TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — Like so many nurses, Syeda Abbas struggled to balance home life and work. She's a full-time student, a mom, and her mother's caregiver.
"I was being called in constantly. I would walk out and they say hey, this one didn't come and you need to come back. It wasn't like they didn't care about your outside life," she said.
Syeda eventually decided to search for another job. That's when she found Gale Healthcare Solutions.
"It helps nurses like us. We don't want to do nine to five. We want to put our feet out there other facilities and fill in," she said.
Nurses can log on to the app or website and fill out an application. After approval, the app will allow a nurse to pick up a shift at any of the Gale Healthcare facilities.
"I love it. I'm able to go try out other facilities, the departments that didn't even know that I was able to go and experience. I always been long-term care bedside. So, I always wondered what this place would be like or that. I mean, you can't get the experience unless you get hired there. But with Gale, I was able to," she said.
Aaron Littles helped develop the app back in 2016. He's Gale's Chief Transformation Officer. The app was a success, but the pandemic proved just how important the model would be.
Florida Hospital Association and Safety Net Hospitals found Florida will face a shortage of more than 59,000 nurses by 2035.
"The pandemic highlighted how much the facility still needed additional staff. And we were well positioned to be able to grow and add more recruiters being able to onboard more nurses, which helped, I believe, helped our facility partners survive through the pandemic," he said.
The Tampa-based company has expanded into 40 states with 55,000 registered clinicians.
"We actually have data that shows that the average shift is picked up on Gale in about two minutes, which is fantastic, like 80% of our shifts. And so that gives that facility so much comfort," he added.
On top of the flexibility, nurses get same day pay and access to benefits through a W-2.
"A lot of nurses would be a little bit scared to get into something like this. But then, once they're in there, they don't want to leave. I'm one of them. I have not looked elsewhere for over two years," Abbas added.
Now the company is looking forward to growing and fine-tuning the way nurses connect with jobs.
"We actually have a large team on our technology side that is working with our clinicians for feedback, working with our facility partners for feedback to continue to refine and improve the platform. We're going to rebuild it," he said.
"We're going to be able to have AI and machine learning talking about, 'Well, if the nurse lives here, who's the closest nurse to the facility, who's the nurse that loves late call shifts, or which nurse wants three shifts in her schedule, and she's just one shift short?' So all these different algorithms to find the best nurse, the closest nurse, the fastest nurse, to be able to make this platform even smarter," Abbas explained.
If you're interested in getting involved with Gale, you can find more information here.
