Alternative Careers for Nurses

Have you decided 12-hour shifts aren’t for you? Do you dread going to work each day? Are you craving a change of pace and scenery?

Fortunately, even if you answered yes to any of those questions, there’s no need to give up on nursing entirely. Check out these alternative careers for nurses — some of which you can do on the side until you decide what’s best for you.

Nurse blogger

Several nurses have achieved success through blogging, including The Nerdy Nurse (Brittney Wilson), Kati Kleber of Nurse Eye Roll, and The Gypsy Nurse. While you won’t make it big overnight, you can start a blog now and begin writing once a day to see if you like it.

Follow and connect with other nurses through blogs and social media, and promote nurse brands and gear you love by sharing photos and reviews of it on your blog. You can grow your site by purchasing a domain and hiring someone (or finding a friend) to help you create a unique logo and design, and creating Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to promote your brand is also a great idea.

Quality management associate

If you want to leave clinical work behind but still put your nursing degree to use, you might enjoy a job in quality management. Hospitals hire nurses to review reports and processes to ensure that staff members are meeting clinical standards and patients are safe. In other settings, such as staffing agencies, nurses review candidates’ resumes and check school records and references to ensure only quality nurses and physicians take jobs at facilities around the country.

Nurses often thrive in these roles because their clinical experience and knowledge of specific processes help them solve problems and intuitively find staff members who will provide the best care.

Nurse or physician recruiter

You may not have considered it, but your experience as a nurse makes you uniquely qualified to potentially help other healthcare providers find jobs. Working as a nurse or physician recruiter might be a perfect fit for you, because you’ll be able to empathize with the professionals you’re helping with their job search and know better what they’re looking for in a position.

You’ll also be able to develop relationships with facilities and hospitals who are searching for candidates and help them find people who best fit their open positions.

Travel nurse

While you’re still working as a nurse and caring for patients, the beauty of travel nursing jobs is that you get to set your own schedule and choose exactly where and when you’d like to work. The industry standard is 13 weeks, but you can negotiate with your recruiter if you’d like a shorter assignment — and you can sometimes extend your assignment if the facility continues to need help and you enjoy working there.

Travel nursing allows you to see the country, move around every few months (if you’d like to) so you don’t get caught in a rut, and meet new staff members and types of patients.

Do any of these careers sound appealing? What alternatives have you considered as a nurse?