Discussions

So here’s the deal. I’m in my third year of nursing school, and between hospital rotations, part-time gigs, and trying to stay semi-sane, my group chat was just... carnage. Like, we’d be scrambling every Sunday night trying to figure out who was working where, what time, and wait, did Sarah switch with me or not?? It was chaos.

Someone suggested a shared Google Sheet, but yeah ever tried updating that on a cracked iPhone while running on 3 hours of sleep? Nah. We needed something easier.

So... we built our own app. It started super simple just something that would let us enter our availability and automatically suggest a schedule. Honestly, Connecteam’s structure helped us a lot when we were thinking through how roles, permissions, and notifications should work. Like, even though we're just students, the core problem managing a team of people who are never in one place is the same.

The tech part? Mostly Firebase + React Native. None of us are pro devs, but we hacked it together with a lot of Googling and YouTube tutorials. (And maybe one minor meltdown involving an infinite loop that deleted our test data. RIP.)

But get this it worked. Not like app-store-polished or anything, but it did what we needed. The auto-scheduling saved us SO much time and eliminated all that “wait, who’s on tomorrow?” nonsense. Even added push notifications when shifts changed.

It made me realize how valuable simple tools are when you’re constantly on the move. Whether you’re figuring out how to become a nurse or managing a team of EMTs or warehouse workers, mobile-first solutions are a lifesaver. No one has time to scroll through email threads when they’re halfway through a 12-hour shift.

Anyway, the app’s still janky, but it’s ours. Might clean it up and actually offer it to other student groups. Or not. Depends on how finals go