📣 Book Launch | Job Quality in a Turbulent Era A timely, critical re-examination of what constitutes a “good job” today 📅 20 May 2026, 5–7 PM 📍 Strand Campus, KCL With presentations from contributing authors + Q&A. Organised by @fundaustek.bsky.social 🎟️ www.tickettailor.com/events/digit...

Select tickets – Book Launch: Job Quality in a Turbulent Era – Embankment Room, Macadam Building, Strand Campus, King’s College London

Book Launch: Job Quality in a Turbulent Era – Embankment Room, Macadam Building, Strand Campus, King’s College London, Wed 20 May 2026 - You are warmly invited to the launch of a timely new edited boo...

tickettailor.com

Sharing an update to the Uber for Nursing report from @katiejwells.bsky.social, @fundaustek.bsky.social and Maya Pinto at @ainowinstitute.bsky.social on platforms’ active efforts to shape policy and regulation at the state level. 🧵

Uber For Nursing Part II - AI Now Institute

A seismic shift is rocking the healthcare industry. Uber’s business model—the “gigification” of labor—and lobbying practices have made their way to healthcare staffing.

ainowinstitute.org

Read “Uber for Nursing Part II: How Gig Nursing Platforms Are Lobbying States to Deregulate Healthcare” by @katiejwells.bsky.social, Maya Pinto, and @fundaustek.bsky.social: ainowinstitute.org/publications/uber-for-nursing

Uber For Nursing Part II - AI Now Institute

A seismic shift is rocking the healthcare industry. Uber’s business model—the “gigification” of labor—and lobbying practices have made their way to healthcare staffing.

ainowinstitute.org

NEW REPORT: “Uber For Nursing Part II” uncovers a nationwide campaign — backed by huge sums of venture capital and private-equity funds — to limit public oversight of healthcare facilities, weaken labor protections, and expose patients to new risks: ainowinstitute.org/publications/uber-for-nursing

Funded PhD Project 2: "Work, Employment and Robots: Investigating Working Conditions in the Supply Chain of Robotics", with Funda Ustek Spilda @fundaustek.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Work, Employment and Robots: Investigating Working Conditions in the Supply Chain of Robotics at King’s College London on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Work, Employment and Robots: Investigating Working Conditions in the Supply Chain of Robotics at King’s College London, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

Thanks so much for including our @rooseveltinstitute.org work on gig nursing. A fav project w/ the brilliant @fundaustek.bsky.social.

Tom Whitwell@tomwhitwell.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I just published 52 things I learned in 2025 medium.com/@tomwhitwell...

Today, @katiejwells.bsky.social and @fundaustek.bsky.social explain how new Uber-style firms like CareRev and Clipboard Health are facilitating a race to the bottom among healthcare workers, and contributing to the erosion of America’s already-strained health care system.

Nursing on Demand: The Gig Economy Comes for Health Care

New Uber-style firms like CareRev and Clipboard Health use algorithmic scheduling, staffing, and management technologies to match understaffed medical facilities with nearby nurses and nursing…

lpeproject.org

In 2013, @timmaughan.bsky.social published a short story of dystopian fiction about Nicki, a 19-year-old zero-hour contract worker. Today, it reads as a plausible description of the working world of American nurses. My latest for @lpeproject.bsky.social. lpeproject.org/blog/nursing...

Nursing on Demand: The Gig Economy Comes for Health Care

New Uber-style firms like CareRev and Clipboard Health use algorithmic scheduling, staffing, and management technologies to match understaffed medical facilities with nearby nurses and nursing…

lpeproject.org

Great piece today by Katie J. Wells and Funda Ustek Spilda on the gig economy in nursing and algorithmic wage discrimination for health care providers, including discrimination based on workers’ credit information. lpeproject.org/blog/nursing...

Nursing on Demand: The Gig Economy Comes for Health Care

New Uber-style firms like CareRev and Clipboard Health use algorithmic scheduling, staffing, and management technologies to match understaffed medical facilities with nearby nurses and nursing…

lpeproject.org

New paper! Latest work from @geoplace.bsky.social @oii.ox.ac.uk exploring the strategic unknowns embedded in the business models of digital care work platforms, published in Critical Sociology. Co-authors @fundaustek.bsky.social and Dr Alessio Bertolini. Read the full paper here: bit.ly/3F4WAJW

The Strategic Unknowns of Business Models of Digital Care Work Platforms - Funda Ustek Spilda, Alessio Bertolini, Adam Badger, Oguz Alyanak, Mark Graham, 2025

Informed by the scholarship of strategic ignorance (agnotology), this study presents a critical analysis of digital care work platforms and their business model...

bit.ly

Silicon Valley's plan to Uberize nursing only worsens our healthcare crisis, we argue. New piece from @fundaustek.bsky.social and myself w/ the support of @geoplace.bsky.social and @veenadubal.bsky.social. www.statnews.com/2025/03/31/u...

Uber for nursing is here — and it’s not good for patients or nurses

“I just feel like I am on an island by myself a lot”: How gig working leaves nurses less equipped to care for patients.

statnews.com

Join us March 5 in DC to discuss what happens when nurses use AI to bid against each other for shifts. @veenadubal.bsky.social @daveyseligman.bsky.social @geoplace.bsky.social @fundaustek.bsky.social & @chenjerai.bsky.social will guide us through the new tech wilderness. Register: lnkd.in/eCsiWVye

Since 2016, US hospitals have been relying on "gig" nurses. @katiejwells.bsky.social & @fundaustek.bsky.social interviewed 29 "gig" nurses & nursing assistants, revealing how on-demand staffing services intensify existing challenges in the healthcare industry. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

"It sucks that there's nobody that you can get ahold of immediately," a nurse told me. "It's really as if AI has eaten the managers," I explained to @businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com/uber-for-nur...

Nursing has become a new frontier for gig work, and it's creating the same issues that Uber drivers face

Nurses have started to use gig work apps to land shifts at healthcare facilities, a report found. Many are facing similar issues to Uber drivers.

businessinsider.com

Research by @katiejwells.bsky.social and @fundaustek.bsky.social details how these platforms prioritize cost-cutting over worker and patient safety. www.commondreams.org/news/gig-wor...

New Report Sheds Light on the Pitfalls of AI-Powered 'Gig Nursing' | Common Dreams

"These apps are a symptom of broken healthcare infrastructure that is now victim to corporate takeovers. Failing to act on both fronts poses risks to our healthcare system and the workers who power it...

commondreams.org

This makes me think about the time we got a Lyft driver who literally fell asleep at a stoplight

Hannah Groch-Begley@grouchybagels.bsky.social · 2y ago

This piece made me furious. Nurses are asked to *bid* on shifts, offering to work lower and lower wages, and then the app can fail and not pay them at all. We don't have a nursing shortage, we have a shortage of good jobs sane humans are willing to work. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Once again, the reason AI is facing a backlash isn’t because people are anti-tech, it’s because this is what AI *actually does* in the world — make services worse and people’s livelihoods more precarious

Hannah Groch-Begley@grouchybagels.bsky.social · 2y ago

This piece made me furious. Nurses are asked to *bid* on shifts, offering to work lower and lower wages, and then the app can fail and not pay them at all. We don't have a nursing shortage, we have a shortage of good jobs sane humans are willing to work. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

We quote @gabrielwinant.bsky.social: “Health care is run increasingly on a ‘lean’ basis, at the bare minimum of staffing, & then when there is a need to increase supply firms like CareRev are positioned to profit; it’s good for them & good for hospitals but bad for workers & bad for patients.”

Hannah Groch-Begley@grouchybagels.bsky.social · 2y ago

This piece made me furious. Nurses are asked to *bid* on shifts, offering to work lower and lower wages, and then the app can fail and not pay them at all. We don't have a nursing shortage, we have a shortage of good jobs sane humans are willing to work. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Pair this with @allisonpugh.bsky.social ’s excellent book on the devaluation of connective labor press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

The Last Human Job

A timely and urgent argument for preserving the work that connects us in the age of automation

press.princeton.edu

Hannah Groch-Begley@grouchybagels.bsky.social · 2y ago

This piece made me furious. Nurses are asked to *bid* on shifts, offering to work lower and lower wages, and then the app can fail and not pay them at all. We don't have a nursing shortage, we have a shortage of good jobs sane humans are willing to work. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Not only is this greedy & insulting, it’s *terrible* for patients & workflow. My husband is an RN & you can’t believe how many mistakes happen bc of travel nurses who don’t know the hospital—& they stay for months. Now imagine what happens when you get nurses the way car washes pick up day workers.

Hannah Groch-Begley@grouchybagels.bsky.social · 2y ago

This piece made me furious. Nurses are asked to *bid* on shifts, offering to work lower and lower wages, and then the app can fail and not pay them at all. We don't have a nursing shortage, we have a shortage of good jobs sane humans are willing to work. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

A new @rooseveltinstitute.bsky.social report by @katiejwells.bsky.social and @fundaustek.bsky.social reveals how the AI-powered gig model has its tentacles in the healthcare industry, and how it is creating new hazards for workers and patients. www.commondreams.org/news/gig-wor...

New Report Sheds Light on the Pitfalls of AI-Powered 'Gig Nursing' | Common Dreams

"These apps are a symptom of broken healthcare infrastructure that is now victim to corporate takeovers. Failing to act on both fronts poses risks to our healthcare system and the workers who power it...

commondreams.org

Here is a coverage of our recent article by @levernews.com @rooseveltinstitute.bsky.social @katiejwells.bsky.social @towardsfairwork.bsky.social

The Lever@levernews.com · 2y ago

🚨NEW: As if the health care system isn’t broken enough, Big Tech and Wall Street are now trying to Uber-ify nursing. Gig on-demand nursing apps have made investors a small fortune — all while screwing over workers and patients 👇 www.levernews.com/the-dangerou...

"These on-demand nursing apps can create high-risk, low-reward working conditions that endanger medical professionals and patients alike." If we have learned anything from Uber, it’s time to rein in the on-demand nursing services. @levernews.com www.levernews.com/the-dangero...

The Dangerous Lie Behind On-Demand Nursing

“Uber for nurses” is extracting profits and hurting health care, all to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

levernews.com

The @guardian covering the important new paper on gig nursing in the US by #Fairwork US PI @katiejwells.bsky.social and #Fairwork Senior Researcher @fundaustek.bsky.social 👇 @rooseveltinstitute.bsky.social @groundwork.bsky.social amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

We write: “Wall Street’s takeover of US health-care infrastructure and Silicon Valley’s introduction of gig nursing apps are a dangerous duo that is eroding our health-care system and eviscerating our ability to take care of each other.”

More Perfect Union@moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 2y ago

A new @rooseveltinstitute.bsky.social report is sounding the alarm on “Uber for nursing.” Hospitals are using gig apps for nursing, with some nurses paying to bid on shifts and offering to work for less to win those bids. The full extent of this 'gig nursing' is unknown.

Gig nursing apps don’t “fix” health care—they exploit workers and put patients at risk. Lower wages. Zero training. No accountability. Groundwork’s @katiejwells.bsky.social: “We have a problem with care. We don’t pay it well enough.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

NEW📃: Since 2016, US hospitals have integrated "gig" nurses. @katiejwells.bsky.social & @fundaustek.bsky.social interviewed 29 "gig" nurses & nursing assistants. They find that on-demand nursing firms exacerbate existing issues in the health-care industry. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Really pleased to share that @katiejwells.bsky.social and I have a new report out published by the @rooseveltinstitute.bsky.social. As part of @towardsfairwork.bsky.social we have been studying nursing platforms, and this brief presents our insights into this new domain of platformisation in the US.

Uber for Nursing: How an AI-Powered Gig Model Is Threatening Health Care - Roosevelt Institute

Through original interviews with 29 “gig” nurses and nursing assistants, Katie J. Wells and Funda Ustek Spilda find that on-demand nursing companies encourage nurses to work for less pay, fail to prov...

rooseveltinstitute.org

Fairwork@towardsfairwork.bsky.social · 2y ago

👨‍⚕️New @rooseveltinstitute.bsky.social report by @katiejwells.bsky.social & @fundaustek.bsky.social reveals how gig nursing apps in the US exploit workers & endanger patients & the many threats an Uber-style approach to nursing poses to healthcare: https://buff.ly/4fhEtg1 @groundwork.bsky.social