As a nurse, you’ve dedicated your career to helping others – but sometimes, even a solid paycheck doesn’t stretch far enough. Maybe you’re looking to pay off student loans faster, save for a big financial goal, or simply cushion your income to keep up with rising costs. Whatever the reason, finding a side gig that fits your demanding schedule and leverages your hard-earned skills can make all the difference.
The good news? There are plenty of flexible, part-time opportunities that allow you to earn extra income without stepping away from the field you love. Here are eight of the best side gigs for nurses to consider.
Basic Life Support Instructors
Basic life support (BLS), which can include anything that helps people stay alive while awaiting emergency services, is an essential skill even outside of the healthcare industry. You could become certified to teach CPR, first aid, babysitter training, lifeguarding, AED use, and more. With one or more of these certifications, you could provide instruction at teacher in-services, pools, for young students at schools, or at any other workplace or volunteer group that finds value in having staff that can provide BLS.
BLS instructors often work for companies that other organizations hire for training. However, their schedules are generally flexible, and they may be able to take on individual assignments rather than long-term gigs.
Getting Started
To be able to teach CPR or first aid, you need to pass an instructor course, typically from the American Heart Association or Red Cross. Once you’re qualified to be an instructor, you can apply for instructor positions. You likely need to renew your certification at mandated intervals.
Healthcare Content Writer or Reviewer
Healthcare websites often need subject matter experts (SMEs) to contribute to their content. Expert writers create the content, sometimes with an outline, sometimes from scratch. Reviewers look over completed work to ensure the piece is accurate and understandable to the intended audience. Both jobs require a lot of collaboration with those who run the websites or their writers and editors.
Nursing SMEs may work on content intended for laymen, other healthcare professionals, or a mix of the two.
If you have a particular area of expertise, you may be particularly appealing to some potential clients. Writers are often paid hourly, by the word, or by the article. SME reviewers may not be paid at all, or they could get an hourly or by-piece rate.
Getting Started
Put together a portfolio of your previous writing or tailor your resume to better show your expertise, not just job tasks. You can find work by pitching story ideas directly to healthcare content companies, creating a profile on a relevant job site, or directly applying for open freelance positions. You might get “cold-called” by a company via LinkedIn or similar, but don’t rely on that possibility.
Hospice Nurse – PRN
End-of-life care can be a rewarding and challenging nursing field. As a hospice nurse, you’re expected to work under an advising physician to appropriately monitor symptoms, provide necessary care, and liaise between the doctor and the patient and their family. Specific care tasks can include administering medications that improve comfort levels, cleaning up patients after they lose control of bodily functions, helping them eat, drink, and get to the bathroom, and more.
Hospice nurses also provide comfort to patients and their families while educating their families on the end-of-life process and how best to care for their loved ones. Empathy is key.
Patients can come from all backgrounds and have a variety of health conditions; they only need to have an approximate maximum life expectancy of six months and no desire for life-saving care. In general, hospice care isn’t 24/7, with family members doing the work when no healthcare worker is present. This care can be during the day or night.
While routine hospice care is scheduled, patients can take a turn without warning. This means nurses need to be on call – though you won’t be on call all day, every day. Hospice nurses often work through organizations, hospitals, or care facilities that provide hospice care and employ a pool of medical professionals. You may be able to choose your availability.
Getting Started
You need to be an RN before becoming a hospice nurse. If you work in a hospital system, you might be able to apply to be part of a palliative care unit. You could also apply to specific organizations that need your skills. Either option may require a certain number of shifts or on-call hours.
Vaccination Nurse
Vaccination nurses provide basic health workups to ensure patients can safely receive vaccines and then administer vaccinations. As administering injections is a fundamental nursing skill, and vaccines are a recurring need in the community, this may be an excellent fit for practicing nurses of all sorts.
While some immunization nurse jobs are full-time, others can be part-time or on a freelance/contractor basis. Vaccination nurses are often on the move, traveling to different locations that provide vaccines to their staff or other community members. Occupational health companies, retail pharmacies, and walk-in clinics often hire short-term immunization professionals during the fall so they can administer flu, COVID-19, and related vaccines.
Getting Started
It’s best to look into doing immunization clinics well ahead of flu shot season. You can check with retail pharmacies or companies that hire nurses to come to worksites to do mass immunization events for employees.
Infusion Nurse
Infusion nurses provide intravenous medicine, fluids, or vitamins to patients via peripheral IVs, midline catheters, and other methods. They also monitor the patients and make medication adjustments as needed.
You might find a job as an infusion nurse at a hospital, specialist’s office, nursing home, infusion center, or home healthcare agency. There may also be opportunities at medspas or companies that provide hydration or vitamin services that don’t need a doctor’s clearance.
Though some infusion nurse positions are full-time, you might be able to find part-time positions or work as part of an agency allowing a flexible schedule. You might even be able to work strictly on an evening or weekend basis.
Getting Started
Once you’ve gained experience as a registered nurse, you can apply for infusion nursing positions. It may help to get a relevant certification, though not all jobs require one.
Private Duty Nursing
Private duty nurses (PDNs) provide in-home care for people who need intensive services over the short or long term. This differs from home health nursing, which tends to focus more on daily activities and therapies than significant nursing care.
PDNs may provide a variety of types of care, including managing g-tubes, tracheostomies, or ventilators. Some folks with mobility issues, quadriplegia, or a seizure disorder need assistance with their medications and activities of daily living continuously. They may also provide post-surgical or injury recovery care.
Private duty nurses generally have only one patient and do all care tasks for them throughout a shift. While some work full-time, others work only a few hours daily, depending on their patients’ needs. Certain PDNs even live with their patients. Unlike some other positions on this list, you may need to be able to work a set schedule.
Getting Started
To become a private duty nurse, you need to have your nursing license and be comfortable forming close relationships with individual patients. Because you deliver care in people’s homes, it’s usually necessary to have a reliable vehicle and active car insurance.
Substitute School Nurse
Like anyone else, school nurses can’t always be at work, and there is rarely more than one nurse in a school. Many districts or schools use substitute nurses to ensure students, teachers, and school staff aren’t left without a healthcare professional on-site.
School nurses provide a range of necessary care to students and staff. Of course, they help students who suddenly fall ill during the day. However, they also provide routine healthcare services by dispensing daily medications like Adderall, helping students with blood sugar challenges to administer their medications, and performing hearing and vision screenings. Parent communication is also required.
As a substitute school nurse, you may also help particularly medically fragile students, such as those who need to use feeding tubes. Chances are you’d visit these students in an assigned classroom and work with several at once, as school districts often designate a specific school for students with these needs to ensure a nurse is always available to help.
Substitute school nurses may also need to handle medical emergencies such as severe allergic reactions, possible concussions, or broken bones.
This income stream can fluctuate due to the number of absences among school nursing staff and how many jobs you take – many of which are offered at the last minute. You can sign up with multiple school districts to give more opportunities to substitute. Developing positive relationships with school staff and teachers of medically fragile students may increase your chances of being called to substitute.
Getting Started
The steps to becoming a substitute nurse can vary by location. Of course, you need to be a qualified nurse. You might also need to have experience in pediatric nursing. When it comes to getting the gig, you need to sign up with a staffing agency or school district, both of which will likely require a background check and, possibly, additional training.
Telehealth Nurse
Telehealth, also called telemedicine, is becoming a norm in healthcare – and not just for physicians. Nurse advice lines have become more common and offer an opportunity to educate patients, often outside regular business hours. After all, sometimes a trip to urgent care isn’t necessary!
Some of these positions will be full-time if you’re associated with a clinic, but there are telehealth platforms, hospital systems, and positions with insurance companies that offer flexible hours.
Getting Started
In addition to a nursing license and a high level of comfort with technology, nurses are often expected to have bedside experience before working in telemedicine. Volunteering in this arena may help you get a leg up on the competition and ensure you enjoy the work before committing to a company. Telehealth licensing requirements can vary by company, though having a multistate license can be helpful, particularly if you apply to a company that helps patients nationwide.
