San Diego Business Journal: ‘Uber of Nursing’ Tackles Staffing Shortages

With its headquarters in Sorrento Valley, privately held Aya Healthcare developed the Shifts app to support nurses with finding work opportunities at the facilities they want, when they want. The company operates the nation’s largest digital platform for flexible work by connecting employers with a healthcare talent pool that’s filled with full-time, part-time and gig workers.

“With just a swipe, clinicians are able to choose when and where they want to work,” said Aya Healthcare’s EVP of Client Fulfillment and Strategy Teams Sophia Morris. “Similar to Uber, they can turn the app on and off, and have complete control over their schedules.”

In the last year, Aya Healthcare reports that it saw a 54% increase in the number of gig  shifts  filled by nurses, along with a 62% gain in the total number of available  shifts  across the country.

Local Nurse Practitioner Chantal Chambers is taking full advantage of the opportunities. “I was working at a local hospital in San Diego when Covid began,” she wrote to The Business Journal. “My hospital was hit hard, and fellow nurses and staff were leaving faster than they were arriving. We had to implement  crisis staffing ratios on many occasions and I saw more deaths in a 6-month span than I did in the previous years combined. The stress of COVID while being a mom, wife, and Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) student was a lot to handle.”

Flexibility is key for Chambers. “I am a mom and wife first and can decide when I’d like to pick up shifts at my convenience. I can plan my work schedule around my life instead of the other way around.” The only occasional downside she comes across is not knowing which exact unit she’ll be assigned to until about two hours before she shifts. Sometimes, too, the shifts can be canceled, she said.

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