fortunately, with some thoughtful planning and the application of technology, there are plenty of necessary steps gig economy companies can take to help facilities and their workforce avoid spreading COVID-19 in the healthcare staffing setting.
Educate Yourself and Stay Informed
Oftentimes, per-diem gig nurses don’t have time to walk through all of a facility’s protocols before their shift, so providing nurses with training that can be completed on their device prior to arriving at the facility is key to ensuring that the entire workforce is well-equipped to treat and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Also, as personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies start to run low, nurses should also be kept informed on best practices to mitigate their exposure, even without adequate PPE on hand. It’s essential that any education is continually updated with the latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and that nurses are retested when those updates go live.

Up-Front Symptom Screening
Facilities are concerned about who is coming into their facility, and nurses are concerned about who they are working with. To protect facilities, staff, and patients from unnecessary exposure to COVID-19, gig economy companies can implement an online symptoms questionnaire that workers can complete before shifts to confirm they are not experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19. If a nurse confirms they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, they can be removed from the shift without penalty. With the much-needed help of technology, gig brands can implement this screening mechanism in an efficient and effective way so that nursing professionals who are healthy can get back to work, and those that are sick can be removed from the network.
Keep Track of Exposure Updates
Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, it is safe to assume that facilities and/or staff will face exposure to the virus, which is why gig companies need to be proactive about their protocol. If a worker or facility reports exposure, technology can contact and alert the entire network of exposed facilities so that workers can take necessary precautions and quarantine themselves, if needed.

At this stage of the COVID-19 epidemic, whether a nurse works full-time at a facility, or works per-diem at multiple facilities, providing direct care in a healthcare setting presents a high-risk for exposure to the virus. The bottom line is that facilities, their staff, and their patients will need gig nurses to pick up the torch as this pandemic rages on, and gig nurses will need their employers to provide them with innovative solutions to ensure that they can keep themselves, and their patients, safe from COVID-19.
David Coppins is the cofounder and chief executive officer at IntelyCare, a nursing agency in Quincy, Massachusetts.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/85765