When you enter nursing school, you may not realize that you can work from home as a nurse after you graduate. Nursing schools require that you take certain classes before letting you work directly with patients. You will need to complete a series of clinical rotations in a local hospital or in other facilities as part of your studies, but you’ll have the chance to work underneath registered nurses and then on your own. After you pass the NCLEX (please see: How Should I Prepare for My Nursing Board Exam?) and become a registered nurse in your state, you might look at some of the jobs you can do from home and their benefits.
Benefits of Working from Home
Nursing is a very stressful job. While most nurses get paid well, they also have to deal with unhappy patients, disgruntled families of patients and other issues on the job. If you love nursing but hate the idea of spending eight hours or more on your feet, you might love working from home. Many of these positions let you set your own hours, take time off when you need or want and even wear whatever you want during your shifts.
Online Nursing Jobs
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for registered nurses working in the United States is around $32 an hour or more than $66,000 a year. Some of those nurses work from home via a web cam and Internet connection. They sign into an online account and then meet with patients online. Patients can talk about the symptoms they experience, show nurses rashes or physical problems they have and ask simple questions. The nurses can then tell patients what they can do to take care of their symptoms and when they should consult a physician.
Part-Time Work
As a nurse, you might do part-time work and answer patient questions from home. Many patients have questions about their medications, medical conditions they have and simple injuries, but they do not want to waste money or time seeing a doctor. Several companies now hire nurses to work from home and respond solely to questions from patients. Some accept calls made over the phone, but others only work online. When you work from home as a nurse, you might respond to questions via email or chat live with patients over the computer. Hospitals and prescription drug companies hire nurses to do live chats with patients in need.
Similar Medical Jobs
Working as a traveling nurse may appeal to you also. A traveling nurse generally works for multiple facilities as the need arises. You might spend a few weeks a month working for a hospital across the country and spend the rest of your time at home. Other traveling nurses work as fill in nurses in local facilities and come in when the facility needs additional help. Nurses can also do case management jobs from home. Case management requires that you help patients make the transition from spending time in the hospital to going home or back to work after suffering an injury.
Though you might think that you must work for a medical facility or hospital after earning your nursing license, you can also work from home. Some of the ways in which you can work from home as a nurse include talking with patients over the phone, chatting with patients via web cam and managing patient cases.