Staffing is and continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing the healthcare field today.
Many discussions have been had about identifying the root issue and steps that need to be taken to fill the void exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic. But what about in the short term? The need is very real today and bringing in new members of the workforce can take years. Below, Nursa’s CEO Curtis Anderson shares why he believes their technology introduces a solution that meets both immediate and long-term needs, benefiting both employees and hiring managers alike.
- What is Nursa and what got you into clinical staffing?
Nursa is a two-way marketplace platform, connecting facilities in need of per diem staff with qualified, local healthcare professionals. The challenge of predicting and filling a short term need is not an easy one. The difficulties compound on historically expensive, inefficient, and nontransparent solutions riddled with slow moving middlemen who offer little support.
I’m a technologist, and after interacting with travel agencies and MSPs myself, I’m committed to delivering a better way. Nursa is not an agency - no contracts or minimums required. Our facility partners only pay for the shifts that are filled. Last year, more than two million patients received care from a qualified clinician through Nursa. Over 55 percent of the shifts posted on Nursa were filled and had a nurse on-site in less than 24 hours. Our platform is just that - a platform.
- How does Nursa impact the healthcare industry?
Put simply - Nursa helps deliver a nurse where there may not have been one otherwise, alleviating short-staffed units and decreasing the likelihood of poor patient outcomes and staff burnout.
A recent example happened right before Christmas 2022 when late sick calls and surprise admits left a med surg floor short an hour into the shift. The nursing manager posted on Nursa and had six qualified, experienced med surg nurses request within minutes. Three nurses were scheduled and on the unit before noon. No compromising patient care standards on the unit, and no staff member was asked to overextend themselves to cover.
We’re delivering a consistent experience for care teams to succeed in a world where nursing shortages seem to be an inescapable certainty. The flexibility of Nursa benefits clinicians who are thinking differently about work as well.
Take Gayle, a nurse who suffered from PTSD after working in the respiratory ICU throughout COVID so she took a full-time role in outpatient and maintains her skills by picking up ICU shifts on the Nursa app.
The social contract of “work” is evolving. Nurses are looking for innovative ways to balance their mental and physical health while providing for their families and remaining engaged in-patient care.
- Nursa utilizes a 1099 model for clinician users - why did you decide to go that route?
Patient census changes quickly - effective scheduling is a dynamic and complex puzzle. A 1099 product-based offering provides the flexibility required to act in real time. It’s very challenging for a service-based W2 agency team to consistently deliver in those circumstances, even with tech enablement.
The right 1099 approach - the one we are building every day at Nursa - is cheaper than agency and overtime, improves manager morale and alleviates your employees from the burnout of short staffed “extra shifts”. You can choose to work with specific clinicians again and again to promote continuity of care or even hire them full-time without fees. We want to match the right people to the right opportunities as fast as possible, every time.
- How can you ensure the quality of the clinician on the platform and is this a sustainable solution?
Patient Safety is always the number one priority. Health system partners create the compliance list applied to a shift, unit, or facility, transparently matching profiles of the ideal clinician. This means instant organization of credentials and skills assessments, eliminating the hefty packets of materials passed on from traditional agencies. A built-in rating system also indicates a measure of quality based on previous experiences with that clinician.
Facilities regularly reach out with positive anecdotal references to clinicians’ skills and bedside manner. We've even had managers recognize Nursa users as their “employee of the month.” The solution is real, the potential is massive, and the future is bright.
Jill is a CNA that uses Nursa and a single mother of 6 children. She takes pride in the quality of care she provides and considers it her calling, stating, “Someone needs me out there. Making a difference in someone else’s life…it’s like a magnet that keeps calling me back.”
It’s a sustainable solution because it is elastic and efficient - building a better experience for both clinicians and facilities in healthcare delivery is our focus.
The reality is that flexible labor is a portion of how Americans are redefining “work”, and we expect that sentiment will continue growing. With the existing nursing shortage and more considering leaving the profession, it’s essential that we work together to create valid reasons for nurses to stay near the bedside. No one impacts the journey of recovery more.
