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Many nurses find that they experience burnout in the profession and want to create an opportunity to work for themselves without the stress and wear-and-tear that they get from working in the hospital setting. Most importantly though, they want more flexibility and control of their work. Here are 3 flexible nurse entrepreneur business ideas to get you thinking about your next nursing opportunity. After all, a nursing practice can take many forms.
What will yours be?
1. Nurse Health Coach
Nurse health coaches have the ability to actualize their patient’s health care goals outside of the hospital setting by helping them develop the healthiest version of themselves. By teaching patients how to take optimal care of themselves, the nurse health coach empowers them for life.
Nurse health coaches work with patients to provide guidance and resources to assist their patients in living a more healthy and balanced lifestyle. In terms of nursing experience, nurse health coaches generally have many years of direct patient care in the hospital setting and have the desire to have a more immediate and positive health impact on their patient’s lives.
Many nurse health coaches are entrepreneurs who work in private practice, although some hospitals and doctor’s offices hire nurse health coaches as well. According to some surveys, nurse coaches can earn similar or even more income than they do working in hospitals.
Nurse health coaches help their patients by working with them in the following ways:
- Understanding patient’s unique health care dynamics
- Assessing patients’ readiness for change
- Identifying client opportunities and issues for improved health
- Identifying and setting goals to achieve optimal health
- Encouraging and empowering patients to reach their goals
Perks to becoming a nurse health coach:
Nurse health coaches generally have more autonomy in this role than they do in other nursing careers. While nurse health coaches must work very hard to be successful, the career offers flexibility with setting one’s own schedule, work atmosphere, and patients.
2. Legal Nurse Consultant
A legal nurse consultant (LNC) is an RN expert for legal cases involving medical incidents and issues. LNCs are extremely valuable because they bring clinical expertise and medical experience to attorneys in the litigation process.
LNCs clinically analyze and evaluate facts and testimony related to the delivery of nursing and other health care services and outcomes. They also analyze and review the nature and cause of injuries in legal cases.
Legal nurse consultants’ responsibilities vary depending on the employer and often include:
- Attending medical reviews by independent medical examiners
- Testifying in court as an expert witness
- Reviewing cases to identify strengths and weaknesses
- Preparing chronologies or timelines for medical records
- Working with lawyers to plan health care litigation
- Drafting legal documents in medical cases under the guidance of an attorney
- Educating attorneys and paralegals about health care issues
Perks to becoming a legal nurse consultant:
This option makes for a great nurse entrepreneurial business idea because LNCs have the ability to combine their clinical expertise and medical experience with the law. As business owners, LNCs can work as much or as little as they want and have complete control over what they accomplish. In addition, LNCs can often choose which clients they work with and types of cases they consult on.
3. Nurse Blogger/Freelance Writer
Nurse bloggers and freelance writers create and manage websites containing useful information for readers. They are generally developed based on the creator’s medical and/or personal niche.
A great benefit to becoming a nurse blogger/writer is that each post or article can be written from a completely different perspective. Nurses work in many different specialties with diverse patient populations. Therefore, each nurse has different skill sets and experiences within their career that they can draw unique information from. In other words, nurses can bring a lot of life experience into their writing.
There is a wide range of nurse bloggers on the internet writing about: nurse mom lifestyle, nursing informatics, nurse money topics, new graduate nursing, nurse humor, nursing apparel, nursing specialties… and the list goes on and on.
As a nurse blogger or freelance writer, you can:
- Set your own work hours and schedule
- Have total creative control over your content and products
- Improve and continue to develop your writing skills each time you create a new piece
- Become a better thinker because the writing process forces you to pause and think deeper
- Develop strong opinions about nurse topics that matter
- Discover thoughts and ideas about the nursing profession that you didn’t even know you had
Perks to becoming a nurse blogger or freelance writer:
Nurse bloggers and freelance writers are also entrepreneurs who manage their own businesses. Many often also have full-time positions and do their writing/website design in the evenings or weekends. There is no set schedule, therefore they can decide to work or not work whenever they want.
- 3 Flexible Nurse Entrepreneur Business Ideas - June 17, 2019