From Bedside to Business: 5 Side Hustles Nurses Can Start Today

Are you a nurse feeling burned out or looking for ways to increase your income outside the hospital?

In this episode of Hold My Stethoscope, we break down 5 lucrative side hustles nurses are using to create financial freedom and career flexibility.

With rising burnout and the cost of living increasing, many nurses are discovering ways to leverage their clinical knowledge into additional income streams.

We discuss practical options that nurses can start while still working bedside — from travel contracts to content creation and consulting.

In this episode we cover:

• Why more nurses are starting side hustles
 • How travel nursing can dramatically increase your income
 • Turning your nursing knowledge into online education
 • Consulting opportunities for experienced nurses
 • Building a blog, YouTube channel, or nurse brand
 • The rise of mobile IV therapy businesses

Whether you’re a new grad nurse, ER nurse, travel nurse, or experienced clinician, this episode will help you explore new ways to build financial freedom and career flexibility.

🎧 Grab your stethoscope and listen in.

Proud Partner: Med Max Edu
Sponsored by Med Max Edu—where nurses grow, learn, and lead.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:02

This is Hold My Stethoscope. All right, guys, welcome back to Hold My Stethoscope. So, real talk. Um, sometimes podcasting throws you curveballs. And our guest tonight had something come up last minute. So instead of canceling this episode, we decided to pivot and talk about something that honestly a lot of nurses have been asking about lately. And that is side hustles for nurses. The ones that actually work. Um, because let's be honest, nurses everywhere are looking for ways to create more income, more flexibility, more control over their careers, and between burnout, high cost of living, and just wanting options outside of that traditional bedside role, more and more nurses are exploring different ways that they can use their skills. So tonight we're gonna break it down a little bit. We're talking about side hustles, nurses are doing right now, the ones that actually make sense, the ones that maybe don't, and what nurses should think about before jumping into something new. Because the truth is your nursing license can open way more doors than most people realize. So grab your stethoscope and listen in and let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yes. So tonight we are talking about those side hustles for nurses, the ones that do actually work. Okay, the ones that don't, and what nurses should consider before we jump in. So, why nurses are looking for side hustles? Let's start with the reality. All right, cost of living rising, burnout, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:52

It's insane though. Like I I feel like I was actually talking to Nicole, my coworker, and it was just like back, you know, when I feel like we all kind of started nursing. We were talking actually talking about nanodiagnosis. Do you remember nanodiagnosis? Yes, as everyone's by related to it, like kind of gone away. But it also gone away. Yeah, there's no more nanodiagnosis, girl. They're like no more in the book. I know. Nurses, you know what we're talking about. Younger ones, you're not traumatized like we were by having to do nanodiagnosis on all our patients. But yeah, like how like the cost of living is so much higher. Like, just everyday life is so much higher. And you know, the girl I was talking to about this, like she was a young mom, and she was like, even then, back then I was like struggling to kind of do stuff, but she's like, now she's like, I could have never done what I was doing back then as a young single mom, being able to raise my child in this economy. Like, it's just so hard. I mean, gas prices, mortgage rates, cost of food, like transportation, all of it. Like, it's absolutely insane. Like a cup of coffee, like, and I get it, that's a luxury, but for nurses, it's deal.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

It's a must plan. Yeah, it's like seven dollars.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Like, are you kidding me? It's ridiculous. Yes, everything's ridiculous. My my McDonald's daily breakfast on my way to work, which is a salted jig and cheese biscuit and a Hawaiian punch medium. It's$8.54. Just that's why I want to be getting the meal. Just those two items.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

That's what I mean. Like, it's crazy. You I feel like most nurses, like, I mean, it's obviously affects all of professions, but like most nurses can't just go and do their 36 hours a week or you know, whatever, like that, because you can't really afford to live on your even 36 hour, like decent hourly pay for nurses. Like, you can't do it. Like, it's it's it's almost impossible. Like, unless you're just, I don't know, that good, or you live in a town or state, which I don't even know if there's any anymore that doesn't have a higher cost of living, but like rents through the roof, like it's just it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

So no, it is. And I actually was just having this conversation with my daughter earlier today about cost of living because you think about the day you're gonna make this a certain amount of money, and you think, oh, I'm gonna be able to live a certain kind of way. But in actuality, with the cost of living now, it's not true, and it's almost like you're still pinching those pennies, even though you've had an increase in income just because of the price of everything that has gone up. And it's very hard, it's even difficult for young adults to move out of their parents' homes because they can't afford the rent in apartments or anywhere else. Like it's just really taking a toll on everybody. And as nurses, you know, this is why we tell everybody please don't go into nursing if you think it is for money. Because the struggle is real, baby. Like you're gonna struggle with the rest of the world, you know.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

So it's definitely not a financial fix. And then obviously, like you talked about, is you know, that's a very, very large reason why nurses are looking for supplemental income. But the other thing is like we've taught I mean ad nauseum for our last like year and a half or however we've only actually been doing this like six months, but it feels like forever. It feels like forever. Yeah. Um, it's you know, burnout, like how it's increasingly difficult and how hard it is for bedside nurses. And even, you know, working, like most nurses, I shouldn't say most, but a lot of nurses work overtime. So they're not only working in their three shifts where they're running their butt off and getting verbally abused and getting just like just everything is being, you know, they're torn in a million different directions, but they're picking up overtime to be able to get extra money, which is increasing people's burnout, they're not sleeping, not eating well, all of those things. So there's a lot of reasons why nurses are looking for a side hustle. A side hustle, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Burnout will definitely do it. Um, I can see why nurses are constantly trying to think of other opportunities or other ways that they can bring income in. Some will still stay in there with nursing, others will deviate outside. It doesn't negate that they're still a nurse and they may still even be working and doing a nursing care, but the burnout is real, and we've talked about that on many of our episodes. So that's another reason why people honestly look to go and do a side hustle. And I can understand that.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

Yeah, and I've seen um like nurses also with like scheduling, right? There's certain in a lot of places certain scheduling requirements, like every other weekend and major holidays, because especially if you're in the hospital setting, like you gotta pick two holidays in this season, two holidays.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

You know, that was really always a struggle for me as a nurse having a family. Like, I don't want to be away from my family Christmas time or Thanksgiving time. And the fact that you're saying you're gonna work one of them, it can make it difficult as a nurse because it doesn't matter if you don't have children. Those are holidays that family get together. And those having that schedule, I think a lot of people lean towards nursing because it was self-scheduling and most jobs were not. But then those are issues that come in where you do have to work holidays, where you know you do have to work every other weekend, you know, and that can make burn you out, along with just making you want to get into a side hustle to walk away from that side of it, where you don't have to choose, you get to have your own schedule and not have someone set your schedule for that.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Like night shift, you know, like night shift nurses, if they're working in their traditional 12 hours, like if you get scheduled like one day on, one day off, one day on, one day off, like that's the absolute worst. And sometimes you don't have control over that, and that's just really difficult. So people want kind of more of that freedom, or even some people who go into that like Monday through Friday job, like maybe because they're going into a more normal schedule, they get a pay cut having to do that. Or so there's lots of like different reasons, like why nurses want a different way to earn income. So let's gonna dive a little bit more into it. So one of the questions we were kind of like throwing around earlier was like, when did you first realize that nursing didn't have to be just one job? And we talked about that a little bit with Melissa last week. Yes, about that that traditional bedside nursing doesn't have to be the only path for income for nursing. And so a couple of things like we've um we kind of talked about or like we've done in the past, me and Felicia is like I did travel nursing for several years, and travel nursing can be very lucrative at times. It is one of those things that kind of rises and falls with the market and the supply and demand. But travel nursing does offer a lot of like good things to it and a lot of freedom, usually depending on, like I said, the ebbs and flows of the market. You can have really good and high-paying contracts. Um sometimes the backlog is you're having to work 48 hours. A lot of those contracts are 48 contracts, so you're scheduled to work four days for those 13 weeks. Or, you know, you're definitely not going to get necessarily a schedule you want because you're the traveler coming in and making more money. So you have to work whatever that kind of shitty schedule is. Or, you know, a lot of those other big contracts are um, you know, maybe in like critical access places or places that aren't kind of destination places where, you know, you're in the middle of nowhere or you're in kind of a rough area. So some things, you know, there's definitely pros and cons with everything that we're gonna talk about with side hustles, but travel nursing was amazing. Loved it, absolutely would probably do it again because I loved my time there. I did it for like three and a half years, and I absolutely love travel nursing. But you know, those pros and cons of when, you know, leaving every three months to move. Oh god, you talk about like hating moving, like as a travel nurse, you really freaking hate moving because it's like you just get settled somewhere, and then if you don't extend your contract and you're, you know, you're moving out again in 13 weeks and it it does get draining. So yeah, pros and cons of that. And then you specifically one of the side hustles you did was you worked at a plastic surgery office. So about that.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

What an amazing nursing experience for me. I worked with an amazing plastic surgeon and I learned a lot. I actually learned how to run in OR setting. So still while working in the emergency room, my side hustle was working in plastic surgery. And let me tell you, just the rewarding of that feeling of people getting things that would make them happy. It was gratifying for me too. The love that you will get like as patients are waking up from under anesthesia and telling you how much they love you. You know, and it's the it's the medicine, but it's it's still just so great, you know. And the things that I learned in that setting, like I honestly, I learned so much from this physician that at my job in the hospital, people would come to me. They knew I worked for a plastic surgeon, and it was almost like they wanted me to consult them. A consultation, do you think I should get a tummy top? What do you think about if I get a boot drop and then help me? What size? And and let me tell you, that was gratifying for me. Like I enjoyed talking about it. I became very knowledgeable about it, but I would also express the cons of certain things and the pros of things. I definitely learned that side of being that person that was partnering with anesthesia because anesthesia and the nurse and the OR nurse are like the two people basically making sure to help get the patient to sleep. And you know, all my years in the ER, there's a comfort, but there was never a comfort level like I had working aside of the CRNAs, putting patients to sleep, ordering all the medications from the antibiotics to the anesthesia drugs, like maintaining the crash cart in this facility and making sure that we were prepared for things like malignant hypothermia, just in case it happened. You know, it was definitely a different hustle that I absolutely loved. And I did it for eight and a half years, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I really would. It was amazing. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

See, but that's like the thing is there's so many kind of different avenues that nurses can take outside of that, you know, traditional bedside crew. Like nursing is one of those few careers where this license that you get and you work so hard for can open hundreds of different doors for you. You know, we talked a little bit about a couple episodes ago, like the different facets and types of nursing. And it's like, it just shows like what nurses can do to kind of break out of that mold. Like there's other like Facebook groups and things I've been in, and like where, you know, you do side hustles such as depending on the state, you know, and Melissa talked about this is doing injections, like working at IV clinics or mobile like IV clinics, like starting your own business, which are your own business. I'll talk about later because I did that too. I'm doing that. You know, BLS instructors will talk a little bit about that and how they can open up their own jobs that way. That you know, a lot of people are making careers out of just doing social media, so there's so many avenues to do that. Yeah, it's just a lot. So let's actually kind of break some of these down. Let's kind of like go through which categories that um we we've kind of already talked about with travel nursing and plastic surgery, but breaking down what other categories that are legitimate side hustles that you can do. And so the first one is I will pull my Med Max EDU into it. So I started my own like educational teaching um business a little over a year ago now, which is freaking wild to me that that's actually, you know, came to fruition. But it was something actually me, Felicia and Dom, who we met before, talked about, and it was something we've uh, you know, kind of talked, I guess I talked about, dreamed about for a little while, and finally just kind of pulled the trigger on it. But um, it's definitely something that any nurse can do. You just have to kind of check your state's, you know, business entities. Like I had to file um with the state of Florida and with the IRS, actually, like an LLC um to incorporate my business. I had already been an instructor for BLS, ACLS, PALS, TNCC, um, got my TNCC director, and that's mainly where my business is focused on is doing virtual TNCC classes um and looking to add ENPC to that mix soon. But that's something that I did was I kind of opened my own business and used my education background and my instructor to start those businesses, and other people can do that with their ACLS or whatever, you know, education that they do. You're very knowledgeable as nurses, and sometimes you just need that to give that knowledge to others. So and traumatize it really.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

So absolutely right. You're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

Yeah, so there's other things too. I think we talk about this a little bit later, but you know, part of kind of that education thing is, you know, realizing that there's other like opportunities, and there may be like I met when I was doing my TNA course, the trauma and nursing advanced course, two people that were like writers for like Relias or Elsevier or you know, those kind of CE's websites that they were actually writers for the courses and writers for like stuff. Yeah, so that's like another educational thing. If you have experience in a topic and you're like a subject matter expert, is looking at making courses, or like I've been actually exploring myself as looking into doing like CEN study, you know, certificate and stuff. That would be amazing. Yeah, so there's lots of different avenues depending on your kind of specialty and what you have knowledge in. Is there are ways to monetize that? And I'm kind of like there's a part of me that's a little sad that it took me 15 plus years to realize that and actually do something about it, but that there's ways that you can impart your knowledge and all the things that you've learned and give them to others and do that while still earning a little bit of income in an aside hospital.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

I was pretty impressed with you the other day when you spoke about how a certain subject in nursing just made you so exciting because it was a subject that I really always hated and it was shock. So beyond some like teaching those things to people, what I've learned in education is that we tend to not like things we don't understand.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

That's really that's just the key to it all.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

We don't like what we don't understand. Rhythm interpretations was something I would do, pass, move on, do pass, move on, but don't necessarily ask me, and I don't mean our normal lethal rhythms, our normal cyber, like getting more in depth until I was taught by somebody that gave me, it's like a light bulb went off. And I'm like, and now I absolutely love it. But had you asked me this four years ago, I would have been like, I hate it. Don't ask me nothing about it. Nope, don't like it. And that's really what I thought about when you spoke of shock the other day. I just was like, you know what this is? Is that we as people never like something that we just don't understand. That's what it is. Like, I know with shock, we're we're dealing with low blood pressure, we're dealing with, you know, high heart rates for them. Like you said, there are certain situations you're getting in where it's the total opposite. It's trying to keep it all like separate and figuring out whichever one it was. But when you get it, it's like, wow.

SPEAKER_03 20:27

It is so true though, because I feel like when you, especially now kind of on the other side as like a teacher person, right? Those light bulb moments for people, like it's so it is, it's very rewarding. That's why I like doing what I do because I like being able to try to break things down for people in a way that they actually understand it, not just like you said, and I did this for my career too, is like you memorize things to whatever you need to do to move on, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Move on, but to like learn it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

And but that's the key. Like that that is the one thing I've learned over the years is the key to actually understanding something is to truly like understand it and talk about it. Understand it. Yeah. So I hope, like, in my kind of teaching style, I'm not gonna be able to make everybody learn everything, but we're not really you can pick up some things I'm saying or doing, and maybe somebody else, and how they break it down so that it makes sense for you. So there's definitely opportunities for nurses to be able to do that because of how your brain thinks and how you process things to be able to give that back to people. And if it makes sense to them, and then you can also monetize it. Why not? Like why not?

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Look at me with mega codes. Like, yeah, I feel like I can give most nurses what they need. In order to understand what we're talking about here. And even with those rhythms that they don't like and why don't we like them? Because we don't really understand them. Like it's like, I can't remember that to save my life. But I always wanna one thing I've learned in education and that I thrive off of is being able to somehow give relatable examples.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

Yes. And I want to tell you one of my TD nurses um the other day, I don't know, we were just talking about EKGs or something like that. And she was like, I still remember what Felicia was talking about the blog telling. It's it is really important. And when you say things like that, is if you can get people to like get something to stick, they're gonna remember that. And that's also kind of how you start building brand loyalty, is when people start connecting you with being able to teach them something and actually them learn it, they'll come back to you. Like I've had several TNCC students who are like, Oh, I really like how you teach. Like, and like, do you do ENPC or do you do this? So, like when you can get people in and they learn from you, you can kind of get them into your brand and your loyalty um by just how you communicate to people.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

So I want to come to your next TNCC because you remember the last one, you were just becoming or transitioning into the instructor role. So you weren't teaching this stuff, but I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 23:35

Yeah, girl, I love it. I love that's one thing, also too, is you find a subject that you're passionate about. I love teaching about trauma. Like, I love teaching about ACLS and we talk about it. But like when you are passionate about what you're teaching, that also comes out to people. People can naturally feel your enthusiasm. And like, I like I said, I'm like, I'm a nerd about shock. I love teaching about it because once I finally understood it, I was like, whoa, this is like really cool. Like the nerd is.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

I know shock is a big deal on those kind of tests.

SPEAKER_03 24:37

So I love it. It is definitely something I was thinking about the other day. Is somebody else had reached out to me? They're like, Do you do CEN stuff? And I was like, no, I didn't feel like that's probably something I will. That started your whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

And you did, and then everything else started kind of coming after that, and C E and fell back off. I'm gonna need you to put that back out there.

SPEAKER_03 25:03

I literally the other day I was like, oh, I need to like make that a priority as part of like there's two things I'm working on from edmax CDU as my next project. Well, I guess it's NPC, so I'm trying to get nursing pediatric course as something I can start teaching with my company.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

So that's what you do, so I can get a love for it's it's in the works, it's in the works, so I'm just waiting on a couple of. I want to have a love for again, a fear, a fear. Like I've never taken care of pediatric, you know, with the kids, the pediatric kids. So it's a fear of the unknown. So immediately when you said about badge buddies, it's I said, What do I want to order that? You know, like even though I have mine from you from when I was hanging out before I transitioned, but I'm like, you gotta go ahead and start putting in that effort if this is something that you're interested in learning. And if I'm going to be your educator or someone's educator, and this is something that we are having a care for, I want to be in the know and have some knowledge on. So you just let me know. So ask her all.

SPEAKER_03 26:21

I've been digging actively in the work. So hopefully, if you're looking for that, I will hopefully be offered in the next, I'm really hoping, couple months. Um, just kind of details there. And then also I was, you know, my brainstorming the other day was the CEN stuff. I really want to start getting, you know, kind of building my own CEN kind of study guy review.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

Okay, that would be great. Um, yes.

SPEAKER_03 26:46

Yeah, well, there's kind of out there already some like, you know, critical care guidelines and stuff like that, but kind of really building like an ER nurse's absolutely guide. So those are those are things to be on the lookout for for MedMAX CPUs. Like I said, what started a little over a year ago is kind of transitioned into all these other things um as a side hustle for me. And this I still obviously do my normal job right as the you know, a unit-based educator, but like this is a side hustle for me that I I love it, love it, love it, love it. It's like I love emergency medicine. I will talk about it ad nauseum. Like I love trauma.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

So do I. I love emergency medicine. It's when you're expected to deviate outside of the emergency medicine, makes it a little bit tough because now you're having to learn. I am all about the learning. I am, but you know, just trying to keep the two. Yes. And, you know, uh, but I am that girl that is all about a magic, because that's my heart. I love all you nurses. Don't don't get me wrong. I love you all. Every one of you. But my passion has always been emergency room nursing. It just is it's who I am, and I will forever be one.

SPEAKER_03 28:09

That's why they're all that's why it's so crucial too that you find, like if you're gonna do a business, right? If you're gonna go off and make your own business and do these kind of things, it's that you find something that you're passionate about and you're also a subject matter expert. It's something that you intimately know. You're passionate about it and you intimately know about it, so that you can build your business and your brand on that. You don't want to go out and try to market things or do things that are not part of like your niche because people won't really buy into it if you're not right simple.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

So right, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

Well, it kind of goes into that too, because uh we talked about travel nursing and how well that can pay, depending on kind of the market. Usually, specialties also with travel nurses can earn you, you know, a decent amount of pay per week. I will just tell you if anybody's looking to go into travel nursing, please make sure that you don't just jump into it feet first, like you get somebody, mentors go on Facebook, you know, groups to understand what travel nursing is. There are um a lot of like kind of legal and tax implications, like to be able to claim those untaxed stipends. That is where you make a majority of your money from is kind of those stipends that they give you. But to legally do that, you have to duplicate expenses. So I say travel nursing is amazing, loved it, would do it again. But if you're gonna look into that option, just make sure you're doing it right. Cause I would hate for anybody to be like end up in some fam, yeah, coming to get you years later. The other thing is we were trying to, and if anybody's listening and wants to come on the podcast, let us know. There's a lot of strikes going on right now. A lot of yes. We live in Florida, and unfortunately, there's not maybe there are, but none that I know about unions in Florida, um nursing unions. So there's a lot of strikes that have been happening in California's always state union and New York's another one. And um, they're pretty unionized, and kind of those can be opportunities for people. I know there's probably strong opinions both ways about that money, honey.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Get that money.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

Well, we're just talking about some side hustles, is that opportunity presents usually strike nursing contracts are very lucrative. So they will pay you for those. It depends on how long the strike is and kind of all that stuff, but they will pay you significant money to work usually 60 hours a week for those strike contracts, but they're very lucrative. Wow. Wow. Yeah, I did I did one strike contract in California, it was only a five-day strike. So I I mean, but it was decent money. That's when I was in between travel contracts. So like it was it was a good help me. Yeah, I loved it. It was a great experience.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

You know, I've never got to travel, and I wish that I had done travel nursing. It's not too late. You know what? And it's not, Brittany. It's not too late. That's okay. Um there was but there was a certain time that the money was just pouring out in all directions for nurses. I've spoken to nurses that was like, oh yeah, girl, I bought a house and then I bought my mom a house. And I'm like, wait, as a nurse? Okay. That's the kind of money they was making.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

Our guest, I'm hoping we can reschedule her, but like our guest actually um kind of talks about how she did travel nursing and made a huge amount of money during travel nursing and kind of does other things now. But COVID was the time. Like, that was the time if you were travel nursing that you were being bang. And I got out of the game of I actually like ended travel nursing for me like permanently in like 2017. So I was out a couple of years before COVID, but there was part of me that really considered like it. Because I was like, you looked at some of those contracts and you were like, Are you shitting me?

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Like, oh my god, like what was what was wrong with me? Somebody should have slapped my face. Same. Did I not go and get some of that money? That's what I need to know. I mean, it's my own fault. It's my own fault. I'm gonna tell you, they're not giving that kind of money right now. I mean, but you know, people are still doing travel contracts. I don't know if we'll ever get that opportunity again.

SPEAKER_03 32:54

I don't think we're ever gonna see money like the travel nurses did during that time frame. I don't think we'll ever in our lifetime see contracts that high. I mean, it was wild. And for the people who did it, good for you. Like, I am proud of you. Listen, I know you won't need in the ball to a good thing. But I, you know, like good for you.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Kind of segue in like I could I love travel nursing. I've talked about it for a while. But the other thing that um I forget who it was, um, one of the nurses I feel like I I kind of, you know, I'm her educator now is so she went part-time at the ER and does um part-time or PRN at like an IV clinic. So that's another thing that people are doing.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

I know somebody that does that.

SPEAKER_03 33:47

Yeah, they they're taking instead of doing that full-time, they're do like a half-time, like part-time, do two shifts a week or two and then three shifts a week to be able to have extra time to do those PRN kind of side hustle jobs, such as, you know, maybe a PRN job at a different hospital. Because usually if you do PRN, you get paid more because you don't have like the insurance and all of those things that benefits that uh full-time people have with companies or, you know, like IB clinics and things like that. So that's another thing that people can look at. That's a legitimate side hustle.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

And that helps, I'm gonna be honest with you, with the burnout part of it too, that we spoke about. Because even for me, that was solely why I went on into the little side hustle, because there are times that you can lose your empathy and sympathy. Like you don't, I don't ever want to be that person. I would even after going through my own illness, I would hope somebody that's caring for me is not there. But when you know that you're getting there, sometimes just kind of going off, you can stay in nursing, but doing something else other than what you're always doing, it can help. Because I do feel like it did give it back to me. I really, really do. You know, going into a place where people were happy about what they were doing all the time, versus people we were were not feeling well, which is understandable, but sometimes when people don't feel well, their delivery can be rough.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

And it kind of like helps in a twofold. So it can help with earning extra money, but it could also help with that burden. Yeah, absolutely. Because you can kind of see a different side of nursing or different aspect of it. So you're still using your nursing license, but it's not like that normal everyday, like what you deal with. It's something different, so it can help kind of keep you.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

I feel like it's where we are now in our nursing careers. You know, everybody always thinks about a nurse as a nurse being bedside, taking care of patients. Don't always think about nursing has so many avenues, guys, that you can go into. It's not even funny. Like, I don't even know half of them, but I'm telling you, I have entered in a world where it's a it's a different world of nursing. You're still involved with clinical nursing, but you're not in the clinical clinical nursing pod of it, and it's different. And it does make you see things completely different when you are on another side of it. I feel like I don't know. Do you feel like that, Brittany?

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Yeah, it was it's kind of funny because I feel like I had this idea of what I was getting into when I, you know, went to interview for this job and you know, accepted this job. I thought I had an idea, and then, you know, I took the job and I was like, okay. So, you know, part of, well, I mean, obviously I love precepting and educating and like, so it's kind of just been a natural fit for me, anyways. But like I was very frustrated at the bedside because of like system issues, process issues, those type of things. And I think more and more, more and more being in this new role is I was like, oh, okay, I can have that bedside perspective and like help fix issues with this, you know, the computer system or this or that. And I realized pretty quickly how even more difficult and more frustrating it was being on the kind of the other side because you've realized how many more hoops you have to jump through to get something fixed. So it's not just like I'm like, why can't they just fix that? I went to the other side and I'm like, oh my gosh, it is gonna take an act of conference. It takes a lot years to build this one little thing.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

And this committee after this committee after this committee after this committee to say yes to that. Let me ask you, how did you, or at what point did you realize as an educator, you know what? I think I like the teaching side of this. Like, what how did you know that you would even like that? Did you just did it just kind of work out that way and you ended up doing it and realize you like it?

SPEAKER_03 38:05

Or was it kind of something you knew you would like or both? Because I loved precepting. Like I would, if people needed to precept it or students or anything like that, I loved teaching them because like it's just something I've always really enjoyed. Like, okay, I know something, I don't want to gatekeep it. Like, I want to be able to impart that is good on others. Like, I don't like I've made mistakes in my career, talked about this, like, and if me sharing that story can help somebody else avoid it. Why wouldn't I want to share that? Like, I don't want to feel like but then the other part was like you said, you don't really know this educator role until you get into it. And I feel like that first year was me just trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to be doing. And it wasn't until I kind of got a little more comfortable within that role and got a little bit more comfortable with my own teaching style that now I've been doing this for seven years. Like I'm pretty good, right? But yeah, it's supposed to say it's like a first year and transitioning into being instructors and holding classes and doing all those things. And now that is the part I love. Like I will sit here all day and talk to you about emergency medicine, but you get me to try to do the paperwork that goes along with it. That is torture to my soul.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

Absolutely. And I agree with you. So I never, ever, ever saw myself on this side of the track of nursing. I didn't really didn't see it. However, my first experience was when the system that we were working in was transitioning and changing the ER system from what it was to what it is now. And I had the opportunity to teach it. As fearful as I felt about getting up there to teach it, once I physically did it, I absolutely loved it. To a point where I don't know if you remember me going around all the hospitals and saying, You want me to teach it for you? You want me to teach it for you? You want me to teach it for because it was engaging. And I love that. I love that it was engaging and I love bringing in stories because sometimes people don't realize I was just sitting where you were. I know what you're thinking, I know what you're feeling. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you because I know. And then you say it, and then everybody laughs because they already know you know. So it that in itself, I can see why you love that side of education more so, like you said, than the than the paperwork side. And I would too with more of an opportunity to do that. You know what I mean? Like absolutely a little different from Britney's, so it's it's less of the in-class, which I would love to do more of the in-class side of it, because I do think that that will bring me out more and more of my passion that I have for nursing because I too used to love to precept. I used to love to precept new team members. And you know what? That's what that is. It's giving somebody, teaching somebody the knowledge that you know about something. Does it mean that we know everything? Absolutely not. But giving you some tools to be able to perform your job is it's like pat on the back type thing. So I I can understand why you absolutely love that. I do.

SPEAKER_03 41:38

And it's also like I always said to myself too, like when I got this position, that, you know, like I was a little bit obviously younger than some people when they get into this role, but that I never wanted to be that person. Like I really don't ever see myself going into management. I say never say never, but probably never see myself going into that managerial route. Um, but I always said no matter what, I didn't want to be that nurse. Um, no matter what path I take, that is out of touch with the reality. So like I feel like that's something that's like one of my core principles is that I still go out there and still help with whatever's coming in. Um, or if they need me to go out there and like still be at the bedside. I looked at it. I you know, a shift the shift's still at the bedside. I once again I'm still doing my own side hustle and picking up a shift at the bedside because I don't want to lose that part of me that can't.

SPEAKER_02 42:32

Have you been picking up shifts?

SPEAKER_03 42:34

I'm going to soon. So there was not an opportunity for a little while. Right after COVID, I was picking up shifts at the bedside. I remember that. And they kind of stopped that for us. And I had to come back a while, but they have recently gave us the go-ahead to be able to pick up shifts again for extra uh money. Um, and I also I have a lot of side hustles. This is kind of a, you know, something we're talking about tonight with side hustles because I have a lot of them. I have my own business. I do clinical instructor. That's my other job as a clinical instructor at university. So I have a lot of different side hustles. But one of the things, you know, now that that's kind of slowing down that clinical instructor, which is what I do on the weekends, um, I'll be able to pick up hopefully sometime this month, a shift or two at the I actually may look into that right with you, Brittany.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

I really may just because it would be nice to kind of get back uh and get the feet wet again. That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 43:33

Like, I know it's not for everybody, right? Like, but for me, I don't want to lose touch. I don't want to lose that either.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

And that makes me nervous. Okay. It makes me nervous.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

And like, you know, people are like, oh, how do you chart this or how do you do this? Well, if I'm not somebody who's not doing it. Doing it, like I don't necessarily get that buy in. You know what I mean? Like, you kind of lose a little bit of that. do I income some people if you're not out there coming yourself.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

So I don't know. How would you know? Yeah. Right. That is what is a challenge also if you are educating two different units and they're using two different it's the same system but in two different pathways.

SPEAKER_03 44:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

Of trying to be that that educator to help guide you know one side of the system and not quite the other side like that. And it's having to play around because you want to be available for people. They expect you to know. So that's another thing. It was a challenge but you know it's not something that I can do, you know. Yeah. I'm figuring it out. So okay. Good. That was interesting.

SPEAKER_03 44:53

No, this has been like a really good because you know I feel like we're all like I'm also on like other Facebook groups and stuff like that. I feel like Facebook is the kind of the the dying generation. But Facebook groups about nurses like always posting about side hustles and posting about this and that. And like we're all like I don't care what like I said like where you're at in life you're always looking for some extra money because life's just expensive right now. So I think it's really fun that we get to talk about like what right now we both have non-traditional bedside nursing roles. Kind of how we got there, what we did, you know, other side hustles we've done what we're doing right now as a side hustle, you know, because like I said the other part of it is I do a clinical instructor. That's another type of kind of side hustle is being able to teach the new generation of nurses, you know, what's out there. Other things is once again I'll plug myself but you know I've also gotten in recently to content creation. Like social media is a huge platform that nurses can do as a side hustle, whether that's like affiliate marketing with scrub brands. Like if you want to rep a scrub brand and if people click on your link you get 10% back of the commission. Those are great things you building followings we actually have a couple people that have decent TikTok followings that will be coming on the show. And I've been doing a lot more stuff on TikTok with content creation and so check check out my social page because I post like med tip Mondays are trauma Tuesdays and I do a lot of educational tips and tricks. YouTube's great you know Amazon if people want to do like one of the nurses we work with, you know, she like makeup stuff. So she's got a side hustle doing makeup and selling makeup and doing kind of all the affiliate stuff with that. So there's lots of different opportunities with being able to kind of build income just by doing social media. And then the last thing I kind of talk about with other type of side hustles is um and actually something I was looking into and I know Felicia you had looked into one of these at one point telehealth I'm hoping yeah you're a guest that actually did this as an RN. But obviously we talked to Melissa last week as a nurse practitioner. She's done her own I know nurses you know work for companies that are telehealth companies. Legal nurse consulting was something actually I had kind of looked at the other day is lawyers, you know, then when there's especially medical malpractice suits and stuff like that, they'll hire nurses yeah legal nurses to repeat stuff. So that's out there. I know one of the things I have looked at was like doing chart reviews and chart audits as like a clinical documentation person. And that's like a big uh kind of remote role too because that can also play it a lot of those roles are now remote so people can work from home doing them. Yeah so there's there's lots of different so many and we learn more and more about things like I've been learning so much over the last year about all these other different ways to like supplement it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

But it's awesome I mean research there's there's nurses that actually do clinical research you know that's a whole nother thing where they're actually involved in patient participation trying to get them involved in like clinical trials and I personally can say as somebody who is in a clinical trial you know that I could I would love that side of the research side of nursing there are so many different avenues that I had no idea about just four years ago. No I only knew my world of going into the emergency room setting and working. And that was the only world I knew it was like I didn't know anything else really outside of that. Of course we knew about having a case manager or we having this kind of person but there is so much more out there that there is no job shortage as far as for nursing like there are a ton of jobs out there that would benefit nursing and it's not just all bed side so please know that people yeah um the only other thing we're gonna make this little segment quick but just like there's just be careful.

SPEAKER_03 49:25

I feel like both of us will just say there are a lot of um not just with nursing but with lots of things out there that are very scammy. So just be very careful if you see something online and it's like looks too good to be true. It probably is you know um just be careful with what you're kind of seeing and and doing if it's you know illegal if it's not a scam but just some of those things like if you have to usually I in my own personal experience if you've had to pay into you know a big program or something like that just be careful like right giving you know those funds to if it's like one of those quick get quick rich get rich quick schemes like just be careful with that. So we'll just kind of say just be be careful with what is out there.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

There are a lot of legitimate things that you could do but there's also a lot of people who are just looking at so definitely look into whatever it is and as Britney said if it sounds too good to be true it probably is I mean just saying not like for real.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

Yeah usually if it's like that you're like oh my god and then it's like okay just kidding because a lot of things are just hard work and you just you have to put in the work so absolutely so uh before we kind of go to our favorite segment and our last segment of the night one thing we did just want to talk about is if this is something that's kind of resonated with you and it's something you're like oh yeah I want to like look at getting a side hustle that's not my normal bedside job like what can I do? And I feel like there's a couple of different steps and we've kind of you know entwined them in our talks today but is what are you passionate about and what do you have the skill set in like what are what are you very well versed in and experienced in and what are you passionate about because those are things that will come across and will make people want to buy from you or want to come take your class or want to hire you as a legal nurse consultant or whatever that is. Right. I feel like the other big thing that I've been learning in my own business and entrepreneurship and content creation journey of my side hustles is you have to solve a problem for people. Like that's really been one of those big like key aspects that I'm learning especially as I get more and more into like kind of the social media aspect of things people go to a lot of these social media platforms and things and they have a specific question or something that they're looking to get solved. So like if you're if people are going and seeking that out how are you helping people to solve the problem that they're having absolutely there's no TNCC classes. So one of the things like Med Max does is I try to put it out there I have it come come see me and I'll solve your problem of getting TNCC or like use up with EKG and Felicia that's something we should look at because I we sure well because I have a couple EKG things out there in an EKG ebook right now that people can look for but um it's kind of doing like a a class is that another I guess there's the fourth thing that I look at with Mem Mac is doing a class on EKG and actual EKG class would be definitely beneficial for nurse for for nurses and those you know unlicensed that want to know you know those those rhythm interpretations. So like Melissa said last week there is plenty of business for all of us. So even though I'm kind of saying all this stuff I support anybody who's going into this and I hope is there's enough for all of us so let's all spread the well you know the wealth like out there and let's all help each other. The other thing is to kind of start small like I like I said started my own business about a year ago and it's been very small. Like I would love to be like oh yep out there and like I'm making tons of money. I'm not school wouldn't unless I'm working much if any money but I'm building small steps to kind of build my brand and my visibility because I don't just see this as something I'm kind of doing like it's a passion of mine. So it's a passion project and something I'll continue to do. Right. Most successful nurse businesses start because you have to you know solve a problem that you experience so we're just saying that if you want to do side hustles, there's plenty out there look at different options but just make sure they're not scammy and that they're gonna take some time because this nursing world it's a small world we've talked about it before but it's huge. And so if you're starting off just know that you you do kind of start small and as you grow in your social media or your business you learn how to kind of build a community to bring it in. Kind of like what we're doing with my stethoscope girl like we are doing it when we have a small like listening you know core listening group right now and we're gonna keep doing it and hoping that nurses come to in healthcare I shouldn't say this like and healthcare workers come to hear us and even the general population comes to hear us because maybe want to come and tell us their story. You know who wouldn't want to listen to us for an hour each you know Wednesday so yeah. Come on people join it give us give us your salve what life has been like it doesn't matter you could talk about what your career has been like and you could talk about your outside life as a nurse we welcome it all honey so please we just we love to we love to chit chat we'll just sit here and chit chat all day which is why like we'll continue to do this until we don't enjoy it anymore because absolutely we're transparent we don't we're not making any money we're not like monetized in any way so like well I think we would both like this to be another side hustle that we do that gets monetized eventually we're not at that point right now but we're gonna continue to build our community and see what happens yeah absolutely this has been a fun episode but let's do our last and favorite segment miss Felicia and let us drop our stethoscope stethoscope everybody and tell us what's going on so let's start with you what's going on there's not a whole lot going on which is probably a good thing guys I think um the last episode I just kind of told you we were like at a standstill with everything in we sort of are this month we're now in March so the CAT scan will be done this month hopefully I thought it was April so this month we're gonna do one this month and we're going to see where we are and hoping in the spring that our tumor has disappeared or a lot a lot um I feel so much better I feel more like myself which which is great um I'm able to start back taking supplements something that I was not able to do while I was taking treatments and you know I do feel more energetic so my plan is to once I get my room back in order that was like my little workout room is to get back and start exercising and just you know getting back into everyday life.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

So as always I'm always gonna keep you guys posted on what's going on with me because I love the fact that you've been engaged in that and I appreciate it more than you know. And we will stay tuned so once I know the results you will know the results so that's kind of where I am I honestly thought it was April like I honestly thought your next CAT skin was April.

SPEAKER_03 57:47

So like knowing that it's this month I'm like I'm even more excited right now.

SPEAKER_01 57:51

I have the script and will probably set the appointment tomorrow I'm so excited for you.

SPEAKER_03 57:58

I cannot wait like to get the results too I feel like God has worksome God is some miracles and miracles absolutely absolutely so as soon as I know you all will know because I'm excited to know just because of the way that I currently feel like I'm like hey what's going on so we'll see very very excited I cannot wait to hear and share with our audience what that's like yep what's going wrong with you well so I did a lot of talking this episode about my side hustle so I've got a lot of them if you haven't known Brittany and her side hustle. The side hustle queen because I just got a lot of them but one of the things is I have been just dealing with pretty severe migraines recently yeah oh I don't think I told so we all went to dinner last week and I was talking to Anthony about it. He also suffers from migraines. We've had him on the show before and I was just kind of telling him like last week like I had a my one of my actually I think it was my worst migraine I've ever had it just kind of knocked me out. You know you have to start usually with insurances you have to start with like the low like bottom barrel and then they can move you up if as long as you like fail the treatment which is crazy. Don't give me start on insurances. Yes so I they finally approved me for that second tier medication and like they only approved you for like four a month. Well I had used all four because I just I don't know why but they've just been really bad lately. And so like I was out of it like last week and it just kind of hit me and I've been really trying like finally got one medication I found at the bottom of my bag so thank God because it broke that like really bad spell but I've still been having like like headache. I wouldn't these aren't like migraines but like headaches every day and I'm just looking forward I scheduled a neurology appointment so I have that next month and I'm just uh looking to figure out what's going on because I was like exercising I was like girl I was like doing the thing right like I was doing you know my exercises every day and like living my life and staying but like I feel like this last week I've just been like just trying to like hold on dizzy nauseous like it was just awful so but I'm getting back there and I get to see my friends I saw my friends on Friday and I get to see my friends tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:35

So it's a good I get excited when I go on a field trip.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:39

I do I do I do I'm looking forward to social month for ours it is and I'm excited about that so guys we will as usual keep you informed we thank you for being a part of and for uh listening into our episode that we kind of uh came up with last minute but we will have some other fun guests coming out the rest of the season there's always curveballs as nurses you kind of go with the punches you you know enroll so work it out but like thank you so much everybody like subscribe comment share all of the things check us out on our socials check it out check our side hustles all the things and we'll see you next time