I come from the healthcare industry so I know pretty well what’s like to work odd long hours and get paid a little. Not to mention the stressful situation that you need to face every day. What if there’s a way to leverage your skills without all the physical straining?
Would you like to learn how to make more money as a nurse online? Let’s see what options you have out there.
1) Call Center Nurse
A call center nurse basically provides health/medical guidance based on a patient’s needs through phone assistance. Depending on what type of situation, you are expected to give self-care advice, plan a referral, make an appointment or help contact 911 for emergencies.
You will be working closely with insurance/medical companies or agencies at their premise at first and possibly work from home when you are more qualified. The challenge to this job is that you can’t assess the patient visually, so you need to rely on good clinical judgement, careful listening and critical thinking to guide them towards taking the right action.
If you make a careless assessment, the patient could do things wrongly and you could be at risk for a malpractice lawsuit. It doesn’t always happen of course, but these are just some complications to watch out for.
Average income per hour – $36
Average income per month – $6250
Level of stress – ⅘ 🙁
2) Medical Transcriptionist
A medical transcriptionist basically listens and translates recorded dictations from doctors or healthcare providers into elaborated medical reports. Although the task looks easy, you still need to take up accredited courses (which could last up to 18 months) before taking on the job because it requires a high level of accuracy in hearing, understanding and writing in medical terms.
Having a nursing background is an added advantage since you’ll be more familiar with the various medical situations, but keep in mind that there will be a lot of paperwork and deadlines to handle.
Average income per hour – $18
Average Income per month – $3200
Level of stress – ⅗ 😐
3) Write a Nurse Blog
Whether you realized it or not, nurses are quite articulate and observant individuals. If you fancy writing reports and taking phone calls, that’s fine. However, if you prefer something that allows you to move with your creativity, writing a nurse blog is the way to go.
There’s a lot of flexibility to it – you don’t have to report to anyone (no boss), you don’t need to have an impressive qualification and you don’t need to worry about breaking any laws. All you need is a domain name and a website which you can invest for a very small cost.
You see, many people go online these days to search for health information before consulting with their doctors and they could use some help from experienced nurses like you. Just to prove my point, here are some queries that people actually type on Google every day;
- how to tell if you have a gluten allergy
- what are the symptoms of early pregnancy
- is fish oil good for arthritis
- best sleeping positions with lower back pain
- sore throat remedies for kids
I am pretty sure you have the answer for at least one, if not all of them. That’s your specialty and that’s the topic which you can educate people about. Now you must be wondering, how are you going to monetize from a blog? The simplest strategy for this is through affiliate marketing.
You will find a good product/service, promote them with a specific topic on your blog and make a sales commission when someone purchase through your review. The beauty of this technique is that for as long as the product/topic is valid/popular, you can keep earning from the same blog post over and over again. Hence, the more blog topics you write about, the more money you’d make.
Here’s an example of a blog from The Nerdy Nurse by Brittney Wilson. In this topic, she’s reviewing a few stethoscope brands and if you read closely, you’ll see these highlighted text on the article which contained two affiliate links pointing to Amazon and Medical Supply Depot.
So, if someone buys through any of these links, she would make 4% out of Amazon and 5% from Medical Supply Depot. On top of that, she also sells her own merchandise through Cafepress, publish her own book and monetize from online advertising.
What’s the potential income that you can generate from a blog? Well, there’s really no direct answer to this. In general, when you are just starting out, making a couple of dollars is the norm, but as your site grow with educational content and product reviews, you can definitely earn more.
Potential monthly income – Unlimited (some people make hundreds, some make thousands)
Level of Stress – ⅖ – plus a lot of fun factors! 🙂
Start an Online Career
Who says that a nurse must work in the hospital throughout her life? With the internet, it’s now possible to start a career from home, compared to some 15 years ago. Whether it’s for personal or financial reasons, it’s never wrong to think about another option than just doing ‘traditional’ bedside nursing. Your future-self will thank you for it – trust me.
Hey, if you want to learn how to make more money as a nurse through affiliate programs, do check out my recommended online program here to launch your first blog.
Have any thoughts or questions about this topic? Just leave them in the comment area below and I’ll get back to you.
You may also want to read;
How to Find An Amazon Product to Promote
Trends and Keywords for 5 Popular Health Food Affiliate Programs
I found this article both eye opening and inspiring. I have a sister who is a nurse and yes, she does work awkward hours at times. With the information you have laid out here, I think she would be very interested in reading this article as well. I was not aware of the opportunities available for nurses to make money online so thank you for providing me with this information.
You are most welcome Otis. I am glad it was helpful for you.
This is an eye-opening article, not only for nurses, but also for people of all professions. During the Industrial Era, women were underpaid or considered non-productive. The advent of the Information Revolution has changed this. But we need to take action on our part. Working and earning from home is not only a possibility, but can also become lucrative if one take legitimate training.
Wow Cathy, this is a great list of things a nurse can do at home, as opposed to spending long hours at work!
First, the call center nurse. Looks like great pay, and you get to stay at home and still feel like you are helping people and doing a great service. I can see this as a growing need as more and more will turn to this as opposed to going in to an office and waiting and waiting to be seen, yet to wait more in the room.
I also like the idea of a nurse blog. This is a fantastic way, to get information out to the public, who are looking for information. I know when my son is sick or hurt, the first thing I do is research it on the Internet to see if I can find any information on what might be going on. Great and informative post.
Hi Cathy!
Nurses are one of the most underpaid in the medical sector. All that training and for usually just over minimum wage, long hours and sometimes stressful patients. You really have to love and be passionate about the profession.
This well written blog will certainly be a step in the right direction for nurses looking for more income 🙂
Hi Cathy.
My wife is a long-time nurse, and I’ve been trying to tell her this very thing (affiliate marketing) for some time now!
The answer that I get from her is usually that this might not be something that she would like to pursue, but I’m going to show her this article so she might be encouraged by you.
Thanks for a great read.