Welcome to our blog! Keith Carlson has worked as a nurse since 1996. He received an Associate Degree in Nursing from Greenfield Community College in 1996, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2001.
Nurse Entrepreneurship
If you’ve been noticing a trend towards a growing number of nurse entrepreneurs being out there in the world, you’re not alone in your observation. Many nurses are now redefining what it means to be a nurse, and while some are joining the ranks of those who have paved the way for them, still others are striking out on their own and forging new paths where none existed before.
Who—and What—Are Nurse Entrepreneurs?
So, what exactly is nurse entrepreneurship? This term is bandied about a lot these days, but who are the nurse entrepreneurs that everyone seems to be talking about, and what exactly is it that they do?
Nurse entrepreneurs are now working in a large variety of settings. Some nurses have realized that they have skills that can be leveraged within the health care industry, and they are working as consultants, trainers, motivational speakers and teachers. Some nurse entrepreneurs have started their own companies, selling innovative charting programs or speaking to nurses about communication skills or teamwork. Other nurses have joined forces with various professionals, offering continuing education programs or innovations to increase productivity or other measurements of success and profitability within the health care facility.
Nurse Entrepreneurs Who Write
Meanwhile, some nurse entrepreneurs have leveraged their writing and communication skills to carve out niches in blogging, writing, and content creation. The nurse “blogosphere” is teeming with nurses who pour their hearts out to small and large online audiences who enjoy reading the rants, raves and reports of nurses on the front lines who have something to say and know how to say it. And since blogging has become so big almost everywhere (even The New York Times has staff bloggers), some online nursing companies and internet-based health websites have hired nurses to use their expertise to blog about specific areas of interest for various internet audiences.
Speaking of writing, there are nurses who have made names for themselves by authoring books on nursing and health care, and many of these books are available in traditional print format and as downloadable ebooks.
Nurse Coaches
Still other nurses have taken their nursing skills and coupled them with skills in coaching to create an entirely new field. While everyone has heard of life coaching, health and wellness coaching has also been growing by leaps and bounds in the last few years. And since so many health and wellness coaches offer their sage advice without the benefit of a nursing background, some nurses have come to see that many members of the public would rather trust a nurse to coach them through weight loss, fitness, stress reduction and self care. With coaching being, by and large, an unregulated industry (for now), nurses can easily “hang a virtual shingle” and offer coaching services without any training beyond their nursing education, nursing experience and common sense. Nurses are born to coach, and many of the skills utilized by life coaches are skills used by nurses when they are educating clients and patients on the floors of hospitals or during home care visits.
We’re Everywhere
Every day, nurses are creating new niches for nurse entrepreneurship, and there is indeed no limit to what nurses can accomplish outside of the traditional roles that seem to impose limits on nurses’ own identity and professional aspirations.
According to poll after poll, nurses are the most trusted professionals in the eyes of the majority of Americans. So, many nurses are capitalizing on that trust and leveraging their skills in order to branch out beyond the narrow confines of what it has meant to be a nurse—up until this time in history.
The day of the nurse entrepreneur has come. And the world seems ready for nurses to finally define for themselves what it means to be a nurse—or a new entrepreneur—in the 21st century.
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