Professional Constraints and Precarious Autonomies: How Gender and Race Shape Gig Health Care Worker Experiences

• In Event: 50220 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 19: Medical Work

Abstract

Healthcare is undergoing significant changes impacting hospitals, healthcare workers (HCWs), and patients. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated and exposed existing problems within healthcare, such as staff shortages and disparities in healthcare access. The experiences of health workers have the potential to significantly impact health outcomes within the United States, as health provider burnout has been associated with poorer patient care quality and patient safety (Hodkinson et al., 2022; Li et al., 2024) and one in four nurses say they plan to exit health work (Suran, 2023).
Focusing on health care workers as a case study, this article extends previous research on precarious gig work, suggesting that the gendered and racial nature of service work extends beyond those struggling to make ends meet, reaching middle-class, educated populations (Ravenelle, 2019). The precarity of gig work extends beyond drivers and deliverers, to well-educated service workers, such as health care providers (Naghieh, 2020; Wells & Ustek Spilda, 2024). This case study of gig health care providers as an educated population experiencing the gigification of labor expands the literature on the rise of the gig economy. This study asks how health care workers navigate the constraints of traditional employment with the precarious autonomy offered by gig work, and how gender and race affect the decision processes?

Authors

• Rebecca Mosier, University of Oklahoma

• Stephanie Woodham Burge, University of Oklahoma