ORCID
0000-0003-2232-4295
Date of Award
6-14-2024
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
Abstract
Why have so many nurses left formal waged employment for gig work? What promise do they see in such an arrangement, what precarity do they perceive, and what are the impacts on care? Uberized Care: Gig Nursing in U.S. Nursing Homes explores these questions, delving into the labor politics of gig care work both at the point of production and beyond. This project examines the organization, distribution, and ramifications of gig care work, employing archival research, real-time observations of gig platforms, fieldwork in nursing homes, and interviews with nurses, managers, and care recipients. It posits that nurses are turning to gig work as an act of self-preservation in response to the harms experienced in care work. By framing nurses’ transitions to gig work as a form of self-preservation, this project also brings to light the unequal distribution of resources within the U.S. capitalist healthcare system, where worker exploitation is not an anomaly but a fundamental element of the nursing home industry. Although individual acts of resistance, such as leaving and reapplying for nursing home jobs, have been longstanding, the introduction of gig care work marks a significant shift. This development, facilitated by the rise of platform technologies, the growth of the on-demand economy, the absence of legal regulations for gig employment, and the exacerbation of nursing shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has transformed these isolated acts into a collective movement. In this regard, gig nursing also reflects broader political, economic, social, and cultural configurations in response to changing understandings of work and care in 21st-century America. The significant influx of nurses turning into gig has transformed nursing home operations that, historically speaking, have relied on trapping care workers with socioeconomic constraints and thereby compelling them to work longer hours. The shift toward gig work disrupts the established system, affecting everyone involved. Nurses, whether gig or staff, along with care recipients, are now facing increased uncertainty due to the nature of gig work arrangements. As a reaction, even more nurses have turned to gigs, while those lacking alternatives have struggled to mitigate the precariousness of their situation, often with only minimal success. While several states have proposed regulating gig care work, this study argues that subjecting care workers and recipients to the same conditions they have previously endured is not a just solution. Instead, the focus should be on redistributing resources within the healthcare system to address the underlying causes of worker instability in the nursing home sector.
Language
English (en)
Chair and Committee
Rebecca Lester
Recommended Citation
Lien, Chia Yu, "Uberized Care: Gig Nursing in U.S. Nursing Homes" (2024). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3040.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/3040