Are you looking to start your own nursing-related business? While there are countless business ideas for entrepreneurs, having a nursing license opens up even more possibilities. As a registered nurse you have advantages over the general population due to your skills, college education, credentials and talents.
Starting your own business can help alleviate the nurse burnout many experience working for large healthcare companies. A nursing study found nearly half of nurses are considering leaving the profession for reasons including: stress, feeling overworked, being buried in paperwork or a general lack of job satisfaction.
Registered nursing is one of the largest licensed professions in the United States with an estimated 2.9 million registered nurses earning $75,510 annually on average. If you’re successful, becoming a nurse entrepreneur can also increase your income and financial freedom.
What are your interests and skills?
Selecting the best nursing business ideas for you requires evaluating your skills, goals and interests. Here are some questions to ask yourself that will help narrow down the options:
- Am I good at educating others about medical or healthcare issues?
- Would I enjoy designing and implementing wellness programs?
- Am I good at identifying problems at healthcare organizations and fixing them?
- Would I enjoy providing companion healthcare services?
- Would I like to provide medical equipment and supplies?
- Am I good at reviewing healthcare provided by others and creating patient safety and well-being programs?
- Would I be good at providing a nurse’s analysis of medical issues to lawyers?
There are many terms used to describe nurse entrepreneurs including: licensed nursing consultant, self-employed nurse, nurse independent contractor and independent registered nurse.
Here are the 7 top nursing business ideas:
1. Nurse Health Coach
Nurse health coaches help clients live a healthy, balanced lifestyle by teaching them how to take the best care of themselves. This can involve a holistic approach that examines all aspects of their lives including medical, mental, diet, work and environmental considerations.
“Unlike for registered nurses, being a nurse health coach does not require a government nursing license certification,” according to Robert Weinberg, a nursing license defense attorney at Chudnovsky Law. “But registered nurses can use their licensing certification and extensive training to differentiate themselves from those less trained. The experience from being a registered nurse is very useful for health and wellness coaching.”
Nurse health coaches tend to have more autonomy in their life and schedule. You can set your own environment and target the kinds of clients you most enjoy working with. Since health coaching is paid directly by clients, there are no issues dealing with billing insurance companies.
2. Concierge Nursing Services
Concierge nurses provide in-home care and customized nursing services for wealthy patients who pay out of pocket for your services. These clients are often going through some medical issue or treatment process and can afford to pay for the specialized service they want.
One lucrative niche to target is cosmetic surgery patients that travel for cosmetic surgery by renowned surgeons. They often need to remain in the area for a period of recovery and need assistance during their recovery
3. Fitness Nurse
Fitness nursing is a relatively new area that integrates physical exercise, wellness and disease prevention. A fitness nurse works with patients to develop a customized nutrition plan and exercise regimen to optimize their health and recovery from injury or illness.
The types of clients can vary widely and include: corporate employees, professional athletes, spas, cardiac rehabilitation, surgery recovery patients, pediatric sports athletes and sports health club members.
4. Specialized Care Provider
The healthcare industry is massive with a vast array of business opportunities for nurses. Depending on your experience and interests, you can choose from a long list of specialized care business ideas including:
- Telehealth nursing
- In-home senior care
- Hospice care for terminal patients
- Doula service during pregnancy and childbirth
- Childbirth training program
- Fertility consulting
- Lactation consulting
- Mindfulness and stress consulting
- Holistic and alternative medical services
- Dietician services
5. Legal Nurse Consultants
A legal nurse consultant (LNC) is a registered nurse that analyzes medical cases, testimony, and healthcare facts for legal cases. An LNC helps lawyers evaluate evidence, prepare for litigation and prove their cases. This lucrative career is best suited for more experienced nurses with good credentials and clinical expertise.
LNCs perform varied tasks including: evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of a case, preparing analysis and documents, testifying as an expert witness and educating legal staff.
6. Nurse Continuing Education Classes
Nurses are required to regularly take continuing education courses to stay current on new nursing knowledge. If you are an experienced nurse who enjoys teaching others, you can develop innovative courses and training programs for nurses. Opportunities exist both for remote teaching and contract teaching for other institutions.
Nurse educators can teach general courses or specialize in specific areas such as pediatric nursing, geriatric nursing, orthopedics, nursing informatics or the latest regulations.
7. Nurse Blogging or Freelance Writing
If you enjoy writing then blogging or freelance writing may be for you. To develop your own blog you will need to develop a unique identity and interesting content that: has useful information, attracts readers and ranks well in search engines like Google.
There are many areas to write about, such as: wellness, healthy living, nurse mom life and nursing specialties. Developing a blog readership can be challenging and generally takes longer than you may think. So you’ll need to carefully develop both an attractive editorial voice/content and robust marketing effort to attract readers. You can see a great selection of nurse blogs for inspiration here.
As a nurse freelance writer you would write content for other websites, healthcare organizations, publications and healthcare businesses for a fee. There are a variety of ways to easily market your services including these freelance writer websites. The more impressive your experience and credentials, the higher rates you can charge. And, of course, you can write from anywhere in the world.
Discover and Do What You Love
As you can see, the options are nearly endless. If you want to be a nurse entrepreneur, your goal should be to find the area of medicine or types of clients you love working with and pursue that. If you are able to work in an area you are passionate about, you will achieve extraordinary things and find your life’s calling.
The National Nurses in Business Association offers some great resources, self-employment ideas and training for nurse entrepreneurs. And you can read about great business ideas for work at home moms here.
