The advent of the gig economy has made it easier than ever for people to pick up extra work and make money comfortably in their free time. Nurses are perhaps particularly well positioned to do exactly this. Their expertise in the field of medicine gives them valuable knowledge to leverage while their unique schedule provides opportunities to take advantage of extra work when it becomes available.
In this article, we take a look at three great side hustles for enterprising nurses to take advantage of.
Defining A Side Hustle
Side hustles simply refer to work that you do outside of your typical career. If that sounds like a hip way of saying “second job”, well. It kind of is. But side hustles typically have a more positive connotation surrounding them. Often, they involve activities that the participant is interested in. They tend to be flexible, empowering, and (hopefully) lucrative. At least those are the types of side hustles we intend to highlight here.
All of the jobs featured below are distinguished by the fact that they involve specialized skills most nurses will have, and they occupy career paths that at least can be very interesting and enjoyable.
1. Education
Don’t tell your teacher friends that we listed education as a side hustle. The truth, of course, is that educational jobs are very difficult and time-consuming. They can, however, be accessible to people in the nursing field—particularly for said nurses who are qualified to teach at the university level.
This usually requires at least a graduate degree, but it can be very rewarding for nurses who want to make more money while preparing the next generation of nurses for what lies ahead.
How, you may ask, can a working nurse teach classes? There are several ways. For one thing, most universities offer night classes and may be more than happy to provide these time slots to working nurses. Of course, some nurses' schedules also naturally allow for day classes, making it even easier to find an appropriate time slot.
University work can also be more part-time than the average layperson might at first assume. While full-time university professors may work full schedules, some schools will be willing to hire part-time teachers. Indeed, this is often the standard for people who have yet to establish themselves on the tenure track.
Online teaching makes education as a side hustle even more accessible, eliminating time-consuming commutes, and giving nurses more autonomy on how they run their classes.
Education may not be an easy side hustle, but it can be lucrative, and certainly rewarding.
2. Lend Your Expertise
There are many ways that industrious nurses can apply their training to similar fields of work. For example, during the initial launch phase of the vaccine rollout, many nurses made up to $50 an hour administering vaccines.
While these jobs may be fewer and farther between now that most people who are going to get the vaccine have already had it, there are other opportunities available.
For example, freelancing. Sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and others allow people with special skills to make money at the things they are good at. Have a way with words? Consider writing about the healthcare industry (as an example, this article you are reading right now is about the healthcare industry. You could have written this!).
Or maybe you are more interested in consultations, website design, graphic art. The opportunities are truly endless, and depending on your skill level, the pay can be quite competitive.
It is also possible to work part-time at short-staffed clinics—those aren’t so hard to come by these days. Depending on the arrangement, you may find that the compensation for emergency fill-in work may actually exceed your usual wages.
When it comes to the gig economy, leveraging experience and expertise is always a good way to land yourself high-paying work, so look for opportunities that fit your medical background, and capitalize on them.
In a similar line of thinking, you can also consider using your existing job to simply pick up more shifts. Nursing overtime wages can be 1.5-2 times higher than the usual rate, making the occasional extra shift very lucrative indeed. While hospitals have historically avoided overtime shifts for that precise reason the national nursing shortage may have changed things considerably.
3. Medical Transcription
Medical transcription may need to be very exciting work but it usually pays well. The responsibilities of a scribe may vary from day to day. In essence, however, the job is to listen to information—usually of a scientific nature and record it.
Technically anyone can do transcription work. However, nurses and other people with scientific backgrounds are often favored for these jobs as they are more likely to have a familiarity with the words being used.
Compensation will depend on the subject matter and can vary based on experience level. However, some have reported making up to $1000 a month doing transcription work as a side hustle.
Transcribers can work from home, either on a freelance basis or through firms and agencies.
Conclusion
Most people would agree that nurses shouldn’t be in a position where they would even need a side hustle. Always an important part of the very bedrock of society, nurses have been almost unanimously recognized as heroes for the last several years as they stayed on the frontlines of the global battle against Covid-19. It goes without saying that for their efforts and sacrifices they shouldn’t have to think about ways to make more money.
And yet, such is life.
Nurses that want or need to pick up a side hustle should have options that tantalize and excite them. The list above has been crafted with this in mind. If you are a nurse looking to pick up some extra work, find something that plays into your immense knowledge and expertise.
