"Transforming the Nursing Profession"

Nursing is one of the most rewarding, yet challenging, professions in health care. During a 12-hour shift, nurses may take on a demanding workload due to staffing shortages; endure workplace stress; risk exposure to infection, and still lose patients despite all their professional experience. These challenges were especially prevalent during the height of COVID-19. During the pandemic, a survey of health care workers, including nurses, reported that 93% felt stressed, 82% experienced emotional exhaustion, and 75% felt overwhelmed. Furthermore, more than 30% of nurses who left the profession cited burnout — mental and emotional exhaustion — as the cause.

Rebecca Love saw these challenges and wanted to address them by putting nurses first. Rebecca is the Chief Clinical Officer of IntelyCare Inc., a firm that offers a leading tech-enabled nurse staffing platform for healthcare organizations in the United States Through its AI-based platform, IntelyCare schedules and matches nursing professionals with open assignments at 1,600+ organizations across the country. In doing so, the company provides nurses and nursing assistants with unprecedented flexibility in their work lives while at the same time empowering healthcare organizations to take control of how they manage full-time, part-time, and per diem nursing staff.

IntelyCare is revolutionizing the future of work for the nursing workforce with its app and platform. While the healthcare industry is slowly changing with the times, it’s hard to move quickly. However, there is no turning back. The pandemic has pushed every workplace to change, and the nursing workforce wants to work differently. Rebecca believes that her fellow nurses are striving to work smarter and better without sacrificing themselves "for the profession that we love, and that we must do everything we can to afford this to nurses." With Rebecca leading the charge to put nurses first, IntelyCare as a partner is building trust with nurses and empowering them to have control of their work their lives in a field that they love.

Rebecca spends a lot of time supporting women on their nursing career path. She is always looking for ways to mentor and coach nurses looking to start their businesses or revolutionize the nursing industry. She started the Nurse Hack program with Johnson & Johnson, the first nurse-specific hackathon. She also sits on multiple boards and volunteers as a mentor for underprivileged youth looking to move their career paths forward.

Rebecca strongly encourages interdepartmental growth and pushes people onto more prominent roles. Everyone on her team is encouraged to develop their brands, build their credentials, write thought leadership pieces, attend and speak at conferences, and put themselves out there. She wants what is best for her team, and if that means taking the skills they learn from her and applying them to the step in their careers, she will be happy. And while career trajectory is important, she believes it is equally important to seek work-life balance. If her colleagues value their external lives, she believes you’ll see them thrive in the office.

For Rebecca, the biggest achievement for IntelyCare to date is its latest funding round. “It’s a testament to the fact that the founders here had a strong vision and stuck with it, no matter what. That hard work resulted in a $115 million series C investment and a valuation of $1.1 billion, giving IntelyCare official unicorn status,” says Rebecca. One of IntelyCare’s long-term goals is to be available in all 50 states. "There is no clear leader in the Long-Term Care space and we want to take that mantle. We strive to be the partner nurses go to in this industry," says Rebecca. It’s important to remember that the greatest generation, and one of the largest generations by population, is aging and will need care. "On top of that the average age of our nursing population is 50 years and older. The need for healthcare and for nursing professionals will not diminish and we need to make sure that there is a workforce going forward. People deserve to be taken care of."

IntelyCare is doubling down on expansion across the US and its technology offerings to work better for nurses and healthcare facilities. “We are also starting to lean into the continuing education space so that there is a trusted resource for people looking to advance in their careers,” adds Rebecca. WL