The 2020s are starting to feel like the decade of the gig worker. The gig economy is booming. It has been for the past few years now, and it’s actually projected to be valued at $455 billion by 2023.
Gig work has been rapidly increasing across all industries — healthcare included. Nurses and CNAs across the country have been taking advantage of PRN work to supplement their income, whether they choose to work exclusively as PRN healthcare workers or take individual shifts on days off.
As more nurses and CNAs take on PRN shifts, however, it’s crucial for them to know their rights as gig workers. That’s what we’ll talk about in this post, so all PRN workers can understand their rights and how to protect them.
The Rights All Gig Workers Have
PRN nurses are gig workers, meaning they’re independent contractors, not employees. Even though you’re not an employee of the company you’re taking shifts from, you still have fundamental rights. Let’s take a look at each one.
The Right to Be Paid
If you’ve done the work, you have the right to be paid the agreed-upon amount within an agreed-upon time frame. This doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed the work you’ve signed up for; the facilities can send you home early, for example, or cancel the shift if they fill it internally.
They must, however, pay you for the time that you’ve worked. If you took the shift at an agreed-upon rate of $44 per hour and worked for six hours, you should get a check for $264 and nothing less.
In order to protect your right to payment, it can help to claim work through a qualified, trusted service like Nursa.
The Right to Choose Your Work
One defining aspect of being an independent contractor is that you get to choose your work. Want to only work for certain healthcare organizations or in certain positions? Maybe you exclusively want to work in long-term care facilities and absolutely refuse to work for a local children’s hospital. That’s absolutely your choice.
It may mean that you’re working slightly less often, but you can’t be forced to take a shift that you don’t want — and you won’t have to worry about having unemployment dangled over your head.
The Right to Control Your Schedule
One of the best parts about being a PRN worker is the ability to set your schedule for the shifts you take. Traditional employees may be forced (or at least pressured!) into taking shifts that don’t really work with their schedules. They may resent being asked to work weekends or have time off canceled but feel they need to grit their teeth and bear it.
This is not the case for PRN workers. You can request shifts that fit into your schedule. No one can pressure you into coming for a weekend or overnight shift you don’t want; there’s nothing for you to lose by saying no.
The freedom to control your own schedule is a massive benefit that should not be understated. It can be life-changing for many healthcare providers who want a shift in their work-life balance.
The Right to Correct Classification
When you sign up for PRN shifts, you’re signing up as an independent contractor. You have the right to correct classification. That’s it.
The healthcare organization you’re working for — or any staffing agency connecting you to those healthcare organizations — cannot claim you as an employee without your agreement. For those who wish to work as independent contractors exclusively, this is an important right to have.
The Rights That Aren’t Guaranteed for Gig Workers
When you’re signing up to be an independent contractor — which is what PRN work is at its core — there are certain rights and benefits you won’t have.
You won’t have the following benefits as a gig worker:
- Paid leave or vacation time
- Health insurance
- Retirement benefits, aside from Social Security
- Access to unemployment benefits, depending on your home location and a few other factors
In some cases, you may not have as many legal protections against discrimination or harassment. Furthermore, there’s also no protection for hours; you can claim shifts as they’re available, but they could be cut last minute.
While these rights are not insignificant, many gig workers in and out of the healthcare industry feel that the benefits they do get — which include more flexibility, higher pay, and greater control over their own lives — are worth the loss of some traditional work benefits.
And keep in mind that many nurses will work full-time or part-time in staff positions while working PRN shifts on their days off for extra income, giving them access to some of the other benefits they wouldn’t get as PRN workers.
How to Protect Your Rights as a Gig Worker
In order to protect all of your rights when working as a PRN nurse, keep the following in mind:
- Find shifts through a reputable healthcare staffing agency or healthcare staffing app like Nursa.
- Only work once a contract has been signed, and make sure you read the contracts in their entirety — you can skip this headache by picking up shifts through Nursa.
- If there’s a clause in the independent contractor contract that you do not like, you can ask for it to be removed; in many cases, healthcare organizations may not be willing to alter a contract, but you can decide at that point what you’d like to do.
- Work with a lawyer if your rights have been violated, including if the client hasn’t paid you.
Final Thoughts
Your core rights as an independent contractor are invaluable. They allow you to control your schedule, your shifts, and how much you’re getting paid.
Making these choices for themselves gives nurses more flexibility and control over their day-to-day lives and finances. This is why so many full-time or part-time nurses will work PRN shifts on some of their days off: They get a change of pace at a new organization, higher rates of pay, and full control over when to work.
Interested in getting started with PRN work as a nurse or CNA? See how Nursa works here.
