Keon Henton

Case study · Healthcare job board

WeAreCareReps

A healthcare job board connecting staffing agencies with caregivers and nurses, with job content managed in a self-hosted Directus CMS.

ReactNext.jsDirectusREST APIsAWS Lightsail
CareReps homepage for hiring certified New Jersey CHHAs and CNAs

Overview

WeAreCareReps is a healthcare job board designed to connect staffing agencies with caregivers and nurses. I built the frontend experience and integrated Directus as a headless CMS to manage structured job content independently of the user interface.

Role. Full-stack development and CMS integration

The problem

Healthcare staffing agencies need a way to publish job opportunities, while caregivers and nurses need a straightforward way to discover relevant positions.

Maintaining job listings directly in frontend code makes updates difficult and creates unnecessary dependencies between content changes and application releases.

The solution

I developed a job board powered by a CMS-backed API.

  • Job discovery

    Present job opportunities through a dedicated web interface.

  • CMS-managed content

    Store and manage job records using Directus collections.

  • API integration

    Retrieve structured content from the Directus REST API.

  • Frontend application

    Use React and Next.js to build the user-facing experience.

  • Self-hosted CMS

    Deploy Directus on AWS Lightsail.

Engineering

The application separates the frontend presentation layer from the CMS and its data-management responsibilities.

Content and presentation

  1. Job seekers and staffing agencies

    Hire and apply through the public site

  2. React / Next.js frontend

    Job listings and browsing experience

  3. Directus REST API

    Read and manage structured records through API permissions

  4. Directus CMS on AWS Lightsail

    Collections · Job content · Administration

Directus serves as the content layer, allowing job data to be updated without hardcoding each listing into the frontend. Hosting it on Lightsail also means the CMS has its own deployment and operational requirements.

Technical decision

Put job records in Directus, not in the Next.js repo.

Listings change independently of UI releases. I modeled jobs as Directus collections, had Next.js read them through the REST API, and hosted Directus on AWS Lightsail as its own service. Permissions on that API keep public reads separate from administrative writes, so the frontend never needs CMS admin capabilities.

Challenges

Decoupling content from the frontend

Job listings change independently of the UI. Using Directus collections and API-driven data retrieval made the content easier to maintain and reduced the need for frontend code changes when job records changed.

Integrating a self-hosted service

Running Directus on AWS Lightsail introduced infrastructure responsibilities alongside application development. The CMS needed to be deployed and configured as a separate service, with attention to connectivity, API access, and ongoing maintenance.

Maintaining a clear API boundary

The frontend needs access to published job information without unnecessarily exposing administrative capabilities. Directus permissions and the API access model are important parts of keeping content retrieval separate from privileged management operations.

Outcome

  • Built a healthcare-focused job board for caregivers, nurses, and staffing agencies.
  • Integrated a headless CMS for structured job content.
  • Separated content administration from frontend development.
  • Deployed a self-hosted Directus instance on AWS Lightsail.

Engineering takeaway

WeAreCareReps demonstrates full-stack product development, REST API integration, headless CMS architecture, and cloud-hosted service management.

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