One of Medely’s core strengths is the firsthand experience our team has in the healthcare industry. Many of our team members, including Medely co-founder and chief nursing officer, Angie Nasr, have had an up-close look at the inefficiencies of healthcare staffing and the need for quality nurses and health professionals to bridge gaps at a moment’s notice.
We sat down with Angie to learn more about how her time as a NICU nurse and director of nursing inspired her to create a better solution for filling staffing gaps while providing healthcare facilities and professionals much-needed flexibility.
Angie’s nursing journey
From a young age, Angie knew that she wanted to be a nurse. “I was six years old when my sister was born, and I vividly remember the first time I saw a nursery at the hospital. I was just in awe of all the tiny newborns. That moment really stuck with me, and I knew from that point on that I wanted to work with babies,” Angie shared. “As I started my nursing career, I found myself in the NICU where I could be right there with the babies, and it just felt like a natural fit.”
After dedicating several years to being a NICU nurse, she made the difficult decision to transfer out of the NICU to find more consistent daytime hours at an outpatient surgery center. As she transitioned into that role, she quickly got promoted to director of nursing to help secure her facility’s accreditation from the AAAHC.
As she moved in and out of DON positions at various facilities, she was continually met with staffing challenges that needed to be solved quickly. “Everywhere I went, I was working in the ORs but also doing administrative duties. Part of the administrative duties was to staff the ORs. At that time, some of these doctors didn’t perform surgery every single day of the week,” Angie shared. “Because of that, they didn’t have full-time staff for the OR, and we relied on contingent labor and per diem nurses and surgical techs.”
Due to a fluctuating schedule and a lack of full-time staff, Angie relied on outsourcing staffing and utilizing her network to find appropriate coverage, which was often met with complications due to tedious manual processes. “The way we did it back then was flipping through a Rolodex or contacts in your phone, or asking friends of friends if they knew any nurses that could work that day. You can imagine how time-consuming that got. This wasn’t just once a month. It was every surgical day essentially.”
After sharing her frustrations with the system with Waleed Nasr, Medely chief executive officer and co-founder, they set out to create a more intuitive, tech-based staffing solution.
Starting Medely
Founded in 2015, Medely has been filling gaps in the healthcare system with flexible, reliable coverage, allowing both healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to partner together to solve the staffing shortage. When creating Medely, it was important for Angie to tackle healthcare staffing from both a nurse and health professional perspective, as well as a facility perspective.
Pulling from her own experience as a nurse searching for more flexible hours, Angie set out to create a platform that allowed nurses and health professionals the ability to choose their own hours. “Clinicians are looking for more control over their schedules,” Angie shared. “When we offer flexibility, whether it’s fewer hours, more control over scheduling, or even the ability to work around personal commitments. It allows nurses to stay in the workforce,” Angie shared. “When we can make space for different lifestyles and different stages of life, we keep experienced, passionate pros engaged in the system, and that’s how we strengthen the entire healthcare ecosystem.”
With her experience as a DON, she set up a more modern, straightforward way to post a request to a large network of local healthcare professionals to ensure quick coverage. “Facilities are prioritizing efficiency and adaptability more than ever,” Angie shared. “That’s where Medely’s platform is uniquely positioned to meet those needs. We’ve continued to evolve with the industry to stay ahead of what healthcare pros and organizations are looking for.”
“Being co-founded by a nurse gives Medely a unique and authentic understanding of the real challenges that healthcare pros face. It really just brings a nurse-centered and a human-centered perspective to everything we do, from how we design our platform to how we approach problem-solving for both the clinicians and healthcare facilities. I’d say that firsthand experience drives our vision. Not just filling shifts but genuinely improving the way healthcare staffing works. It’s really about creating flexibility and efficiency, ultimately allowing for better patient care because we understand what’s at stake.”
Medely’s future
As Angie works to make Medely even stronger, she’s proud to be a woman-owned company making strides in addressing critical staffing shortages in the healthcare industry. As a leader, she’s committed to showcasing empathy, drive, and passion in her role, passing along some of her wisdom and findings to her own daughters. “I am so proud to be part of a woman-founded company. For me, it’s a reflection of values-driven, empathetic leadership. I think the world needs more of that. Now, being a mom to two daughters, it hits even closer to home,” Angie shared. “What I hope they take home from watching my journey is that leadership is not about having all the answers. It’s about having a clear vision and bringing people along with you. I want them to know they can build something meaningful if they stay grounded in their values, and they can and should trust their instincts and lead with purpose. That’s the example I try to set every day.”
With Medely’s 10th anniversary this year, Angie reflected on how much Medely has expanded and expressed excitement over what the next 10 years will bring. “It’s not just the size, but the sheer impact we’ve made. From the early days of building the platform to seeing how it’s helping both healthcare pros and facilities in real time, it’s been so rewarding to reflect on. We’ve stayed flexible. We’ve evolved. We’ve never stopped listening to what the industry needs,” Angie shared. “For the next ten years, I think we’re just getting started. There’s so much room for innovation, especially in how we make healthcare staffing more efficient and sustainable. I’d love to see Medely play a real role in closing that provider gap in the U.S. At the end of the day, better staffing means better patient care, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Watch Angie’s full interview here
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